Overwhelmed by Grace: The Lavish Worship of God Text: Numbers 29:12-16
Introduction: The Grammar of Gladness
We live in an age that has forgotten how to feast. Our secular world knows how to be entertained, how to be distracted, how to gorge itself on trivialities, but it does not know how to celebrate. True celebration, true feasting, is rooted in a shared memory and a shared hope. It is covenantal. It requires a story that makes sense of the world, a deliverance worth remembering, and a future worth anticipating. Without God, all you have is a party, which is a frantic attempt to forget that life is meaningless. But with God, you have a feast, which is a joyous proclamation that life is overflowing with meaning.
The Old Testament calendar was not a dreary list of obligations. Far from it. With one notable exception, the Day of Atonement where they were to afflict their souls, the entire liturgical calendar was made up of feasts. God commanded His people to be happy. He structured their lives around seasons of institutionalized gladness. This was not an optional add-on for the emotionally bubbly; it was a central requirement of the covenant. To be in covenant with Yahweh was to be summoned to joy.
Our text today drops us into the middle of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, a month packed with high holidays. It begins with the Feast of Trumpets, moves to the solemn Day of Atonement, and then culminates in the great seven-day festival described here: the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths. This was the grand finale of the religious year, a time of immense national joy, remembering God's provision in the wilderness and celebrating the completion of the harvest. It was a week-long, nationwide campout, a time for remembering that they were pilgrims and sojourners, utterly dependent on God for everything.
But as we look at the requirements for this feast, we are confronted with something that can seem alien to our modern sensibilities. We see a staggering, almost bewildering, number of animal sacrifices. The sheer logistics and expense are mind-boggling. And this is where we must pay close attention. God is not a cosmic bureaucrat, delighting in tedious paperwork. Every detail in this Levitical worship is a picture, a signpost, a shadow pointing to the substance, who is Jesus Christ. This is not just about bulls and rams; it is about the grammar of grace, the mathematics of mercy, and the overwhelming, lavish goodness of God.
The Text
‘Then on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work, and you shall celebrate a feast to Yahweh for seven days. And you shall bring near a burnt offering, an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to Yahweh: thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old, which are without blemish; and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams, and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs; and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.’
(Numbers 29:12-16 LSB)
A Holy Party (v. 12)
We begin with the summons to the celebration.
"‘Then on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work, and you shall celebrate a feast to Yahweh for seven days.’" (Numbers 29:12)
Notice the three key elements here. First, it is a "holy convocation." This is a sacred assembly. The word "holy" means set apart. This is not just any get-together. It is a gathering called by God, for God. It is set apart from all common and profane activities. True worship begins with this recognition: we are not here on our own initiative. God calls, and we respond. We are summoned into His presence. This is the foundation of the Church, the ekklesia, the "called-out ones."
Second, they were to do "no laborious work." This is a Sabbath principle. This rest was not for the purpose of laziness, but for the purpose of worship. Laborious work is the work you do to earn your bread, to secure your place in the world. God commands them to cease from all that striving. Why? Because the feast was a celebration of His provision. You don't work for a gift. You cease your work in order to receive it. This is a weekly picture of the gospel. We do not work for our salvation; we rest from our dead works and enter into the salvation Christ has already accomplished. We work from our rest in Him, not for it.
Third, they were to "celebrate a feast to Yahweh for seven days." The number seven in Scripture is the number of perfection and completion. This was a complete celebration. It was not a quick nod to God before getting back to business. It was an entire week saturated in joyous worship. God is not glorified by half-hearted, distracted, "fit-it-in-if-I-have-time" worship. He is glorified by prolonged, intentional, all-encompassing celebration. This feast was to be the central rhythm of their lives for that entire week. And it was a feast to Yahweh. He is both the host and the guest of honor. All true joy finds its source and its object in Him.
The Mathematics of Grace (v. 13)
Now we get to the sacrifices, and the numbers are staggering.
"And you shall bring near a burnt offering, an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to Yahweh: thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old, which are without blemish;" (Numbers 29:13)
This is just for the first day. The burnt offering, or ascension offering, was about total consecration. The entire animal was consumed on the altar, ascending to God in smoke. It was a picture of giving your all to God. But look at the sheer volume. Thirteen bulls. Two rams. Fourteen lambs. These were not cheap animals. This was an act of extravagant, costly worship. Grace is free for us, but it was not cheap for God. And our response to free grace should not be cheap worship.
