July 22, 2024

Numbers 15:1-31  (HCSB)
Laws about Offerings
15 The Lord instructed Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you to settle in, 3 and you make a fire offering to the Lord from the herd or flock—either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow, or as a freewill offering, or at your appointed festivals—to produce a pleasing aroma for the Lord, 4 the one presenting his offering to the Lord must also present a grain offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. 5 Prepare a quart of wine as a drink offering with the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb. 6 “If you prepare a grain offering with a ram, it must be four quarts of fine flour mixed with a third of a gallon of oil. 7 Also present a third of a gallon of wine for a drink offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 8 “If you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow, or as a fellowship offering to the Lord, 9 a grain offering of six quarts of fine flour mixed with two quart of oil must be presented with the bull. 10 Also present two quarts of wine as a drink offering. It is a fire offering of pleasing aroma to the Lord. 11 This is to be done for each ox, ram, lamb, or goat. 12 This is how you must prepare each of them, no matter how many. 13 “Every Israelite is to prepare these things in this way when he presents a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 14 When a foreigner resides with you or someone else is among you and wants to prepare a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he is to do exactly as you do throughout your generations. 15 The assembly is to have the same statute for both you and the foreign resident as a permanent statute throughout your generations. You and the foreigner will be alike before the Lord. 16 The same law and the same ordinance will apply to both you and the foreigner who resides with you.” 17 The Lord instructed Moses: 18 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land where I am bringing you, 19 you are to offer a contribution to the Lord when you eat from the food of the land. 20 You are to offer a loaf from your first batch of dough as a contribution; offer it just like a contribution from the threshing floor.  21 Throughout your generations, you are to give the Lord a contribution from the first batch of your dough. 22 “When you sin unintentionally and do not obey all these commands that the Lord spoke to Moses— 23 all that the Lord has commanded you through Moses, from the day the Lord issued the commands and onward throughout your generations— 24 and if it was done unintentionally without the community’s awareness, the entire community is to prepare one young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and drink offering according to the regulation, and one male goat as a sin offering. 25 The priest must then make atonement for the entire Israelite community so that they may be forgiven, for the sin was unintentional. They are to bring their offering, one made by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their unintentional sin. 26 The entire Israelite community and the foreigner who resides among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally. 27 “If one person sins unintentionally, he is to present a year-old female goat as a sin offering. 28 The priest must then make atonement before the Lord on behalf of the person who acts in error sinning unintentionally, and when he makes atonement for him, he will be forgiven. 29 You are to have the same law for the person who acts in error, whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner who lives among you. 30 “But the person who acts defiantly, whether native or foreign resident, blasphemes the Lord. That person is to be cut off from his people. 31 He will certainly be cut off, because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken His command; his guilt remains on him.”

Mackenzie Tomes
In Genesis 8 we see the first instance of a burnt offering made to God after Noah and his family come out of the ark. Beginning in Leviticus, the many different types of sacrifices that the Israelites were to perform are explained.  Burnt offerings were made for the propitiation of sins and to signify complete dedication to God. Grain offerings accompanied burnt offerings to show thanksgiving to God. Fellowship offerings were an expression of peace between the offeror and God. Sin offerings provided atonement for sins committed unknowingly. Guilt offerings were also used for sins comitted unknowingly. And that brings us to our passage today in Numbers 15. The Israelites are preparing to finally enter the promised land! God explains to Moses that along with these different types of offerings that must be made, an additional offering should also be given. Why were all of these sacrifices necessary? They were needed in order to temporarily bring the sinful people back into fellowship with the Holy God. Thanks be to God who provided the perfect sacrifice in Jesus to cleanse us from our sin once and for all.