And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Chapter 14 ended with a verdict: the people who refused the land would not enter it. Then God speaks to Moses again. What He says next treats them as people who will live in that land.
This chapter looks out of place until you see what surrounds it. One writer sets it between two stages of Israel's collapse:
The children of Israel had despised the pleasant land. They had quarrelled with the manna, the food given to them by God (chapter 11). They had slighted the promises of God about the good land, though the spies brought them a sample of it (chapters 13, 14). And in chapter 16 we find them in open rebellion and apostasy, falling away in the rebellion of Korah. This was not merely failure, which brought chastisement, but open rebellion, and God cut them off in their sins. It is between these two things that this fifteenth chapter comes in.
Another writer finds a deeper order in the odd placing, and notes that the promise comes twice:
A chapter follows which might seem extraordinary at first sight. It is a sample of that apparent disorder in the word of God which is only an example of a higher and divine order... The same promise is repeated in the middle of the chapter. This was His answer to the unbelief which thought that all must perish — a double witness that God would surely bring them in. Unbelief along the way did not turn aside His love, and neither did unbelief about the end, for they had despised the pleasant land. He speaks of their future offerings of pleasing aroma in the land of promise, and this for the foreigner just as for the Israelite. Here the grace of God runs over...
Notice the calm of the One speaking:
In the middle of all this comes chapter 15. In it we learn that God goes on in His purpose as calmly and quietly as if there had never been the despising of the land... His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. After telling them of chastisement, He says, You shall come into the land; it is settled with Me; I go on in the steadfastness of My own counsels... What is blessed to see is not that the LORD will hold back chastening in the way of government, for He does say, "As I live... what you have said in my hearing I will do to you." What is blessed is that He never gives up His purpose, though He deals with the heart according to its unbelief.
Two opposite sentences stand side by side here, and both are true:
When we read the solemn sentence, "you shall not come into the land," what is the plain lesson it reads out to us? The lesson, which we are so slow to learn, of man's utter worthlessness. "All flesh is grass."... And when we read such words as these, "When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you," what is the precious lesson they read out to us? This, certainly, that salvation comes from the LORD. In the one, we learn man's failure; in the other, God's faithfulness. If we look at man's side of the question, the sentence is, "Doubtless you shall not come into the land." But if we look at God's side of the question, we can reverse the matter, and say, "Doubtless you shall."
The same writer gives the reason the second verdict holds:
Because Christ has entered the scene, and in Him all is infallibly secured for the glory of God and the eternal blessing of man... There is not a single thing in which the first man has failed that the second Man will not make good.
The promise rests on something outside Israel:
It was necessary for Him to chasten Israel. Yet He makes it clear here that Israel will definitely come into their own land, and He gives provision for their true well-being at that time. His counsels of grace stand. They rest not on Israel's obedience, but on what the offerings speak of: the perfection of the person of Christ and the perfection of His work of sacrifice.
One writer draws out who this chapter is really about:
But their own blessings in the land are not the subject before us in this chapter. The subject is the Blesser. He looks ahead to those whom He has blessed coming to Him in the joy of worship. At rest in the land they are to inhabit, their happy service will be to make a pleasing aroma to the LORD. No doubt there will be holy gatherings and appointed times in which they can offer. But what He looks for here are the free-will offerings of thankful hearts, given apart from any fixed season.
One writer warns against reading the chapter as comfort only:
While the reference to their possession of the land at this time — when they have just refused it and been turned back from it — is a plain encouragement to faith and an assurance of the unfailing grace of God toward the people, there are also in it, if we look deeper, principles of divine government... How God maintains His grace and yet His government we find very clearly.
- Timing. Chapter 15 sits between the despising of the land and open rebellion. The order is not untidy; it is a higher order.
- Tone. God speaks as calmly as if there had been no rebellion at all; He chastises, but never gives up His purpose.
- Two verdicts. "Doubtless you shall not" is man's side. "Doubtless you shall" is God's side. Both are true.
- Ground. The promise rests on Christ — His person and His sacrifice — not on Israel's obedience.
- Goal. God aims at worship, not bare arrival: free-will offerings from thankful hearts, from the foreigner as well as the Israelite.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of your dwellings, which I give unto you,
Israel had just refused the land, and God had sworn that the generation who despised it would die in the wilderness. So why does chapter 15 open with instructions for the day they will be living in that very land?