Why these numbers? The Bible is not a book of numerological puzzles to be solved for their own sake. However, the numbers are not random. Two is the number of witness. Fourteen is two times seven, a double portion of perfection. But what about thirteen? This is where it gets interesting. Over the seven days of the feast, the number of bulls offered decreases by one each day. Thirteen on day one, twelve on day two, and so on, down to seven on the seventh day. A total of seventy bulls were offered. Seventy is the number of the nations (Gen. 10). This feast, at the end of the harvest, was a picture of God's plan to gather all the nations into His glorious rest.
But the decreasing number of bulls is also significant. It is a picture of a temporary system that is winding down. It is a constant, daily reminder that this sacrificial system, as massive and costly as it was, was not ultimate. It was fading, pointing forward to the one, final, sufficient sacrifice that would not need to be repeated. These sacrifices were a placeholder, a promissory note, that was cashed in full at the cross.
And notice the key phrase: "a soothing aroma to Yahweh." This is anthropomorphic language, of course. God doesn't have a physical nose. This phrase describes the effect of the sacrifice. A "soothing" or "pleasing" aroma is one that satisfies. It appeases wrath. It brings pleasure. In the context of sacrifice for sin, this means that the demands of God's perfect justice were being met. The wages of sin is death, and a death was occurring. God's holiness was being honored. And in the death of this substitute, God could look upon His people with pleasure. This is a direct pointer to Christ, whose one offering of Himself was the ultimate soothing aroma, forever satisfying the justice of God (Eph. 5:2).
The Necessary Accompaniments (v. 14-16)
The burnt offerings did not stand alone. They were accompanied by other required offerings.
"and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams, and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs; and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.’" (Numbers 29:14-16)
Every burnt offering had to be accompanied by a grain offering and a drink offering. The grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil, was a tribute offering, acknowledging that all the fruit of their labors came from God. The flour represents the work of their hands, and the oil represents the blessing of the Holy Spirit. You cannot consecrate your life to God (the burnt offering) without also consecrating the work of your hands to Him (the grain offering).
The precision is again noteworthy. The amount of flour corresponds to the size of the animal. God is a God of order, not chaos. He cares about the details. Our worship should not be sloppy or haphazard. It should be thoughtful, orderly, and intentional, reflecting the character of the God we worship.
But most importantly, notice verse 16. Alongside this mountain of burnt offerings, there had to be "one male goat for a sin offering." The burnt offering was about consecration, but you cannot be consecrated to God while your sin is outstanding. The sin offering had to be dealt with first. Before you can give yourself to God, your sin debt must be paid. This single goat, offered each day, was a constant reminder of their sinfulness. Even in the midst of their most joyous celebration, they had to acknowledge their need for atonement. They could not approach God on their own merits. They needed a substitute to die for their sins.
This is the structure of true worship, what we call covenant renewal. We begin with confession of sin (the sin offering), which is dealt with by the blood of Christ. Then we move to consecration (the burnt offering), offering ourselves as living sacrifices. This then culminates in communion, or fellowship (the peace offering), where we feast with God. This Old Testament feast shows us the pattern. Sin must be dealt with before true celebration can begin.
The Feast Fulfilled
As Christians, we are not required to offer bulls and goats. To do so would be an insult to the finished work of Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of this entire chapter. He is our holy convocation, the one in whom we are gathered together. He is our Sabbath rest, the one in whom we cease from our laborious work of self-justification.
He is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast looked back to the wilderness wandering, and it looked forward to the final ingathering. John tells us that "the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us" (John 1:14). Jesus is God pitching His tent with mankind. He is the great pilgrim who journeyed from heaven to earth to bring us home. It was at the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37), declaring Himself to be the true source of living water that the people remembered from the wilderness.
He is the thirteen bulls, the two rams, and the fourteen lambs. He is the overwhelming, super-abundant, extravagant sacrifice. All the blood shed on that altar was just a down payment, a shadow of the infinite value of His blood. He is the grain offering, the Bread of Life, whose life was crushed for us. He is the drink offering, whose blood was poured out for many. And He is, most blessedly, our sin offering. He is the goat that takes our sin away, so that we can draw near to God not in fear, but in joyous celebration.
Therefore, our lives as Christians are to be a continual Feast of Tabernacles. We are to be a people marked by a deep and abiding joy. We do not feast because we are pretending our problems don't exist. We feast because our greatest problem, our sin, has been dealt with once and for all. We feast because we remember our deliverance from the slavery of sin. We feast because we have a sure and certain hope of the final harvest, the great ingathering at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
So come to the feast. Cease from your own works. Trust in the finished work of Christ. Confess your sins, and receive His forgiveness. Offer your lives to Him in total consecration. And then, celebrate. Celebrate with a joy that is deep, robust, and unshakeable, for Christ our Tabernacle has come, and Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast.