Numbers 29:30

And their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:

It lays down that the grain and drink accompaniments for the bulls, rams, and lambs of the day were to match their number and follow the appointed order. It stands within the directions of Numbers 29:12-39 for Israel's seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, kept as a national thanksgiving feast from the fifteenth to the twenty-second day of the seventh month. That feast was the third annual feast, beginning on the fifteenth day of Tisri to recall the wilderness pilgrimage when Israel dwelt in booths of green, palm, and thick branches and willows, binding old and young together in God's service. These added feast offerings belonged to the sanctuary's regular yearly round of continual ministry in the holy place by the Levitical priesthood, over and above the daily services and offerings for individuals. The daily sacrifices then offered were typical of Christ, yet their offering on a day did not make that day a Sabbath, and the obligation to keep these feasts with their offerings ended when the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross at His crucifixion.

Feast Setting and Wording

The grain and drink offerings that went with the bulls, rams, and lambs were to be supplied in the amounts appointed for each number of animals, according to the prescribed manner. These were the additional public offerings appointed for the annual feasts, part of the regular yearly schedule of special services. The chapter to which the direction belongs deals throughout with offerings.

The direction stands within the detailed instructions of Numbers 29:12-39 for Israel's seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, a national thanksgiving feast. That feast ran from the fifteenth day of the seventh month to the twenty-second day, reckoned as the sixth annual sabbath and the seventh annual sabbath. Both days were days of holy convocation on which servile work was forbidden, and various kinds of offerings were brought on those two days as well as on the days between them. The laws prescribe the grain and drink offerings for the bullocks, rams, and lambs for the different days of that feast.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the third annual feast of the Jews, beginning on the fifteenth day of Tisri. It commemorated Israel's pilgrim life in the wilderness, when the people left their houses to dwell in booths made of green branches, palm branches, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook. These yearly assemblies encouraged the hearts of old and young in the service of God and strengthened the ties binding the people from different parts of the land to God and to one another. By another reckoning the verse belongs instead to the instructions for offerings on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. On that reckoning it does not state whether those offerings came before or after the high priest's work in the most holy place, so it does not establish that they preceded that work.

The great number of burnt offerings shown by the grain offering and drink offerings for bullocks, rams, and lambs according to their number illustrates the multitude of offerings required in Numbers 29. The drink offering was strong fermented wine, over a quart for each lamb, always poured out upon the burnt offering and never drunk by priests or worshipers. Since there was a drink offering for every burnt offering, that multitude explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service.

Sanctuary Ministry and Significance

The verse belongs to the additional offerings appointed for the annual feasts, the annual Sabbaths, the Sabbaths of the Lord, and the new moons. Those additional offerings formed part of the sanctuary's regular cycle of daily ministration and continual ministry through the year in the holy place by the Levitical priesthood. They were special priestly service performed in addition to the regular daily services and the offerings for individuals, with the prescribed offerings of Numbers 29 and their accompanying grain and drink offerings forming the priests' special work on those occasions.

The daily sacrifices required during the Feast of Tabernacles, like those offered on other days, were typical of Christ, but their being offered on a day did not make that day a Sabbath or a shadow. The verse is one of about sixteen places in Numbers 28 and 29 where the morning and evening sacrifices offered for the whole congregation every day of the year and never omitted for any other offerings are called the continual burnt offering. The continual comprehends the entire divinely ordained service of the earthly sanctuary, which in all its appointments and services is a figure of the heavenly sanctuary. The term therefore applies with equal force to the sanctuary above and identifies what Daniel 8 says was taken away.

The verse belongs to the laws prescribing the grain offerings and drink offerings for the bullocks, rams, and lambs for the different days of the Feast of Tabernacles. That feast was the third annual feast, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month Tisri and ending on the twenty-second day, commemorating Israel's pilgrim life in the wilderness when the people left their houses to dwell in booths made of green branches, palm branches, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook. These yearly assemblies encouraged the hearts of old and young in the service of God and strengthened the ties binding the people from different parts of the land to God and to one another. The obligation to observe these annual feasts with their offerings ceased at the crucifixion of Christ, when the law of ceremonies was nailed to the cross.

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