The Arithmetic of Atonement Text: Numbers 29:29-31
Introduction: The Scandal of Specificity
We live in an age that despises details, especially when those details are bloody and demand something of us. Modern religion, when it is tolerated at all, is expected to be a vague, sentimental affair, a sort of spiritual warm feeling in the nether regions. It is supposed to be about being nice, feeling good, and affirming everyone. The last thing our therapeutic culture wants is a God who is meticulously specific about bulls, rams, grain, and drink offerings. It all seems so arbitrary, so primitive, so very unenlightened. And it is most certainly not nice.
When the modern reader stumbles into a passage like this one in Numbers, his eyes tend to glaze over. Eight bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs. It feels like reading an ancient butcher’s inventory. We are tempted to skip over it, to get to the "good parts" of the Bible, the narrative bits or the comforting Psalms. But in doing this, we commit a grave error. We are treating the Word of God like a buffet, picking and choosing what suits our palate, and leaving the rest to congeal under the heat lamp. This is not piety; it is arrogance. We are telling God that we know which parts of His self-revelation are important and which are not.
But the truth is, this passage, in all its glorious and gory detail, is a cannon shot against our modern sensibilities. It teaches us something fundamental about the nature of God and the nature of our sin. It teaches us that God is holy, and His holiness is not a fuzzy concept. It is a brilliant, blazing, and dangerous reality. And it teaches us that our sin is not a small oopsie, a minor misstep. It is a damnable offense that creates an infinite chasm between us and our Creator, a chasm that can only be bridged by blood. A lot of blood.
These repetitive, detailed instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles are not divine busywork. They are a lesson plan, a divine audio-visual aid, teaching Israel and teaching us the sheer cost of sin and the overwhelming nature of God's provision. This is the arithmetic of atonement, and if we have the eyes to see it, we will find that every jot and tittle of this text points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who fulfilled all of it, perfectly and permanently.
The Text
‘Then on the sixth day: eight bulls, 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, its grain offering and its drink offerings.’
(Numbers 29:29-31 LSB)
An Overwhelming Provision (v. 29-30)
We begin with the prescribed offerings for the sixth day of the feast.
"‘Then on the sixth day: eight bulls, 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..." (Numbers 29:29-30 LSB)
First, notice the day: "on the sixth day." This should immediately perk up our ears. The sixth day of creation was the day God made man in His own image. And it was on the sixth day of the week, Good Friday, that the Son of Man was lifted up to deal with the sin of the man God had created. This day is freighted with significance. It is the day of man's great need and God's ultimate answer to that need.
Now, look at the sheer volume of the sacrifice. Eight bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs. This is not a token gesture. This is a staggering amount of life laid down. The cumulative effect of these daily sacrifices during the Feast of Tabernacles was meant to be overwhelming. It was a picture of grace piled upon grace. Our sin is not a small debt that can be paid off with a small gesture; it requires a massive, almost unthinkable payment. These animals, all of them "without blemish," point to the perfection of the coming sacrifice. A blemished offering is no offering at all. This is a type, a shadow, of the spotless Lamb of God who alone could take away the sin of the world.
While Scripture does not assign a rigid symbolic meaning to every animal, we can see a general pattern. Bulls represent strength, service, and leadership. Rams are often associated with substitution, as in the case of Abraham and Isaac. Lambs, of course, speak of innocence and meekness. In this multitude of offerings, we see a composite picture of our Lord Jesus: the strong Son of God, our substitute, the innocent Lamb. All of it was necessary.
Then we have the grain and drink offerings. These were not for atonement. The blood deals with the sin. The grain and drink offerings were about fellowship, life, and joy. They were a gift of thanksgiving that accompanied the main sacrifice. Grain is the stuff of bread, the staff of life. The drink offering, wine, is a symbol of joy. What does this teach us? It teaches us that atonement is the necessary ground for fellowship. First the blood, then the meal. First the cross, then the table. We cannot have communion with God, we cannot experience the life and joy He offers, until the sin problem has been dealt with by the shedding of blood. This is a direct foreshadowing of the Lord's Supper, where we eat the bread and drink the cup in joyful remembrance of a sacrifice that is already finished.