Read the chapters on either side, and the placement of these words becomes the point. One writer traces the sequence:
Before this verse comes the murmuring of the children of Israel, and their refusal to go into this very land — their absolute refusal. After it comes the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. On one side is the deliberate refusal of the people to enter into their blessing. On the other is their rebellion and turning away from their leader. And what do you have in between? "When you come into the land." I may fail. I may turn back to Egypt in unbelief. My poor heart may rebel against the grace that has given me such a leader and high priest. But let unbelief and refusal stand on either side — in between, in the very heart of the book, is this precious assurance.
God gives directions for the land without a backward glance at what has just happened.
In the middle of all this comes chapter 15. There we learn that God goes on in His purpose as calmly and quietly as if the despising of the land had never happened. In the second verse He says, "When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you." His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. He speaks in the calmness of His own purpose. After telling them of chastisement, He says: you shall come into the land. It is settled with Me. I go on in the steadfastness of My own counsels... Your rebellions would have sinned away the land, but I have given it to you. It is not a sin-offering you are to bring, but a burnt-offering. You are accepted, and you are going to worship Me there.
Israel's unbelief had concluded that everyone must perish:
This was a fresh pledge of bringing them into Canaan... So He repeats it in the middle of the chapter, telling Israel again that He will bring them into the land. This was His answer to the unbelief that thought all must perish — a double witness that God would surely bring them in.
Two opposite sentences stand over the same people. Both are true, because each looks from a different side.
If we look at man's side of the question, the sentence is, "You shall certainly not come into the land." But look at God's side, and we can reverse it: "You certainly shall."
God's side holds for a reason, and the reason is not in the people:
His counsels of grace stand. They rest not on Israel's obedience, but on what the offerings speak of — the perfection of the person of Christ and the perfection of His work of sacrifice. Such things need repeating over and over, because we are so slow to appreciate what they mean.
The promise does not cancel the discipline. Both stand together:
God speaks of their possessing the land just when they have refused it and been turned back from it. That is a plain encouragement to faith and an assurance of the unfailing grace of God toward the people. Look deeper, and there are also principles of divine government in it, which apply most plainly to the history... How God maintains His grace and yet His government, we find very clearly here.
The promise comes with a picture of life in the land — and that life reaches past Israel:
It speaks of the offerings of righteousness they are invited to bring to Him of their own free will. It speaks of the wine of joy that was to go with these offerings. And since this is grace, the love of God reaches out beyond Israel. He brings the stranger near to His people, and makes one law for both.
God teaches the practice of the land before they reach it:
He would bring His people in, and He would teach them in the wilderness their practice for the land. This is striking and remarkable indeed. Here we may challenge our hearts and ask a question. Are we aware enough that in the wilderness we are being taught our practice for the glory?
- Placement. Refusal stands before this verse and rebellion after it; the promise of the land sits in between.
- Purpose. God speaks of arrival as calmly as if the despising of the land had never occurred, and says it twice in one chapter.
- Ground. The certainty rests on Christ — His person and His sacrifice — not on Israel's obedience.
- Balance. Grace and government run side by side: the discipline is real, the promise is unbroken.
- Practice. The wilderness trains them for the land, and one law covers Israel and the stranger alike.
and will make an offering by fire to Jehovah, a burnt-offering or a sacrifice for the performance of a vow, or as a voluntary offering, or in your set feasts, to make a sweet odour to Jehovah, of the herd or of the flock,
Israel had just refused the land, and God had told that whole generation they would die in the wilderness. His next word to them is about the day they will live in Canaan and bring Him offerings. This verse names the occasions for those offerings and their purpose: to make what older translations call "a sweet savour" and the ESV calls "a pleasing aroma to the LORD."
Where this instruction sits matters. God speaks as though Israel's failure had changed nothing about His plan.
After all this unbelief from the people, you might have supposed they had lost the land for ever. So it is beautiful, in chapter 15, to see the Lord return to the perfect rest of His purposes fixed beforehand, and of His unchanging being. He gives instructions about the time when the people will have entered the land He has given them. The chapter speaks of the offerings of righteousness they are invited to bring to Him of their own free will.
That certainty has to rest on something, and it is not on the people who had just failed.
