Numbers 29:18, commentary and pictures

Numbers 29:18 belongs to the directions for the Feast of Tabernacles, the third annual feast beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and ending on the twenty-second with different offerings appointed for the successive days, directing that grain offerings and drink offerings for the bullocks, rams, and lambs be brought according to their number in the prescribed amount for each animal. Its opening and closing days were holy convocations on which servile work was forbidden, and the feast commemorated Israel's wilderness pilgrim life in booths of green branches while serving as the nation's great thanksgiving for the harvest and a foreshadowing of God's final ingathering of His people. It belongs to the regular priestly service and continual sanctuary service through the year, to the first grand division of the earthly ministration, the daily ministration in the holy place accomplished by the Levitical priesthood, distinct from the yearly Day of Atonement work in the most holy place. That earthly ministration serves unto the example and shadow of Christ's ministry in the true tabernacle, and its daily sacrifices were typical of Christ, while the obligation to observe these annual feasts ceased at His crucifixion when the law of ceremonies was nailed to the cross. It shows that the continual in Daniel 8 means the entire service of the earthly sanctuary as ordained by God, including sacrifice with its meat and drink offerings, the continual showbread, the lamps, the perpetual incense, and the high priest's bearing of judgment, which as type applies with equal force to the sanctuary above. By another reading the verse is placed on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, but since it does not say whether these offerings came before or after the high priest's work in the Most Holy Place, it cannot establish that they were preliminary to that work.

Feast Setting and Offerings

Numbers 29:18 belongs to the directions for the Feast of Tabernacles, the third annual feast of the Jews, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Tisri, and ending on the twenty-second day. Numbers 29:12-40 records the offerings appointed for that feast, with different offerings for the different successive days. It directs that the meat or grain offerings and the drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs were to be brought according to their number, after the manner, meaning in the prescribed amount for each animal. These were to be brought to the Lord on the annual sabbaths that opened and closed the feast and on the days between them.

The opening annual sabbath fell on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and the closing annual sabbath fell on the twenty-second day of the same month. Both were holy convocations on which servile work was forbidden. The feast commemorated Israel's wilderness wanderings and pilgrim life, when the people left their houses to dwell in booths made from green branches of goodly trees, palm branches, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook. It was the nation's great thanksgiving feast for the earth's harvest, held beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. At these yearly assemblies the hearts of old and young were encouraged in the service of God, and meeting with people from different parts of the land strengthened their ties to God and to one another. It foreshadowed God's final ingathering of His people.

The obligation to observe these annual feasts ceased at the crucifixion of Christ, when the law of ceremonies was nailed to the cross. Each burnt offering in Numbers 29 required its drink offering of strong wine, over a quart with each lamb, which was poured out upon the burnt offering and not drunk freely by priests and worshipers. The great total amount of wine thus required explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service. On another reading the verse belongs to the instructions for the offerings on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, but since it does not say whether these offerings took place before or after the high priest's work in the Most Holy Place, it cannot establish that they were preliminary to that work. The verse belongs to chapters telling of the ceremonies, service, wanderings, and murmurings of the children of Israel and shows the very strict order God had among His children.

Sanctuary Service and Meaning

The verse belongs to the appointed additional services for the Sabbaths of the Lord and the annual sabbaths, new moons, and feasts, as part of the regular priestly service in the earthly sanctuary. These special offerings at Israel's annual feasts belonged to the continual sanctuary service that accompanied the people's worship through the year. That work is the first grand division of the earthly ministration, the daily ministration and continual service in the holy place and first apartment through the year, accomplished by the Levitical order of priesthood. It stood alongside the morning and evening burnt offering, the burning of sweet incense, the Sabbath offerings, and the individual offerings, and was distinct from the yearly Day of Atonement work in the most holy place.

This earthly ministration serves unto the example and shadow of a like work in heaven, shadowing forth Christ's ministry in the true tabernacle. Its daily sacrifices, including the grain and drink offerings accompanying the bulls, rams, and lambs prescribed according to their number on the successive days of the Feast of Tabernacles, were typical of Christ. Yet the presence of these typical sacrifices on a day did not make every such day a Sabbath or a shadow, any more than offerings on annual Sabbaths did.

The verse belongs to the morning and evening sacrifices offered for the whole congregation every day of the year and never omitted for any other offerings, called about sixteen times in Numbers 28 and 29 the continual burnt offering. It shows that the continual in Daniel 8 means the entire service of the earthly sanctuary as ordained by God, including sacrifice with its meat and drink offerings, the continual showbread, the lamps burning continually, the perpetual incense, and the high priest bearing judgment continually. Because the earthly sanctuary with all its appointments and services is a type or figure of the heavenly sanctuary, the term applies with equal force to the sanctuary above. The full force of the prophecy applies there since the earthly sanctuary and its priesthood had ended before the power in Daniel 8 began its work.