The Shadow of the Substance: Offerings for Atonement Text: Numbers 29:7-11
Introduction: The High Cost of Sin
We live in a therapeutic age, an age that has done everything it can to domesticate sin. We have reduced it to a series of unfortunate choices, a collection of personal mistakes, or a set of psychological maladjustments. We have taken the ravenous, roaring lion of our rebellion against a holy God and tried to turn it into a housecat. But the Scriptures will not allow this. The Old Testament sacrificial system, with its meticulous instructions, its rivers of blood, and its constant, unending repetition, was designed by God to be a massive, Technicolor object lesson. It was meant to teach Israel, and us, one central, inescapable truth: sin is deadly serious, and its remedy is astronomically expensive.
The passage before us details the sacrifices for the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. This was the highest and holiest day of the entire Israelite calendar. It was the one day a year the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, the very throne room of God on earth. And he did not go in casually. He did not saunter in with a self-help book and a positive attitude. He went in under the cover of blood, surrounded by a cloud of incense, and with the full weight of the nation's sin upon him. The sheer volume of sacrifices described here is staggering. Bulls, rams, lambs, goats, grain, oil, and wine. Day after day, the smoke ascended. And this was not a barbecue. This was a funeral. It was a constant, bloody reminder that the wages of sin is death.
Our modern sensibilities are often offended by all this. It seems primitive, messy, and frankly, a bit much. But that is precisely the point. Our offense is a measure of how lightly we take our sin. We think a simple "I'm sorry" should suffice. We believe our good intentions ought to cover our transgressions. But God is holy. His justice is perfect. And the debt of sin cannot be waved away with a casual apology. It must be paid. Every sacrifice, every burnt offering, every sin offering was a promissory note, a shadow pointing forward to the one final payment that would be sufficient. These offerings were not the solution; they were the shape of the solution. They were the silhouette of the cross cast backward into history.
As we examine these specific instructions for the Day of Atonement, we must see them not as an archaic ritual, but as a profound theological lesson. It teaches us about the nature of true repentance, the necessity of substitution, and the glorious finality of the work of Jesus Christ, who is the substance of all these shadows.
The Text
‘Then on the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall humble yourselves; you shall not do any work. And you shall bring near a burnt offering to Yahweh as a soothing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs one year old, having them without blemish; and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs; one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement and the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and their drink offerings.
(Numbers 29:7-11 LSB)
A Day of Humbling (v. 7)
The instructions for this high and holy day begin not with the sacrifices, but with the posture of the people.
"‘Then on the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall humble yourselves; you shall not do any work." (Numbers 29:7)
This was to be a "holy convocation," a sacred assembly. This was a corporate act. Atonement is not a private, individualistic affair. The people of God were to gather as one body to face their collective sin before a holy God. But the central command is that they were to "humble" themselves. The Hebrew here is literally "afflict your souls." This was not a suggestion to feel a little bit bad about your choices. This was a command for deep, gut-level repentance. It was a day of fasting, of putting aside all earthly comforts and pleasures to confront the reality of their spiritual bankruptcy.
They were also commanded to do no work. This was a Sabbath of Sabbaths. Why? Because on the Day of Atonement, the people were to learn that they could contribute absolutely nothing to their own salvation. They could not work their way into God's favor. They could not offset their sin with their productivity. Their only "work" was to cease from their own works and to trust entirely in the provision that God Himself was making for them through the sacrifice. This is a foundational principle of the gospel. We are saved not by our striving, but by our ceasing. We are saved by resting in the finished work of another. To come to God for atonement is to come with empty hands.
The Burnt Offering: A Soothing Aroma (v. 8-10)
Next, we see the description of the burnt offering, a sacrifice of complete devotion.
"And you shall bring near a burnt offering to Yahweh as a soothing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs one year old, having them without blemish; and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, a tenth for each of the seven lambs" (Numbers 29:8-10 LSB)
The burnt offering was unique in that the entire animal was consumed on the altar. It all went up in smoke. This symbolized total consecration and complete surrender to God. This offering was not primarily about dealing with sin, though it had atoning aspects. It was about worship. It was an act of acknowledging God's total claim on the life of the worshiper. The fact that it is described as a "soothing aroma" to Yahweh is profoundly significant. It was not the smell of burning flesh that pleased God. God is not a divine carnivore. What pleased Him was what the offering represented: the obedient faith of His people and the perfect obedience of the Christ who was to come.
