Numbers 28:20, commentary and pictures

The verse appoints the grain portion of the added feast offerings as flour mixed with oil, three tenth deals with each bullock and two tenth deals with each ram. It belongs to the extra burnt offerings and sin offering commanded for each day of the seven days of unleavened bread from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib, whose first and last days were annual sabbaths kept as holy convocations. That added work was part of the daily ministration carried on by the Aaronic priesthood as mediators for the people in the holy place through the whole year, apart from the yearly Day of Atonement work in the most holy place. With the sanctuary itself those continual offerings kept sin in remembrance and expressed faith in the Redeemer to come, as the example and shadow of Christ's more excellent ministry in the true heavenly tabernacle.

Passover Setting and Measures

The grain offering that accompanied the special sacrifices was flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock and two tenth deals for a ram. It was part of the appointed additional offerings for Sabbaths, new moons, and annual feasts in the Levitical sanctuary service, and specifically for the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. That feast ran seven days, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Abib, with special offerings to be presented on each day throughout its entire course. Its first and last days were annual sabbaths.

These were additional burnt offerings and sin offerings appointed for each day of the week of unleavened bread. The five days between the holy convocation and cessation from work on the fifteenth of Nisan and the solemn cessation from labor on the twenty-first were not distinguished from other days except as feast days marked by these extra offerings. They were to be kept with all care laid aside and with cheerfulness prevailing. The regulations belong to later instructions for keeping the Passover that added requirements not found in the original instructions in Exodus and included practices that could not readily be carried out in the wilderness.

The law provides for the obligatory festive offering for the fifteenth day of Nisan after the Passover lamb had been eaten on the previous night, called the Chagigah. That offering could not be presented by any person who had contracted Levitical defilement. This Chagigah is the Passover that the Jews who led Jesus from Caiaphas to the hall of judgment refrained from defilement in order to eat. The Passover offerings thus described for the fifteenth day of the first month explain why the priests had sacrifices to attend to on that day and why they feared ritual defilement that would prevent them from doing so.

Daily Ministration and Antitype

The verse belongs to the additional work appointed for the Sabbaths of the Lord and the annual sabbaths, new moons, and feasts. It specifies flour mingled with oil as the grain offering accompanying the added animal sacrifices, three tenth deals for a bullock and two tenth deals for a ram. That schedule of regular offerings included daily, weekly, monthly, and festival sacrifices alongside the continual services through the year.

That additional work belongs to the daily ministration in the first apartment, or holy place, which went forward through the entire year apart from the special yearly service in the most holy place on the day of atonement. It was the first grand division of the earthly sanctuary ministration, the daily service in the holy place performed by the Levitical priesthood. The priesthood was restricted to the family of Aaron from the tribe of Levi set apart for that service, with the priest standing as mediator between God and man as representative of the people in things pertaining to God.

That daily ministration combined and correlated all the various offerings brought from day to day in one offering for the nation, the second of three general ministries for the sanctuary service for the nation. One lamb together with meal and oil was offered in the morning and the same at evening, and on the Sabbath day these offerings were doubled, and so the services went through the year day by day. Alongside the regular morning and evening burnt offering of lambs went the morning and evening burning of sweet incense on the golden altar with the lighting of the lamps, and the particular offerings of individuals through the year. The grain offering of flour mixed with oil accompanied the animal offerings as part of the intercessory worship through which the priests interceded for the people. These festival offerings were distinct from the daily burnt offering of two lambs of the first year, one in the morning and the other in the evening, and distinct from special offerings for individual sins.

In this continual service provided for the congregation remembrance of sin was constantly made in the sanctuary, and the beasts constantly offered indicated the faith of those who brought them in the Redeemer to come. That whole earthly ministration in the two holy places, together with the sanctuary itself, was the example and shadow and figure of Christ's more excellent ministry in the true tabernacle in heaven and of the heavenly sanctuary and its services. All the daily offerings of this one entire yearly round looked forward to a future antitype, with the yearly day of atonement pointing forward to the great antitypical day of atonement.

Burnt offerings with accompanying grain offerings were prescribed for the days of first fruits and Pentecost as well as for the Day of Atonement. Their presence therefore does not establish that they occurred before the high priest's work in the Most Holy Place, for they were preliminary or circumstantial. They did not prevent the central event of each feast from being fulfilled on its appointed day, as shown by the exact fulfillment dates of the spring festivals.

Assembly Worship and Application

The opening and closing days of the feast are designated holy convocations, and the requirement of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock and two tenth deals for a ram, belongs to the directions for those days in Numbers 28:18-25 as part of the sacrifice appointed for them. The same Hebrew word for convocation is used for both days, showing that a holy convocation means an actual assembly for worship and not merely a proclamation of holiness. Such holy convocations were marked by the presentation of sacrifice where sacrifice was lawful, and in every place they included instruction and spiritual worship.

The chapter provides church laws for Israel regulating its assemblies and worship, including special Sabbath observances. Those laws were binding upon Israel as a nation and church, but they are not legally binding today, though their underlying principles remain. The flour mingled with oil to be offered with the bullock and the ram was part of the additional burnt offerings and sin offerings appointed for each day of the week of unleavened bread. The five days between the holy convocation and cessation from work on the 15th of Nisan and the solemn cessation from labor on the 21st were therefore not distinguished from other days except as days of the feast marked by these extra offerings. Those intervening days were to be kept with all care laid aside and with cheerfulness prevailing.