Numbers 29:7, commentary and pictures

Numbers 29:7 appoints the tenth day of the seventh month as a holy convocation for the Day of Atonement, when the people were to afflict their souls and do no work therein. It was a twenty-four hour Sabbath of rest kept from evening to evening, the most sacred annual Sabbath, observed with fasting and prayer and solemn humbling before God. On that day the year's service reached its culmination when the high priest entered the most holy place and cleansed the sanctuary of the sins transferred to it during the year. The blood of the Lord's goat removed confessed sins from the sanctuary, representing Christ's final blotting out of the sins of the righteous from the books of heaven, yet forgiveness remained available while the work went forward so that sinners could still confess and be pardoned. Its antitype must begin on the day represented by the type but then extends forward through the investigative judgment, when each case is decided and those who refuse to humble themselves are cut off.

The Tenth Day Observed

The tenth day of the seventh month was a holy convocation for the Day of Atonement, when the people were to afflict their souls and do no work therein. It was the Hebrews' annual Sabbath and the yearly date of the cleansing of the sanctuary, when the high priest entered the most holy place and made atonement for the people and the sanctuary. On that day the people were cleansed and their sins blotted out before God, as they humbled themselves before Him in fasting and solemn observance.

The day lasted twenty-four hours, beginning at sunset on the ninth day. It was observed as a Sabbath of rest from evening to evening. It was the most sacred annual Sabbath, kept with fasting and prayer and solemn humbling before God.

It was the one fast required by the law for the year. Other fasts were kept in commemoration of great national calamities, but the law itself commanded only this yearly fast, in contrast to the Pharisees' custom of fasting every Monday and Thursday between Passover and Pentecost and between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Dedication as being righteous overmuch.

With the holy convocation were appointed a burnt offering of a bullock, a ram, and seven lambs with their grain offerings, as well as a goat for a sin offering in addition to the sin offering of atonement and the continual burnt offering. These are the offerings listed for the people on that day, shown in Numbers 29:7-11 in addition to the atonement offering. The continual offering included one lamb in the morning and one in the evening, and these and the other offerings continued while the high priest carried out the sanctuary cleansing.

The regular daily and general sacrifices continued on that day, along with the day's special general offerings and the specific atonement offering. This included a ram that was burning while the high priest entered the most holy place. Even on this day the daily continual was never omitted, though the morning and evening sacrifices were offered for the entire congregation every day of the year without omission for any other offerings. Called about sixteen times the continual burnt offering, it comprehends the entire service ordained for the earthly sanctuary as a figure of the heavenly sanctuary made after its pattern, so that the term continual applies with equal force to the sanctuary above.

This appointed service belonged to the special work for the Lord's Sabbaths and the annual Sabbaths, new moons, and feasts. It was accomplished continually in the first tabernacle, the holy place, through the year by the Levitical priesthood, alongside the regular morning and evening burnt offering, the burning of sweet incense on the golden altar, and the particular offerings of individuals. As the example and shadow of a like work in heaven, it formed part of the sanctuary's regular yearly ministration and the first grand division of the Levitical ministration in the two holy places, distinct from the yearly work afterward done in the most holy place for the people's sins and the sanctuary's cleansing.

The Atonement Accomplished

The tenth day of the seventh month is the date of the yearly cleansing of the sanctuary, when the year's service reached its culmination. On that day the high priest entered the most holy place and made atonement for the people and the sanctuary. The sanctuary was finally atoned for by being cleansed of the sins transferred to it during the year through sin offerings.

The blood of the Lord's goat removed confessed sins from the sanctuary, representing Christ's final blotting out of the righteous' sins from heaven's books. On that day the people were cleansed and their sins blotted out before God. Because only confessed sins were thus removed, sin offerings were also made on that day as on other days, showing the Day of Atonement represented a period of years.

Forgiveness remained available during the day's services, so that anyone with unconfessed sins could bring a sin offering and be forgiven. Offerings were made while the high priest performed the goat's blood service and after he completed it. These continuing offerings show that the whole day remained a time when sinners could find pardon and that mercy had not ended while sins were being blotted out.

The animals slain in these offerings typified Christ's death. Since Christ died once for all they cannot each have separate fulfillments after the 2,300 days, for that would require Christ to die repeatedly. The Lamb of God is the offering presented in the antitypical Day of Atonement, and through his blood believers gain victory over every besetment and sin.

The verse places the offerings on the tenth day of the seventh month but does not say whether they came before the high priest's work in the most holy place or after he came out, and the Bible is silent on their order. They are mere preliminary and circumstantial offerings that do not delay or divide the antitype. They do not establish that a preliminary work had to precede the work in the most holy place. The central work of the day took place in the most holy place, and its antitype must begin on the day represented by the type, though it may continue for a long time. Like the Passover, firstfruits, and Pentecost, which met fulfillment exactly as to time, it begins on the day of the type but then extends forward a great distance corresponding to its magnitude and importance.

The specified bullock, ram, and seven lambs cannot be used to argue that prayers and confessions are now being offered like those sacrifices and that the cleansing of the sanctuary must therefore be deferred. That comparison would require explaining how confessions correspond to those animals.

The Antitype Applied

The tenth day of the seventh month was a holy convocation for humbling of soul with no work done therein, and its provision for forgiveness during the services belongs to the time of the investigative judgment. On that day anyone still holding unconfessed sins could bring a sin offering and obtain pardon, so mercy had not yet closed while the work of atonement went forward. In the same way repentant sinners in the investigative judgment may still confess their sins and receive forgiveness through Christ.

The day was solemn, requiring the people to cease from labor, assemble at the sanctuary, and humble themselves before God. Refusal to obey brought cutting off from the people, which was loss of probation. The day therefore represented judgment and sealing, because each person's case was decided by the course followed on that day.