Numbers 29:19, commentary and pictures

This verse appoints one extra young goat as a sin offering for a day of the Feast of Tabernacles, in addition to the regular daily burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. It belongs to the continual year-round service carried on in the holy place by the Levitical priesthood, going forward day after day, week after week, and month after month with the morning and evening offerings, the incense, and the Sabbath, new moon, and feast offerings. These were general offerings apart from individual offerings for personal guilt, by which sin was transferred through the victim and its blood to the sanctuary itself, so that the sanctuary had to be cleansed by the separate yearly work of the high priest in the most holy place. That earthly holy-place ministration with all its appointments was a type and shadow of the more excellent ministry of Christ in the true heavenly tabernacle, and its prescribed sacrifices were typical of Christ. The daily morning and evening sacrifice called the continual was offered for the whole congregation every day of the year and was never omitted for any other offering, comprehending the entire divinely ordained sanctuary service whose counterpart continues above.

Words and Feast Setting

The wording appoints a single kid of the goats as a sin offering, set beside the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offerings. It belongs to the special work appointed for the annual feasts, distinct from the offerings for individuals. The schedule to which it belongs is the appointed additional offerings for the annual feasts, offered in the regular ministration alongside the morning and evening burnt offerings and the other scheduled services. More particularly it is part of the instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles, among the special offerings brought during the annual feast days in addition to the regular daily sacrifices.

That feast, the third annual feast, was kept from the fifteenth day of the seventh month Tisri through the twenty-second day in memory of Israel's pilgrim life in the wilderness. It was kept as a seven-day season of rejoicing and thanksgiving to God for the fruits of the earth, with rejoicing of the household with servants, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. The people dwelt in booths made of green branches in commemoration of the wanderings in the wilderness. It was the great thanksgiving feast of Israel and the first national thanksgiving days, and because the nation was the church the national feast was really the feast of the church. On every seventh year the law was read at this feast. It was typical of the great harvest home of God, when the weary pilgrims to Zion will wander no more and the ingathering of God will have taken place.

Its required observance, as part of the ceremonial law, ceased at the crucifixion of Christ when the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross. The Bible does not establish whether the offerings for the tenth day were made before or after the high priest's work in the most holy place, and it does not specifically explain the timing of the offering in this verse. Each burnt offering in Numbers 29 had its drink offering of strong fermented wine poured out upon the burnt offering, over a quart with each lamb, and not drunk freely by priests and worshipers, which explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service.

Sanctuary Ministration and Meaning

The appointment belongs to the first grand division of the earthly sanctuary ministration, the continual service in the holy place carried on through the year by the Levitical priesthood. It stands with the regular morning and evening burnt offering, the morning and evening burning of sweet incense on the golden altar, the Sabbath offerings, and the additional offerings appointed for the annual sabbaths, new moons, and feasts. That round went forward continuously day after day, week after week, and month after month as part of the yearly round.

These were general sacrifices offered apart from individual offerings for personal guilt. By individual offerings sin was transferred first to the victim and then through its blood to the sanctuary itself. Because sins were thus transferred to the sanctuary all through the year, the sanctuary had to be cleansed by the yearly work of the high priest in the most holy place, distinct from the continual holy-place work.

That holy-place ministration serves unto the example and shadow of a like work in heaven. It is the example and shadow of Christ's more excellent ministry in the true tabernacle. For the earthly sanctuary with all its appointments and services was a type or figure of the heavenly sanctuary made after its pattern.

These prescribed sacrifices, like the other prescribed sacrifices, were typical of Christ. They were ceremonial observances distinct from the weekly Sabbath. Their presence on an annual Sabbath did not make the weekly Sabbath a type or shadow.

The morning and evening sacrifices are called the continual burnt offering in about sixteen places in Numbers 28 and 29. They were offered for the entire congregation every day of the year and were never omitted on account of any other offerings. The continual comprehends the entire service of the earthly sanctuary as ordained by God, including the continual showbread, the lamps burning continually, the perpetual incense, and the high priest bearing the judgment of Israel continually. The term applies with equal force to the sanctuary above, where the prophecy about taking away the continual finds its force because the earthly sanctuary with its priesthood had ended before that power began its work.