The Arithmetic of Atonement: The Second Day Text: Numbers 29:17-19
Introduction: God's Tedious, Glorious Grace
We live in an age that is allergic to detail. We want the executive summary, the bullet points, the tweet. Our spiritual attention spans have been whittled down to nothing by a culture of perpetual distraction. And so, when we come to a passage like this one in the book of Numbers, our eyes glaze over. We see a list of bulls and rams and lambs, grain offerings and drink offerings, and we are tempted to think it is little more than a dusty, ancient temple inventory. We treat it like the terms and conditions on a software update; we scroll right past it to get to the "good parts."
But in doing this, we make a grave mistake. We are assuming that God can be boring, that He can waste ink. We are assuming that the God who spoke the universe into existence, the God who numbers the very hairs of our heads, would then fill His holy Word with meaningless minutiae. This is not just a failure of literary appreciation; it is a failure of faith. If we do not have eyes to see Jesus here, in the glorious, bloody, and meticulous arithmetic of the Feast of Tabernacles, then we will have a thin and anemic Christ everywhere else.
This chapter details the sacrifices for the seventh month, Tishri, the high point of Israel's liturgical calendar. It contained the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the great finale, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths. This was the great harvest festival, a week-long celebration of God's provision, commemorating their time dwelling in tents in the wilderness. It was a feast of overwhelming joy and extravagant worship. And that worship was expressed through this very specific, very detailed, and very bloody liturgy.
This was not worship according to "what felt right." This was not a user-defined spirituality. This was worship on God's terms, down to the last bullock, down to the last measure of flour and wine. Why? Because God is holy, and sinful man cannot approach a holy God on his own terms. You do not just wander into the presence of a king. You are summoned, and you come according to his protocol. These sacrifices, in all their staggering detail, were the gospel in picture form. They were a constant, bloody reminder of the cost of sin and the absolute necessity of a substitute. And they were a prophetic portrait, painted in strokes of blood and fire, of the one who was to come, the one who would be the final and perfect fulfillment of every last one of them.
The Text
‘Then on the second day: twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without blemish; 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; and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and their drink offerings.’
(Numbers 29:17-19 LSB)
The Lavish Consecration (v. 17)
We begin with the prescribed burnt offerings for the second day of the feast.
"‘Then on the second day: twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without blemish...’" (Numbers 29:17)
The first thing that should strike us is the sheer scale of this. On the first day of the feast, they offered thirteen bulls. On this second day, twelve. Over the course of the week, they would offer a total of seventy bulls. Add to that the rams and the lambs, and you have a mountain of consecrated flesh, a river of blood. This is not a tame and tidy religion. This is a robust, masculine, and costly faith. The smell of the roasting meat would have filled the entire city of Jerusalem. This was a declaration. It declared that their joy was a purchased joy. Their feast was grounded in sacrifice.
These were burnt offerings, or what could be called ascension offerings. The entire animal, except for the hide, was consumed on the altar, ascending to God in smoke. This was an offering of total consecration, a picture of complete surrender. It was not primarily about dealing with sin, though it presupposed it. It was about the worshipper giving his all to God. And in this massive number of animals, we see a picture of the nation corporately dedicating itself entirely to the Lord.
Now, we must ask about the numbers. The Bible is not a lottery ticket, but neither is it careless with its numbers. They are freighted with meaning. On this second day, there are twelve bulls. Twelve is the number of God's government, His foundational rule. We see it in the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The offering of twelve bulls was a national statement, representing all of Israel, re-dedicating themselves as God's covenant people, His holy nation. The two rams speak of leadership and strength, offered up in consecration. And the fourteen lambs, spotless and a year old, speak of the innocence and perfection required by God. Fourteen is a multiple of seven, the number of perfection and completion. It is a picture of a perfect, consecrated people.
Of course, this was all a shadow. Israel could never be perfectly consecrated. Their sacrifices were a constant reminder of their failure. These bulls and rams and lambs were all promissory notes, pointing forward to the one who would offer Himself as the true burnt offering. Jesus Christ is the true Israel, the head of the new covenant people. He is the strong ram, the perfect lamb without blemish. He is the one who consecrated Himself completely to the Father's will, whose entire life ascended as a pleasing aroma. When we are united to Him by faith, His total consecration is counted as ours.
The Prescribed Accompaniments (v. 18)
The animal sacrifices did not stand alone. They were to be accompanied by specific grain and drink offerings.
