Numbers 29:33
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: 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:
The verse directs that the grain and drink accompaniments for the bulls, rams, and lambs be brought in amounts suited to their number and in the appointed way. It belongs to the laws for the successive days of the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, the great thanksgiving feast that recalled the wilderness wandering, gave thanks for harvest, and pointed to God's final gathering of His people. These were added special offerings for annual holy days, feasts, Sabbaths, and new moons, offered alongside the regular morning and evening offerings as part of the priests' year-round daily ministration in the holy place, distinct from the yearly cleansing service. Like those offered on Sabbaths, these daily sacrifices were types of Christ, yet their presence did not make every day a Sabbath or a shadow. The drink portion with each sacrifice was strong wine, over a quart for each lamb, always poured out upon the burnt offering, which explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the many sacrifices of the sanctuary service.
Feast Setting and Wording
Numbers 29:33 belongs to the laws for the different successive days of the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, the nation's great thanksgiving feast. That feast recalled Israel's wilderness wanderings, gave thanks for the earth's harvest, and pointed to God's final ingathering of His people. These daily sacrifices, like those offered on Sabbaths, were types of Christ, but their presence did not make every day a Sabbath or a shadow.
The fifteenth day of the seventh month was the sixth annual Sabbath corresponding to the first day of the feast, and the twenty-second day of the same month was the seventh annual Sabbath closing the feast. Israel was to hold holy convocations on those days with servile work forbidden, and various kinds of offerings were brought on those days as well as on the intervening days. Unlike the weekly seventh-day Sabbath instituted at creation before the fall, on which God rested and which He blessed and sanctified, these annual sabbaths were instituted after the fall at the time of the exodus.
The verse specifies that the grain and drink offerings accompanying the bulls, rams, and lambs were to correspond to their number and follow the prescribed manner. Their amounts were prescribed according to the number of animals offered, as part of the special sanctuary service for the appointed annual feasts.
On another reading the verse belongs instead to the instructions for the offerings on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. On that reading it specifies that the grain and drink offerings with the bulls, rams, and lambs were to be made according to their prescribed number and manner. It does not say whether these offerings took place before or after the high priest's work in the Most Holy Place, so it cannot establish that they were preliminary rites performed before that work, and their timing does not determine when the central Day of Atonement work began.
Sanctuary Ministry and Application
The verse is part of the additional special offerings appointed for annual holy days, feasts, Sabbaths and new moons, set alongside the regular morning and evening offerings and the incense service. These appointed additions formed part of the priests' year-round ministration in the earthly sanctuary. That additional work belonged to the daily ministration in the holy place, accomplished by the Levitical order of priesthood, and was distinct from the regular offerings and from the yearly cleansing service. With the bulls, rams and lambs of the feast offerings it requires grain and drink offerings whose amounts were prescribed according to the number of animals offered.
These daily sacrifices offered on successive feast days, like those offered on Sabbaths, were types of Christ, but their presence did not make every day a Sabbath or a shadow. The morning and evening sacrifices offered for the whole congregation every day of the year and never omitted because of any other offerings are about sixteen times called the continual burnt offering. The continual comprehends the entire service of the earthly sanctuary as ordained by God, and that service in all its appointments is a figure of the heavenly sanctuary, so the term continual applies with equal force to the sanctuary above. The entire force of the prophecy of taking away the continual in Daniel 8 applies there, because the earthly sanctuary with its priesthood had ended its work before that power began its work.
The meat offering and drink offerings required with the bullocks, rams and lambs according to their number belong to the great number of burnt offerings listed in Numbers 29. The drink offering with each sacrifice was strong wine, over a quart with each lamb, and it was always poured out upon the burnt offering, not drunk freely by priests and worshipers. Because there were drink offerings for every burnt offering, the large number of sacrifices explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service. With its context in Numbers 28 to 30 it presses the question whether vows are being faithfully kept.