He had to discipline Israel. Even so, He makes it clear here that Israel will certainly come into their own land (v.2), and He provides for their true well-being at that time. His purposes of grace stand, because they rest not on Israel's obedience but on what the offerings speak of: the perfection of the person of Christ and the perfection of His work of sacrifice.
The verse names a vow, a freewill offering, and the appointed feasts. Each describes a different moment in which a heart moves toward God.
These offerings were to come from hearts touched by a sense of Jehovah's goodness, from people who wanted to do what gave Him pleasure, as the burnt offering shows. A vow was a special mark of devotion to the will of God. A freewill offering was the simple desire to give God something back for His generosity and goodness. The solemn feasts stirred the hearts of God's people, as fitting times to serve Him who constantly served them from resources that never run out.
The verse names a burnt offering and a sacrifice. The difference between the two lies in who receives the animal.
Basically, all were voluntary offerings, and they fell into two classes: burnt offerings or peace offerings. In the burnt offering, Jehovah had the whole of it. In the peace offering, the family of the priests, the priest who offered it, and the offerer all shared with Jehovah what was offered in sacrifice to Him. In other words, the burnt offering was a sacrifice of worship to Jehovah, and the peace offering a sacrifice of communion.
The verse gives the reason for the offering — its aroma. Fire is what produced it.
The burnt offering was a "sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour to Jehovah," Lev. 1:9. The more the fire searched it, the more its sweetness came out before God. It was the same with Christ. The fire of God's holiness came down and tested and searched all that was within Him, and it only brought out a "sweet savour" to God. This is our acceptance too. It is in this value that we go up to God. Being there, we have communion of worship and fellowship before Him.
The freewill character of the offering points beyond the Israelite bringing it.
The burnt offering stands for Christ. He willingly offered up His life to God as a sweet savour. "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." When divine love comes down here, it always goes back up as self-sacrifice. God acts in love; Christ walked in love; and divine love acting in man offers itself a sweet savour to God.
What a worshipper could afford varied. What God thought of the offering did not.
A bullock was an animal of some value; a dove was a living creature of very little value in money. Some might afford a bird who could not afford a bullock. The Lord would receive it at their hands, and whether of the herd, of the flock, or of birds, it was in each case an offering made by fire of a sweet savour to the Lord... at God's altar the offerer was accepted, not according to how much he understood of the death of Christ, but according to God's estimate of it.
- Purpose — God answers Israel's unbelief with plans for the land. His purpose rests on Christ's perfection, not on Israel's obedience.
- Freedom — a vow, a freewill gift, a feast-day offering: each comes from a heart that has felt God's goodness.
- Fragrance — the fire tested the offering and drew out its sweetness. God accepts the worshipper in that same value.
- Fellowship — the burnt offering gave God the whole animal, and that is worship. The shared offering is communion.
- Measure — herd or flock, large or small: God valued the offering by His own estimate, never by the offerer's.
then shall he that presenteth his offering to Jehovah bring as oblation a tenth part of fine flour mingled with a fourth part of a hin of oil;
Israel was still under sentence in the wilderness when God told them what to bring Him once they reached the land. This verse names the smallest of those gifts: fine flour worked through with oil. Why did a bloodless gift have to travel with every animal sacrifice? And why did God fix the amount so exactly?
The placement of this law is striking.
The opening words of Numbers 15 are certainly remarkable. The people had just been told that their stay in the wilderness would be stretched out to forty years. Their self-willed effort to dodge this and push their way in at once was completely driven back. And the next thing is the issuing of regulations to take effect "when you come into the land of your dwellings, which I give to you." In speaking this way, God made it plain that His purpose about them stood firm despite all that they had done, and that He would bring them in at last. The Lord then spoke particularly of certain secondary offerings that were to go with the major offerings.
No one could bring the flour and oil by itself. It had to go with a sacrifice, and each offering gave what the other did not.
The grain offering was never offered alone, but always along with a blood offering. The burnt offering would mean the offerer recognised that God is glorified by the work of the Lord Jesus in sacrificing Himself at Calvary. But we may value His sacrifice while not valuing the perfection of His person. The grain offering therefore reminds us of this. In every detail of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus expressed the perfection of human righteousness.
The link runs the other way too.