And all of this was to be done "according to the legal judgment." The phrase in Hebrew is k'mishpatam, according to the ordinance, the prescribed way. This is the regulative principle of worship in its seed form. God does not leave worship to our whims, our creative impulses, or our felt needs. He tells us how He is to be approached. We do not get to invent a way to God. This is because we are sinners, and our best inventions are shot through with rebellion. We must come on His terms. The good news of the gospel is that God has provided the terms, the way, and the sacrifice, all in one Person, His Son.
The Necessary Foundation (v. 31)
Verse 31 adds two crucial elements that frame all the other offerings.
"and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offerings." (Numbers 29:31 LSB)
After that mountain of burnt offerings, after the bulls and rams and lambs, God requires something more: "one male goat for a sin offering." The burnt offerings were offerings of consecration and dedication, where the whole animal went up in smoke to God. But the sin offering, the chattath, was different. It dealt specifically and explicitly with sin. That goat, in type, bore the guilt of the people. This is penal substitution in picture form. God is holy, sin must be punished, and a substitute must die.
It is crucial that this is mentioned separately. It shows that no amount of religious dedication, no amount of consecration, can be acceptable to God until the sin problem is dealt with first. You can pile up your good works as high as a mountain, but if your sin has not been atoned for, God will not accept them. The cross must come before the crown. The sin offering must be made before the offerings of dedication are received. Christ was "made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). That goat is a picture of that great exchange.
And then there is the final, foundational phrase: "besides the continual burnt offering." All of these special sacrifices for the Feast of Tabernacles were additions. They were piled on top of the regular, daily, morning-and-evening sacrifice that never stopped. This "continual burnt offering," the tamid, was the baseline. It was the constant reminder that Israel's relationship with God depended on a perpetual, uninterrupted sacrifice. Their access to God was not something they achieved on feast days; it was something maintained for them, day in and day out, by the smoke ascending from the altar.
This points us directly to the present ministry of Jesus Christ. He is not just our once-for-all sacrifice on the cross. He is also our continual offering. The book of Hebrews tells us that He "ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). His work for us is finished, but it is also continuous. His blood speaks a better word for us, constantly, before the throne of God. Our standing with God this Tuesday morning is not based on what we did last Sunday. It is based on the continual, present, and effective work of our great High Priest. He is our tamid, our continual burnt offering. Every moment of every day, our acceptance before the Father is secured not by our performance, but by His.
Conclusion: From Tedium to Thanksgiving
So what do we do with a passage like this? We are not called to haul bulls and goats to the church lawn on Sunday morning. To do so would be an insult to the finished work of Christ. He is the fulfillment of every one of these shadows.
The sheer number of animals, the eight bulls and fourteen lambs, shows us the utter inadequacy of the old covenant and the glorious, overwhelming sufficiency of the new. All those lives could not do what the one life of Jesus did, once for all. "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). But the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
The grain and drink offerings teach us that our fellowship with God is a feast of joy, but a feast that is only possible because of the bloody cross that preceded it. We come to the Lord's Table not to sacrifice, but to celebrate a sacrifice that has been made for us.
The sin offering reminds us that our problem is not a lack of dedication but a debt of guilt, which Christ paid as our substitute. And the continual burnt offering is our great comfort, reminding us that our security rests not in our intermittent faithfulness, but in Christ's constant intercession.
This passage, which at first glance seems like a tedious piece of ritual legislation, is in fact a rich and detailed portrait of the gospel. It is the arithmetic of atonement, and every number, every animal, every offering, adds up to Jesus Christ. He is our strong bull, our substitute ram, our spotless lamb. He is our sin offering, and He is our continual burnt offering. Therefore, let us not come to God with our own paltry offerings, but let us rest entirely in the all-sufficient, overwhelming, and continual sacrifice that He Himself has provided.