Numbers 28:19, commentary and pictures

Numbers 28:19 appoints the extra burnt offering for the fifteenth day of the first month, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread kept as an annual sabbath with a holy convocation and no servile work. It requires two young bullocks and one ram and seven lambs of the first year without blemish, with special offerings appointed for each day of the feast. It belongs to the daily ministration in the holy place, standing alongside the continual morning and evening burnt offering which was never omitted when other offerings were made. That earthly service was the pattern and shadow of Christ's ministry in the true tabernacle in heaven, expressing faith in the coming Redeemer whose one offering perfects those who are sanctified. The offerings appointed for a festival day are preliminary and do not prevent the great event represented by the feast from beginning on that day, as Christ was sacrificed as the Passover on the fourteenth and the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.

Passover Feast and Offerings

The prescribed burnt offering belongs to the fifteenth day of the first month Abib or Nisan, the day after the Passover was eaten the previous night. That day is the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, kept with a holy convocation and no servile work as the first annual sabbath, one of seven annual sabbaths that fall on different weekdays from year to year. The seven-day festival runs from the fifteenth through the twenty-first, with special offerings appointed for each day and with its first and last days observed as annual sabbaths. The required sacrifices for the feast are therefore placed on the fifteenth day, the first yearly Sabbath, for the priests to attend to.

For those feast days the added burnt offering is two young bullocks and one ram and seven lambs of the first year without blemish. Special offerings are appointed for each day of the observance, and the five days between the feast's two ceremonial Sabbaths are feast days marked by additional burnt offerings and sin offerings.

The festive offering for that day, called the Chagigah, is an obligatory offering that a person who is ritually defiled cannot offer or eat. This explains why the Jewish leaders avoided entering the judgment hall before eating it, lest defilement prevent them from the offering and the meal. It likewise explains why the priests would have feared becoming ceremonially defiled before performing that sacrificial service. The instructions in Numbers 28:16-25 to which this offering belongs describe a later form of Passover observance, with added requirements not found in the original instructions and not readily possible during the wilderness journey.

Sanctuary Ministry and Fulfillment

Numbers 28:19 gives part of the additional work appointed for the Sabbaths of the Lord, the annual sabbaths, new moons and feasts, belonging to the daily ministration in the holy place. That special work belongs to the first grand division of the earthly sanctuary ministration, the daily service in the first tabernacle, along with the regular morning and evening burnt offering, the burning of sweet incense, and the offerings of individuals. The regular offering for the nation was a lamb with meal and oil each morning and evening, with the offerings doubled on the Sabbath. The continual burnt offering was offered for the whole congregation each day and was not omitted when other offerings were made. These recurring services continued through the year until the yearly Day of Atonement, distinct from the second grand division, the yearly work in the most holy place for the sins of the people and for the cleansing of the sanctuary.

This whole earthly ministration was the example and shadow of Christ's more excellent ministry in the true tabernacle in heaven. Together with its other continual services it represented the service of the heavenly sanctuary. These daily sacrifices continued through the year, keeping sin in remembrance and expressing the worshipers' faith in the coming Redeemer, and together the yearly services pointed forward to their fulfillment in Christ. These rites have ended because Christ's one offering has perfected those who are sanctified.

The burnt offerings and related offerings made during the festival season stand alongside the central events marked by the appointed days. Such accompanying offerings are preliminary and circumstantial and do not prevent the great event represented by a feast from beginning on the day of that feast, for the antitype begins on the type's day though it may continue beyond it. Christ was sacrificed as the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month, rose as the firstfruits, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. Therefore the offerings appointed for the tenth day of the seventh month cannot require years of preliminary work before the work in the holiest, and the antitype of the cleansing of the sanctuary must commence on that typical day.

Worship Meaning and Application

Holy convocation means real gatherings of people assembled together for worship, not merely a proclamation of holiness. The burnt offering of two young bullocks and one ram and seven lambs of the first year without blemish belongs to the sacrificial service that marked such holy convocations wherever sacrifice was lawful. After settlement in the promised land sacrifice could be offered in only one place, so the same convocations held throughout the tribes apart from sacrifice were for moral and religious purposes. In all instances and places they involved instruction and spiritual worship, so that the seventh day made provision for domestic piety in every dwelling and for social religion in public assembly.

The regulations for Israel's assembling and worship, including special Sabbath observances, are not binding as laws upon people today, though their underlying principles remain. The regular morning and evening sacrifices restated for the Jewish dispensation have ended, since Christ by one offering has perfected those who are sanctified. Christian families may instead gather morning and evening in praise and prayer, which ascend before God as a pleasing offering.