The Grammar of Gratitude: The Firstfruits of the Spirit Text: Numbers 28:26-31
Introduction: God's Appointed Times
We live in an age that prides itself on spontaneity, particularly in worship. The modern evangelical impulse is to treat liturgy as a dirty word, as though structure and heartfelt worship are somehow at odds. We think that true piety consists of showing up and just seeing what the Spirit might do. But the God of the Bible is a God of order, not a God of chaos. He is the one who sets the stars in their courses and the seasons in their turn. And so it should not surprise us that He sets the calendar for His people. He appoints the times. He defines the grammar of our worship.
The chapters of Numbers we are in here are a detailed, meticulous, and, to our modern sensibilities, perhaps a tedious recitation of sacrifices. We see lists of bulls, rams, lambs, flour, and oil. Our temptation is to let our eyes glaze over. But in doing so, we miss the point entirely. This is not just an ancient temple schedule. This is the rhythm of the covenant. This is God teaching His people how to approach Him, how to thank Him, and how to live with Him at the center of their lives, their weeks, their months, and their years. Every sacrifice, every feast, every holy convocation was a schoolmaster, training Israel to look for the Christ who was to come.
Our secular age has its own calendar, its own high holy days. We have the Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Black Friday. These days are designed to form us into certain kinds of people, citizens of a secular state, consumers in a global marketplace. But God has given His people a different calendar, one that revolves around the mighty acts of redemption. And the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, which we have before us in this text, is one of the central pillars of that calendar. It is a feast of gratitude, a feast of harvest, and a feast that looks forward to a greater harvest, a greater firstfruits, that would come when the Spirit of God was poured out like rain on the people of God.
To neglect these passages is to neglect the foundations of our faith. It is to try to understand the New Testament without knowing the language it is written in. The apostles did not invent a new religion at Pentecost; they witnessed the fulfillment of what God had been rehearsing with His people for centuries. This is the grammar of gratitude, and we must learn to read it.
The Text
‘Also on the day of the first fruits, when you bring near a new grain offering to Yahweh in your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. And you shall bring near a burnt offering for a soothing aroma to Yahweh: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs one year old; and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs; also one male goat to make atonement for you. Besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, you shall offer them with their drink offerings. They shall be without blemish.’
(Numbers 28:26-31 LSB)
A Holy Stop and a New Beginning (v. 26)
We begin with the setting of the feast.
"‘Also on the day of the first fruits, when you bring near a new grain offering to Yahweh in your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.’" (Numbers 28:26)
This feast is called by three names here: the day of the first fruits, the Feast of Weeks, and later, Pentecost, which means "fiftieth," because it occurred fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits during the Passover celebration. This was a harvest festival. The people were to bring a "new grain offering" from the wheat harvest, acknowledging that God is the giver of all good things. This is the foundational principle of all true worship: God is the giver, and we are the recipients. Our offerings are not a way to bribe God or put Him in our debt. They are a glad and grateful acknowledgment that everything we have is already His.
On this day, they were to have a "holy convocation." This means a sacred assembly. God commands His people to gather. Our faith is not a private, individualistic affair. It is corporate. We are called out of the world and into the assembly of the saints. And in this assembly, they were to do "no laborious work." This is a Sabbath principle. God commands them to stop. Stop their regular work, their striving, their provision for themselves, in order to turn their full attention to Him. This is a radical counter-cultural statement. The world says your value is in what you produce. God says your value is in being one of my people. Cease your labor, and come celebrate Me.
The Aroma of Total Consecration (v. 27-29)
Next, we see the primary offering for the day, the burnt offering.
"And you shall bring near a burnt offering for a soothing aroma to Yahweh: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs one year old; and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs;" (Numbers 28:27-29 LSB)
The burnt offering, or ascension offering, was unique in that the entire animal was consumed on the altar. The whole thing went up in smoke to God. This represented total consecration, a complete surrender of the worshiper to God. This is what our worship is meant to be. We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service (Rom. 12:1). The sheer number of animals here is staggering. Two bulls, a ram, seven lambs. This was a costly, extravagant act of worship. This was not a token gesture; it was a significant portion of their wealth, all ascending to God.
This was to be a "soothing aroma to Yahweh." This is anthropomorphic language, of course. God does not have a physical nose. It means that this act of worship, when done in faith, was pleasing to Him. It was a fragrant offering. Why? Because it pointed to the ultimate fragrant offering, the sacrifice of His Son, who "gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma" (Eph. 5:2). The Father was pleased with these sacrifices because in them He smelled the future obedience and sacrifice of His beloved Son.
