Numbers 28:31, commentary and pictures

It appoints the added offerings for the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, to be offered beside the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offerings, with the animals without blemish. These special offerings were added to the morning and evening continual sacrifices for the whole congregation, not offered instead of them, for the continual service was never omitted because of other offerings. Together the daily and added offerings served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, revealing the work carried on by Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. As the second of the Jewish feasts kept a single day on the fiftieth day after the firstfruits were waved, when the firstfruits of wheat harvest were offered, its antitype was reached on the fiftieth day after Christ's resurrection in the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Such preliminary offerings did not prevent each feast's central event from beginning on its appointed day, so the antitype begins on the day of the type though its fulfillment may continue long afterward, as with the cleansing of the sanctuary commencing on the tenth day of the seventh month when the 2300 days end.

Offerings and Sanctuary Service

Numbers 28:31 appoints the offerings for the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, to be presented beside the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, with drink offerings included and the animals to be without blemish. The list in Numbers 28:26-31 sets out those offerings for the feast together with their grain and drink offerings. The prescribed animals were to stand alongside the regular continual burnt offering as without-blemish victims. These offerings accompanied a holy convocation on a day when servile work was forbidden.

The verse belongs to the broader system of additional offerings appointed for Sabbaths, annual sabbaths, new moons, and feasts as part of the regular sanctuary service alongside the continual burnt offering. Those regulations provided special sacrifices for the weekly Sabbath, annual sabbaths, new moons, and feasts, alongside the continual morning and evening sacrifices. The special offerings were added to the continual offering, not offered instead of it, for the continual sacrifices were offered for the whole congregation morning and evening and were never omitted because of other offerings. The daily national ministration was a lamb with meal and oil each morning and evening, doubled on the Sabbath and continuing through the year, keeping the remembrance of sin before the sanctuary and expressing the faith of those who brought sacrifices.

This additional work belonged to the first grand division of the earthly sanctuary ministration, the daily service in the holy place accomplished by the Levitical priesthood. It stood alongside the regular morning and evening burnt offering, the morning and evening burning of sweet incense when the lamps were dressed and lighted, and the particular offerings for individuals by which sins were transferred to the sanctuary through the year. That daily ministration in the first tabernacle included the burning of sweet incense on the golden altar. It was distinct from the second division, the yearly work in the most holy place for the sins of the people and for the cleansing of the sanctuary.

Prophetic Type and Application

The daily lamb with its meal and oil offered morning and evening, doubled on the Sabbath and continued through the year, kept the remembrance of sin before the sanctuary and expressed the faith of those who brought the sacrifices, and together with the added offerings it looked forward to the future antitype. The added animals without blemish with grain and drink offerings, offered beside and in addition to the continual burnt offering and never instead of it, belonged to the daily ministration in the holy place accomplished by the Levitical priesthood, together with the regular morning and evening burnt offering, the morning and evening burning of sweet incense on the golden altar when the lamps were dressed and lighted, and the particular offerings for individuals by which sins were transferred to the sanctuary. The continual sacrifices were for the whole congregation morning and evening and were never omitted because of other offerings. That first grand division of the earthly sanctuary ministration, the daily service in the first tabernacle, was distinct from the second division, the yearly work in the most holy place for the sins of the people and for the cleansing of the sanctuary. That ministration in the two holy places served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, so the work carried on on earth reveals the work carried on by Christ in His more excellent ministry in the heavenly sanctuary in the true tabernacle.

The same kinds of burnt offerings with grain and drink offerings were appointed for the Passover season, the day of firstfruits, the feast of weeks, and the Day of Atonement. Such preliminary and circumstantial additional burnt-offering work did not prevent the grand event of each day from meeting its antitype exactly on the typical day. The antitype therefore begins on the day of the type, though its fulfillment may continue for a long time afterward. The verse belongs to the law of Pentecost, the second of the Jewish feasts kept for a single day on the fiftieth day after the firstfruits of barley harvest were waved before the Lord, when the firstfruits of wheat harvest were offered to God beside the continual burnt offering and its grain offering without blemish with drink offerings. As Christ died on the fourteenth of the first month and rose on the day of firstfruits, its antitype was reached on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ in the great outpouring of the Holy Ghost when He sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

By the same rule similar offerings on the tenth day of the seventh month do not delay the antitype, and the cleansing of the sanctuary must commence on the tenth day of the seventh month when the 2300 days end, though the antitype beginning on that day may extend forward a great distance. The prescribed rites were connected with the daily morning and evening sacrifices, when the people prayed while the priests offered sacrifice and incense. Those rites have ended, with Christ's one offering taking their place. The verse is part of Israel's church laws regulating assembly and worship, which are not binding on people today as laws, though their underlying principles remain.