Bird's-eye view
This passage in Numbers 29 details the specific, lavish sacrifices required on the second day of the Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles. This feast was the grand culmination of the Israelite liturgical year, a week-long celebration of God's provision in the harvest and a remembrance of their time dwelling in tents after the exodus. The sheer scale of the offerings throughout this week is staggering, far exceeding those of any other feast. This was a national party, a consecrated holiday of immense joy and gratitude, all centered on the worship of Yahweh at His tabernacle.
The detailed prescriptions here are not tedious minutiae from a bygone era. They are a picture of God's overwhelming grace and the appropriate response of His people. The descending number of bulls each day, starting with thirteen and moving to twelve here on the second day, teaches a profound theological lesson about God's covenantal order. Each animal, each measure of grain and wine, points forward to the final, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is not just about ritual; it is about communion. God was teaching His people how to feast in His presence, how to order their lives around His goodness, and how to anticipate the great wedding supper of the Lamb, of which this feast was but a shadow.
Outline
- 1. The Second Day of the Great Feast (Num 29:17-19)
- a. The Burnt Offerings: A Pleasing Aroma (Num 29:17)
- b. The Grain and Drink Offerings: According to the Ordinance (Num 29:18)
- c. The Sin Offering: Acknowledging Ongoing Need (Num 29:19)
Context In Numbers
The book of Numbers chronicles Israel's journey from Sinai to the plains of Moab, on the cusp of entering the Promised Land. It is a book of testing, failure, and divine faithfulness. Chapters 28 and 29 form a distinct unit, a liturgical calendar that reiterates and organizes the entire sacrificial system for the nation as they prepare to enter a new phase of their life. This is not new information, but a restatement of the law for a new generation. The old generation had perished in the wilderness; this new generation needed to have the centrality of worship and sacrifice drilled into them. The placement of this calendar right before the laws concerning vows (chapter 30) and the holy war against Midian (chapter 31) is significant. Right worship is the necessary prerequisite for both personal faithfulness and national victory. The Feast of Booths in chapter 29 is the joyful climax of this calendar, a reminder of what all their struggles in the wilderness were for: to dwell with God and enjoy His bounty.
Key Issues
- The Theology of Feasting
- Biblical Numerology (Twelve, Two, Fourteen)
- The Relationship Between Burnt Offerings and Sin Offerings
- The Nature of Old Covenant Worship
- Christ as the Fulfillment of the Sacrificial System
Worship as Lavish Abundance
Our pinched, modern, therapeutic sensibilities often struggle with the raw, bloody, and overwhelmingly abundant nature of Old Testament worship. We think of worship as a quiet hour in a comfortable room. But here, on the second day of a week-long festival, we see a staggering display of consecrated wealth being sent up in smoke. Twelve bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs. This was not a token gesture. This was glorious, extravagant, joyful wastefulness. It was a national barbecue thrown in honor of the King of the universe.
This abundance teaches us that our God is not a stingy God. He is the God of overflowing barns, of wine vats bursting, of nets breaking with fish. The created world is a testament to His lavish generosity. And our worship should reflect that. The Israelites were commanded to bring the best of their best, and a lot of it, not because God needed to eat, but because they needed to learn the grammar of gratitude. True worship is not about minimalism; it is about giving joyfully and generously from the abundance that God has first given to us. This feast was a picture of the gospel life: God gives extravagantly, and we respond with extravagant praise.
Verse by Verse Commentary
17 ‘Then on the second day: twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without blemish;
The second day continues the celebration, but with a notable change. The number of bulls decreases from thirteen on the first day to twelve here. This is not arbitrary. Twelve is a foundational number in Scripture, representing the governmental order of God's people. We have the twelve tribes of Israel and later the twelve apostles of the Lamb. By offering twelve bulls, the nation is presenting itself, in its entirety, as a whole burnt offering to God. They are saying, "We, all twelve tribes, belong completely to You." The two rams can be seen as representing the two witnesses required to establish a matter, a testimony to God's faithfulness. And the fourteen lambs, a multiple of the perfect number seven (2x7), signify a complete and perfected consecration. All the animals must be male and without blemish, pointing to the perfect, spotless sacrifice of Christ, the male child who was the unblemished Lamb of God.
18 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the legal judgment;
Sacrifices were never just about the meat. They were a full meal presented to God. The grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil, and the drink offering, wine, were brought alongside the burnt offering. This completed the picture. The grain represents the fruit of man's labor from the earth, and the wine represents joy and celebration. Together, they signify that all of life, our work and our joy, is to be consecrated to God. Notice the phrase according to the legal judgment or "ordinance." Worship is not a free-for-all. God specifies how He is to be approached. This is not legalism; it is love. A husband who loves his wife wants to know how to please her; he doesn't just make it up as he goes along. God, in His grace, has given us the rules for communion with Him, so that we can approach Him with confidence and not according to our own fallen imaginations.
19 and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and their drink offerings.
This is a crucial verse. In the midst of this exuberant, joyful celebration, with mountains of meat and rivers of wine being offered, there is a stark reminder: one male goat for a sin offering. Even at their highest point of worship and celebration, Israel was still a sinful people. Their feasting was made possible only by a prior atonement. The sin offering was the necessary foundation for the burnt offering. You cannot consecrate yourself to God (the meaning of the burnt offering) until your sin has been dealt with. This goat, taking their sin upon itself, had to be offered every single day of the feast. It reminds us that our access to God, our joy, our worship, is never based on our own goodness. It is always grounded in the substitutionary atonement that deals with our filth. This points directly to Christ, who is our sin offering. And it reminds us that even in our most sanctified state on this side of glory, we are always sinners in need of grace, feasting only because the goat has died.
Application
We are not required to offer bulls and goats today. The book of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that Christ is the fulfillment of this entire system, the once-for-all sacrifice for sin. But the principles embedded in this text are timeless. First, our worship should be characterized by joyful, lavish abundance. Are we stingy with God? Do we give Him the leftovers of our time, our money, our energy? Or do we bring Him the best of our best, joyfully and without reservation? God loves a cheerful giver, and this entire feast was a national exercise in cheerful, abundant giving.
Second, our lives must be ordered according to God's Word. The Israelites had a specific ordinance to follow. We too have an ordinance: the Holy Scriptures. We are not to invent our own spirituality or approach God on our own terms. We are to come to Him as He has commanded, through faith in His Son, and order our lives and our worship according to His revealed will.
Finally, and most importantly, we must never forget the sin offering. Our Christian life is a feast, a celebration of our salvation. But we must never forget the price of the ticket. We feast because Christ died. We live because He was made a sin offering for us. Every moment of Christian joy, every act of worship, every good work, is grounded in the bloody cross of Jesus Christ. We can only offer ourselves as living sacrifices, a whole burnt offering, because the goat has already been slain on our behalf. Therefore, let us feast with joy, but let us feast with humble gratitude, always remembering the Lamb whose sacrifice makes the party possible.