Numbers 29:12, commentary and pictures

Numbers 29:12 appoints the Feast of Tabernacles, the third annual feast, to begin with a holy convocation on the fifteenth day of the seventh month on which no servile work was done, to continue seven days as a feast to the Lord with special offerings, and to close with another holy convocation on the twenty-second day. Its keeping gathered Israel to the tabernacle and later to Jerusalem to dwell in booths of boughs and branches, to rejoice in thanksgiving after harvest for the fruits of the earth, and to commemorate deliverance from bondage in Egypt and the wilderness wanderings. As the sixth annual sabbath it was a ceremonial sabbath instituted after the fall at the exodus, not the weekly seventh-day Sabbath instituted at creation before the fall, which God rested upon and blessed and sanctified. It belongs to the additional special offerings and work of the daily ministration carried on through the year in the holy place by the Levitical priesthood, distinct from the yearly work on the tenth day of the seventh month in the most holy place for the cleansing of the sanctuary. The feast foreshadows God's final harvest gathering of His people in the antitypical feast of tabernacles at the New Jerusalem, when the redeemed commemorate final deliverance from sin and death and celebrate the fulfillment of redemption.

Feast Time and Observance

The verse appoints the third annual feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, which followed the Day of Atonement, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month as a holy convocation and holy assembly on which no servile work was to be done. It was to be kept as a seven-day feast to the Lord with special offerings brought to the Lord, and it closed with another holy convocation on the twenty-second day. Its observance gathered the children of Israel about the tabernacle, and later in national life required journeying to Jerusalem and dwelling during the festival in booths made of boughs and branches of trees.

It was Israel's great national thanksgiving feast held after the harvest, a time of general rejoicing for the fruits of the earth. It commemorated deliverance from thralldom in Egypt, the land of darkness and sin and oppression, and Israel's wilderness wanderings. It also foreshadowed God's final harvest gathering of His people.

As the sixth annual sabbath, the first day of the feast, it was an annual ceremonial sabbath instituted after the fall at the time of the exodus. It was not the weekly seventh-day Sabbath instituted at creation before the fall. God did not rest on this day nor bless and sanctify it as He did the weekly Sabbath.

Sanctuary Service and Antitype

Numbers 29:12 belongs to the instructions for the annual feasts, new moons and appointed services that required additional sanctuary service and special offerings beyond the regular daily ministration. That added service was part of the year-round special work in the earthly sanctuary, performed during the annual Sabbaths, new moons and feasts within the priests' regular service in the holy place.

That special work belonged to the daily ministration carried on through the year in the first apartment, the holy place, by the Levitical priesthood. It stood alongside the regular morning and evening burnt offering, the morning and evening burning of sweet incense on the golden altar, the services for the Sabbaths of the Lord, and the particular offerings of individuals. By those individual sin offerings sin was transferred first to the victim and then to the sanctuary itself through confession of sin, the blood of the sacrifice, and the work of the priest as mediator. That whole earthly ministration in its two holy places was the example and shadow of Christ's more excellent ministry in the true tabernacle in heaven.

It was distinct from the yearly work on the tenth day of the seventh month in the most holy place for the sins of the people and for the cleansing of the sanctuary. Whether the appointed offerings occurred before or after the high priest's work is not stated in the Bible, so the offerings cannot prove that a preliminary work preceded the cleansing. It is part of the continual service of the earthly sanctuary, in which before the first advent every question of sin and its cleansing met its solution, and to do this its services were continual. In Numbers 28 and 29 the morning and evening sacrifices offered for the whole congregation every day of the year, never omitted because of any other offerings, are about sixteen times called the continual burnt offering. The continual comprehended the entire God-ordained service, with the continual showbread, the lamps burning continually, the perpetual incense, and the high priest bearing the judgment of Israel continually, and since the earthly sanctuary with all its services was a type or figure of the heavenly sanctuary which was its pattern, the term continual applies with equal force to the sanctuary above.

The daily sacrifices of the feast, shown in Numbers 29:12-40, were typical of Christ, but their presence on feast days did not make every day on which a sacrifice was offered a shadow. The shadowy significance of the annual Sabbaths came from the events associated with their appointment. The verse belongs to a chapter listing a great number of burnt offerings to be sacrificed, and since there was a drink-offering for every burnt offering with over a quart of strong wine poured out upon each lamb, the large number of sacrifices explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service.

The Feast of Tabernacles was Israel's great national thanksgiving feast held after the harvest with rejoicing for the fruits of the earth, commemorating Israel's wilderness wanderings, and it foreshadowed God's final harvest gathering of His people. It is a type of the antitypical feast of tabernacles at the New Jerusalem, when God's children commemorate final deliverance from the bondage of sin and death in spiritual Egypt. Then the purpose of God for the redemption of the fallen race is fulfilled, the hope of God's children in all ages is realized, and Christ and His ransomed ones celebrate the grand consummation of all things in the great antitypical feast.