We read in Numbers 15:4, 6, 9 that offerings by fire had to be accompanied by grain offerings. This fact shows that Christ's sacrifice would not have been possible without His perfect life on earth. The two belonged together.
God chose both ingredients for what they are like.
Now nothing is softer and more even and less gritty than fine flour. So it is a most fitting picture of the smooth and flawless perfection of the earthly life of "the man Christ Jesus." Also the oil here, as elsewhere, pictures the Holy Spirit of God, in whose power the Lord Jesus went out on His unmatched path of service.
One writer explains what this offering pictures, and why it made no atonement.
This offering is the picture of Christ in His perfect humanity and holy, devoted character. It was not for atonement, just as the holy humanity of Christ and the devotedness of His life could not atone for sins. It is called "most holy," for in His humanity He was "that holy thing." The oil was connected in a twofold way with this offering. The fine flour was mingled with oil. This pictures the incarnation, His conception by the Holy Spirit, His whole being filled with the Spirit. It is a wonderful illustration of Luke 1:35.
The quantity is not arbitrary.
The usual measure was the ephah, one tenth of which was an omer, the food of one man (Ex. 16:16, 36). In the grain offering, the fine flour that went with the burnt offering was in proportion to the size and importance of the animal. So for a lamb, the offerer gave one tenth measure, that is one omer. For a ram, two tenths, or one fifth. For a bull, three tenths, "three measures of fine flour," which speak of the fulness of Christ.
The scale carries a lesson for the worshipper.
The different amounts that went with the different offerings teach us something. The larger our understanding of the sacrifice of Christ, the greater our thankful response should be.
This sharing rested on something the natural heart cannot value.
Notice, the fellowship was not founded on something the natural man could appreciate. To his selfish heart it would be mere kindness. It was founded on the recognition that these perfections were in the blessed Man who said, "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." The Lord had His handful from the grain offering. Those who ate the rest in priestly nearness were in fellowship with the deep and spiritual perfections of Christ pictured in the fine flour mingled with oil.
- Grace first. God gave this command to people under discipline, and framed it as instruction for the land He still meant to give them.
- Grace joined. The flour and oil never came alone; God required a blood sacrifice with them, and the two offerings belonged together.
- Grace pictured. Fine flour has no grit or unevenness. The oil mixed through it points to the Holy Spirit, there from the very beginning of that life.
- Grace measured. A tenth for a lamb, two tenths for a ram, three for a bull — the gift grows with the sacrifice it accompanies.
- Grace shared. God took His handful and worshippers ate the rest, so the same perfections that pleased Him became their food.
and of wine for a drink-offering shalt thou offer the fourth part of a hin with the burnt-offering, or with the sacrifice, for one lamb.
Israel had just refused to enter Canaan. Yet God speaks here about the offerings they will bring "when you come into the land," and verse 5 fixes the detail: a set measure of wine poured out with every lamb.
Notice where this law falls. God answers Israel's refusal by telling them what to do in the land.
Here God refers to their possession of the land, at a time when they have just refused it and been turned back from it. That is a plain encouragement to faith, and an assurance of the unfailing grace of God toward the people. How comforting is this quiet assurance that they would come into the land after all! And they would come with full hearts — hearts that would need to express themselves to God in the free gifts and offerings mentioned here. When they wanted to bring such an offering, God Himself prescribed how it was to be done. For sadly, in our best moods and highest purposes we blunder badly, and we need His thoughts to control and shape us, here as everywhere.
The lamb, the flour and the wine each stand for something different.
In the burnt offering the offerer recognizes that God is glorified by the work of the Lord Jesus in sacrificing Himself on Calvary. But we may appreciate His sacrifice and still not value the perfection of His person. So the grain offering reminds us of more. In every detail of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus expressed the perfection of human righteousness. Then the drink offering of wine stands for the joy of the offerer in the offering — the believer's joy in the Lord Jesus Himself and in the value of His work.
Why wine, and not blood?
Wine is a symbol of joy both to God and to man, and this characterises the drink offering. It does not speak directly of Christ's death. If it did, the offering would be made of blood — the blood poured out in the animal sacrifices, or burned up as a picture of the judgment of God. There is no such command. In fact God condemned the practice of offering blood as a drink offering. The drink offering speaks instead of God's joy at the work of Christ finished at Calvary.
Not every sacrifice carried a drink offering.