"‘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...’" (Numbers 29:18)
The grain offering, made of fine flour and oil, was a tribute offering. It represented the fruit of man's labor, the work of his hands, being offered back to God in gratitude and dependence. The drink offering, or libation, was wine poured out before the Lord. It was a symbol of joy and fellowship. When you put them together with the burnt offering, you get a complete picture. The burnt offering is the consecration of the person. The grain offering is the consecration of his work. The drink offering is the consecration of his joy.
This is a total worldview. Our faith is not a compartment of our lives. It is not just about showing up on Sunday. God lays claim to everything. He claims your life (the bull), your work (the flour), and your joy (the wine). All of it is to be offered up to Him. This is what Paul is talking about in the New Testament when he says, "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). And again, "I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God" (Romans 12:1).
Notice the phrase: "according to the legal judgment," or "ordinance." This is crucial. Worship is not a creative arts project. We do not get to invent it as we go. God prescribes the way He is to be approached. This is a tremendous mercy. It protects us from the tyranny of our own sincerity and from the foolishness of trying to impress God with our own inventions. The only worship that pleases God is the worship that God Himself has commanded. In the Old Covenant, it was this detailed liturgy. In the New Covenant, it is the simple means of grace He has given His church: the Word preached, the sacraments administered, and prayer offered, all done in spirit and in truth. To worship "according to the ordinance" is to joyfully submit to God's wisdom, trusting that He knows how He wants to be glorified.
The Necessary Foundation (v. 19)
Finally, we see that all this lavish worship, all this joyous feasting and consecration, rested on a crucial foundation: the atonement for sin.
"‘and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and their drink offerings.’" (Numbers 29:19)
Every single day of this joyous feast, before the massive burnt offerings could be made, a goat had to be offered for sin. This is the grammar of true worship. Confession must precede consecration. You cannot give yourself to God until your sin has been dealt with by God. This sin offering was a stark reminder that even in their highest celebration, they were still sinners. Their best efforts, their most extravagant sacrifices, were still tainted. Sin had to be acknowledged and atoned for every single day.
This offering is set "besides the continual burnt offering." There was a baseline of worship that happened every single day at the tabernacle, morning and evening. A lamb was offered as a burnt offering, with its grain and drink offerings. This was the "continual" or "standing" sacrifice. It was the constant foundation of Israel's relationship with God. The special feast-day offerings were built on top of that foundation. This teaches us that our worship is not a series of disconnected events. It is a life. There is a continual, daily reality of our dependence on Christ's sacrifice, and out of that foundation flows the special seasons of celebration and feasting.
The goat for the sin offering points us directly to Christ. He is the one who was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He is our sin offering. And because His one offering was perfect and complete, we do not need to offer a goat every day. The foundation has been laid, once for all. And because He is also our continual burnt offering, the one who ever lives to make intercession for us, our access to God is constant and secure. Our entire Christian life is lived "besides" or on the basis of His continual, finished work.
Conclusion: Feasting on the Fulfillment
So what are we to do with a passage like this? We are to see the gospel in it, and we are to rejoice. We are to see the staggering cost of our sin, which required such a river of blood. And we are to see the even more staggering grace of God, who provided the ultimate sacrifice Himself.
This Feast of Tabernacles was a harvest festival. And the New Testament tells us that the Lord of the harvest is Jesus. In Him, all the joy, all the consecration, all the atonement shadowed in this ancient feast find their final and glorious fulfillment. John's gospel tells us that on the last and greatest day of this very feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). He was declaring Himself to be the reality to which all the drink offerings pointed.
The book of Hebrews tells us that Christ, through His one offering, has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). He is our twelve bulls, our two rams, our fourteen lambs, and our goat for sin. He is our grain offering and our drink offering. He is our continual sacrifice and our festival joy. Because of Him, we no longer live in the flimsy booths of the old covenant, but we have been made a permanent dwelling place for God by His Spirit.
Therefore, our response is not to get out our calculators and try to replicate this. Our response is to come to the table He has prepared for us. Here, at the Lord's Supper, we feast on the fulfillment. We partake of the true bread from heaven and the wine of the new covenant. We do this not with a spirit of slavish duty, but with the overflowing joy of the Feast of Tabernacles, knowing that the harvest has come in, the price has been paid in full, and our God has come to tabernacle with us forever.