Every detail here is a pointer to Christ. The animals had to be "without blemish." This was not a matter of aesthetics. It was a non-negotiable requirement of perfection. A lame, blind, or scarred animal was an insult to a holy God. These perfect animals were types, foreshadowing the one truly spotless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was "without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19). His perfection was not just the absence of sin, but the presence of active, perfect righteousness. He is the only offering that God could ever fully accept.
The meticulous detail about the grain offerings, the precise amounts of fine flour and oil, also teaches us something important. Our worship is not to be haphazard or based on our whims. God cares about the details. He prescribes the way He is to be approached. This is a direct assault on the modern idea that sincerity is all that matters. God requires that our worship be both sincere and biblical. We must come to Him on His terms, not our own. The fine flour speaks of Christ's pure humanity, and the oil is a consistent symbol of the Holy Spirit, by whom Christ was anointed for His work.
The Sin Offering: The Cost of Atonement (v. 11)
Finally, the specific offering for sin is mentioned, which is the heart of the day's transactions.
"one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement and the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and their drink offerings." (Numbers 29:11 LSB)
Here we see the layering of the sacrifices. This goat for a sin offering was in addition to everything else. It was in addition to the special "sin offering of atonement" detailed in Leviticus 16 (which involved the two goats, one sacrificed and one sent away as the scapegoat). And it was all in addition to the "continual burnt offering" that was made every single morning and evening. The point is driven home with the force of a hammer: atonement is a massive, constant, and costly need. Sin is not a small problem.
The sin offering was different from the burnt offering. In the sin offering, the priest would lay his hands on the head of the animal, symbolically transferring the guilt of the people onto the substitute. The animal was then killed, and its blood was manipulated by the priest to ceremonially cleanse the sanctuary. The substitute died the death the people deserved. This is the very heart of penal substitutionary atonement. God's justice demands death for sin, and in His mercy, He provides a substitute to bear that penalty.
But we must see the glorious inadequacy of it all. The author of Hebrews tells us plainly that "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). All these sacrifices could only cover sin temporarily. They could only purify the flesh. They were a constant reminder of sin, not a final removal of it. They were a picture, a shadow, a type. They were all pointing to the day when God would provide the true Lamb, His own Son.
The Substance of the Shadows
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he did not say, "Behold, the great moral teacher," or "Behold, the inspiring example." He said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Jesus is the fulfillment of every detail of this Day of Atonement ritual.
He is our holy convocation, for we are gathered together in Him. He is our true humility, for He humbled Himself, even to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). He is our Sabbath rest, for we have ceased from our own works and have entered into His rest (Hebrews 4:10). He is our perfect, unblemished burnt offering, who offered Himself entirely to the Father as a soothing aroma, whose entire life was an act of perfect, worshipful obedience.
And most centrally, He is our sin offering. On the cross, the Father laid His hands upon His own Son and transferred the guilt of all His people onto Him. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). He became the substitute. He bore the curse. He died the death we deserved. He is both the priest and the sacrifice, the one who offers and the one who is offered.
Because of His one, final, all-sufficient sacrifice, the entire Old Testament system is rendered obsolete. The temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, signifying that the way into the true Holy of Holies, the presence of God Himself, is now open to all who come by faith in Him. There are no more bulls, no more lambs, no more goats. The shadow has given way to the substance. The promissory notes have all been stamped "Paid in Full" by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, our task is not to repeat these sacrifices, but to rest in the one sacrifice He has made. Our "humbling" is not a once-a-year affair, but a daily posture of repentance and faith. Our "offering" is not an animal, but our own lives, presented to Him as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1). We come to God with nothing in our hands, clinging only to the cross of Christ, our perfect, final, and forever Day of Atonement.