Notice also the grain offering that accompanies the burnt offering. The fine flour mixed with oil represents the fruit of man's labor, sanctified and offered back to God. The oil is consistently a symbol of the Holy Spirit. So here you have their work, empowered by the Spirit, offered up alongside the substitutionary sacrifice. This is a picture of the Christian life. Our works, our labors, are only acceptable to God when they are offered up on the basis of Christ's finished work, and empowered by His Spirit.
The Necessity of Atonement (v. 30)
Even in the midst of this joyful harvest celebration, there is a stark reminder of a fundamental reality.
"also one male goat to make atonement for you." (Numbers 28:30 LSB)
Before the offering of consecration and thanksgiving could be fully acceptable, the problem of sin had to be dealt with. A goat was offered as a sin offering, to make atonement. This is crucial. We cannot approach a holy God on our own terms. We cannot simply bring our good works and our gratitude and expect them to be accepted. Our best works are tainted with sin. Our gratitude is imperfect. Therefore, before we can offer anything to God, we must first receive His provision for our sin. The guilt must be removed.
This is the grammar of our covenant renewal worship to this day. We are called to worship, but the first thing we do is confess our sins. We deal with the guilt offering first. We acknowledge that we cannot stand before God in our own righteousness. We plead the blood of our sin offering, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Only after we have received the assurance of pardon can we move on to consecrate ourselves to God and have communion with Him. You cannot have celebration without atonement.
Perfect and Continual (v. 31)
The passage concludes with two vital reminders.
"Besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, you shall offer them with their drink offerings. They shall be without blemish." (Numbers 28:31 LSB)
First, these special festival offerings were "besides the continual burnt offering." Every single morning and every single evening, a lamb was offered at the temple. This was the foundation of their entire worship. The daily grind of atonement and consecration never stopped. The special feasts were built upon this foundation. This teaches us that our worship is not just for the high holy days. It is for every day. We are to begin and end each day with our eyes fixed on the Lamb of God. Our entire lives are to be an act of worship, built upon the continual reality of Christ's sacrifice.
Second, all these animals were to be "without blemish." They had to be perfect. God does not accept defective sacrifices. This pointed to two things. First, it taught the people that they were to give God their best, not their leftovers. Second, and more importantly, it was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, "a lamb unblemished and spotless" (1 Peter 1:19). No flawed, sinful man could ever be a sacrifice for others. Only the perfect, sinless Son of God could be the blemish-free offering that could truly take away our sin and make us acceptable to the Father.
The Firstfruits of the New Creation
So what does this ancient harvest festival have to do with us? Everything. This Feast of Weeks was the very day that God chose to pour out His Spirit on the church. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem for this very feast. And what happened? The Holy Spirit descended, and the apostles began to preach. And on that day, about three thousand souls were saved. It was the firstfruits of the great gospel harvest.
Just as the Israelites brought the firstfruits of their wheat harvest to God in gratitude, God the Father brought the firstfruits of His new creation harvest to Himself on that day. The disciples were the "new grain offering," empowered by the oil of the Holy Spirit, and offered up to God. The result was a "soothing aroma" that has been filling the earth ever since.
And the pattern holds. The great harvest of Pentecost was preceded by the ultimate sacrifice. The true burnt offering, Jesus Christ, had offered Himself up completely. The true sin offering, Jesus Christ, had made perfect atonement for our sins. He was the lamb without blemish. And because His sacrifice was accepted, the Spirit could be given, and the harvest could begin.
We now live in the age of that great harvest. Every time the gospel is preached and a sinner repents, it is Pentecost happening again. Every time we gather for worship, it is a holy convocation. We cease from our labors to celebrate the finished work of Christ. We confess our sins, pleading the blood of our goat of atonement. We consecrate ourselves, our souls and bodies, as a living burnt offering. And we commune with Him, feasting on the fruits of His victory.
This detailed list in Numbers, therefore, is not a dead letter. It is a vibrant, living picture of the gospel. It is the grammar of our salvation. God still has His appointed times, and the time is now. He is gathering His harvest from every tribe and tongue and nation. And He calls us to be part of it, to be both the grateful harvesters and the grateful firstfruits, offered up to Him as a soothing aroma, all without blemish, through Jesus Christ our Lord.