Numbers 29:9, commentary and pictures

Numbers 29:9 prescribes the grain offering to accompany the burnt offering for the Day of Atonement, fine flour mixed with oil in the measure of three tenths of an ephah for each bullock and two tenths for each ram. It belongs to the special sacrifices appointed for the tenth day of the seventh month, the most solemn yearly sabbath when all work ceased and the sanctuary was cleansed of the sins borne into it through the year. It shows that burnt offerings with their grain offerings were made for the people on that day in addition to the sin offerings of the atonement itself, together with the regular daily service that was never omitted. The blood of this whole system of offerings typified the blood of Christ, with the many offerings together representing the complete work accomplished by it, and the earthly daily and yearly service shadowing a like work in the heavenly sanctuary. The central work of the day was performed in the holiest, so its antitype must begin on the tenth day of the seventh month of its year, yet the sacrifices that pointed to Christ's death were met once for all in his death and cannot have separate fulfillments afterward requiring him to die again.

Day of Atonement Offerings

The grain offering that accompanied the burnt offering was flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals of an ephah of fine flour for a bullock and two tenth deals for a ram. These measures belonged to the offerings made on that day in addition to the sin offering for cleansing the sanctuary and the continual burnt offering. The direction stands among the special sacrifices and services appointed for the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. That day was the most sacred annual sabbath, when work was forbidden and the sanctuary was cleansed from the sins transferred to it during the year.

Offerings were made on the Day of Atonement as well as on other days, in addition to the specific atonement offering. On the tenth day of the seventh month a bullock and rams were offered for a burnt offering besides the sin offerings of the day, alongside the ordinary daily sacrifices, the continual burnt offering, and the feast's special general offerings, as an offering made for the people. The grain measure therefore shows an offering made on that day in addition to the atonement offering itself.

The appointment belongs to the additional offerings for the Lord's Sabbaths, annual sabbaths and feasts, and new moons. Those added offerings were part of the regular, continual daily ministration of the earthly sanctuary in the court and tabernacle and holy place through the year. They were distinct from the individual offerings by which a guilty sinner obtained pardon, and were carried on with the morning and evening sacrifice and incense. That earthly daily work through the year was performed by the Levitical priesthood in the holy place of the earthly tabernacle.

The text does not say whether these burnt offerings and their grain offerings were made before the high priest entered the most holy place or after he came out. One of the rams was burning on the altar while the high priest went into the most holy place with the blood of the bullock to make atonement for himself and his house, before he went in a second time with the blood of the goat to make atonement for the people. Service by the lower priests as well as the high priest continued during that work. During the atonement service individuals did not bring their ordinary offerings at the sanctuary entrance, because the people were represented by the priest's offering and their attention was to remain on the atonement, yet those who still had unconfessed sins could bring a sin offering and be forgiven.

The appointment belongs to the list in Numbers 28 and 29 showing the great number of burnt offerings, each with its wine drink-offering poured out upon the burnt offering and not drunk by priests or worshipers, which explains why wine is mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service. The morning and evening sacrifices for the whole congregation every day of the year were never omitted because of any other offerings and are called about sixteen times the continual burnt offering. With the continual showbread, the lamps to burn continually, the perpetual incense, and the high priest bearing Israel's judgment continually, this shows the continual comprehended the entire sanctuary service.

Type, Antitype, and Fulfillment

The blood of the whole system of offerings typified the blood of Christ, and the many offerings together represented the complete work accomplished by that blood. The daily ministration carried on through the year by the Levitical priesthood in the earthly tabernacle, including the additional work appointed for the Sabbaths of the Lord and the annual sabbaths, new moons and feasts, was the example and shadow of a like work in heaven in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, under the Melchisedec priesthood in Christ. The entire earthly service in all its appointments, with its morning and evening sacrifices for the whole congregation every day of the year never omitted because of any other offerings, its continual burnt offering named about sixteen times, its continual showbread, its lamps to burn continually, its perpetual incense, and the high priest bearing Israel's judgment continually, was a type or figure of the heavenly sanctuary of which it was the pattern, so the continual comprehends the entire sanctuary service and applies with equal force to the sanctuary above.

The grand central work of the Day of Atonement was performed in the holiest, so its antitype must commence on the tenth day of the seventh month of some year, though like the Passover and Pentecost it may then extend forward a great distance. The order of the burnt offerings and related offerings appointed for that day is not stated as before or after the high priest's entry into the most holy place, so it gives no proof of a long preliminary work before the work in the holiest that would delay the cleansing of the sanctuary past the end of the 2300 days. The same kind of burnt offerings belonged to the day of firstfruits and the feast of weeks, yet Christ our Passover sacrificed on the fourteenth of the first month, his resurrection on the day of firstfruits, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost each met its type exactly on time, showing that added offerings do not keep the great event of the day from meeting its antitype on the day pointed out in the type. The sacrifices associated with these offerings point to Christ's death, which was once for all, so they cannot have separate antitypes occurring after the 2300 days since that would require Christ to die again, and the Passover sacrifice offered on the day he died is the sacrifice that pointed to his death in time.

The Day of Atonement represented a period of years, and the blood of the Lord's goat removing confessed sins from the sanctuary prefigured the final blotting out of the righteous' sins from heaven's books. The fact that the priest had to offer for his own sins, with one ram burning on the altar while the high priest went in with the bullock's blood for himself and his house and then a second time with the goat's blood for the people, does not mean Christ must enter twice or offer for himself, for Christ knew no sin. The law is only a shadow of good things to come and not the very image, and Christ fulfills all that part of the shadow that concerns the sins of the people with no offering for himself. The appointed measure of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals of an ephah for a bullock and two tenth deals for a ram, belongs to the ritual pattern and is not a model for matching particular prayers or confessions to individual offerings.