Under the law no one was to bring drink offerings on their own. They went with the sweet-aroma offerings, above all with the burnt offering and the grain offering that came with it. They never went with the sin or trespass offerings. There could be no joy for God in Christ's sufferings when He was made sin upon the cross… But there is always joy for God in the total obedience of Christ, even to death, in fulfilling the will of God… This again shows that the drink offering speaks of God's joy when His work is complete and His people fully possess their blessings.
The wine is always "with the burnt offering." That sets a condition on the worshipper.
God never commanded a drink offering apart from the sacrifice… A whole Christ, as it were, must be before the worshipper before a drink offering would be in place. When that was before the eye and the heart, no one was to hold the drink offering back. The wine that cheers God and man could then be poured out. It was a sign that in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died, there was something that gave joy to God — joy that those who offered it could share.
The rule reached every animal brought, and the amount was never random.
After the children of Israel had entered their land, whenever anyone, Israelite or not, brought a burnt offering of the herd or of the flock, a sacrifice in keeping a vow, or a free-will offering… a grain offering and a drink offering were to go with every animal offered up… The measure of wine varied with the size and character of the animal. But it always matched the amount of oil set for the grain offering that went with it… If the wine expressed the joy to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and in His death, then the measure of joy drawn from it matched the measure of the Holy Spirit within Him — which the oil in the grain offering pictured.
A lamb took a quarter of a hin; larger animals took more.
The different amounts that went with the different offerings teach us something. The larger our understanding of the sacrifice of Christ, the greater our thankful response should be.
- Grace first. God gave this law to people who had just refused the land — a quiet promise that they would still enter it.
- Joy, not judgment. Wine stands for joy — never blood, and never with the sin or trespass offering, since there is no joy in Christ being made sin.
- Joy needs a whole Christ. No one pours the wine out alone. The sacrifice and the grain offering — His death and His life — come first.
- Joy has a measure. The wine always matched the oil, so the joy corresponds to the Spirit.
- Joy grows with sight. Larger offering, larger measure. The more of Christ's sacrifice you grasp, the fuller your response.
And for a ram thou shalt offer as oblation two tenth parts of fine flour mingled with oil, a third part of a hin,
Numbers 15 gives laws for offerings in the land, right after Israel had refused to enter it. So why does God talk about worship in the land here, and why does this verse double the flour for a ram?
These instructions come at the worst moment in Israel's history. What the people had just done did not change God's plan for them.
But in the middle of all this comes chapter 15. There we learn that God goes on in His purpose as calmly and quietly as if the land had never been despised. His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. After telling them of chastisement, He says, You shall come into the land. It is settled with Me. I go on in the steadfastness of My own counsels... Your rebellions would have lost you the land, but I have given it to you. It is not a sin offering you are to bring but a burnt offering. You are accepted, and you are going to worship Me there.
Writers read the grain offering as a picture of the life of Jesus. They take each ingredient in turn.
A study of Leviticus 2 will show that the meal offering points to the perfect life of our Lord... No leaven: there was no evil in Him. Mixed with oil: according to Luke 1:35, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Anointed with oil: according to Acts 10:38, anointed with the Holy Spirit. Fine flour: there were no irregularities in His life. In the power of the Holy Spirit He had lived a life that was perfection and well-pleasing to God.
The ram already had a fixed place in Israel's worship, and that place shapes what it pictures here.
The ram was the animal used in the consecration of the priests, and so it pictures the full, complete consecration of the Lord Jesus. Everything in Him was always and entirely set for the glory of God. However costly the path He walked, even as far as the cross, He kept to that road without turning aside. He went on to the very end, even to death itself, the death of the cross.
A lamb called for one tenth of flour; this verse doubles it for a ram; a bull raises it again. One writer reads that rising scale as a lesson about how understanding grows.
These offerings go with us through the whole double series. The only change is in the number of each of the first three. The meal offering that goes with them stays in constant proportion: one tenth of an ephah for a lamb, two tenths for a ram, three for a bullock. The grasp of Christ's person grows along with the grasp of His work, if that grasp is real.
No one brought this flour on its own. It always went with a blood sacrifice, and that pairing guards against a real danger.
The meal offering (or grain offering) was never offered alone, but always in connection with a blood offering. In the burnt offering the offerer recognized this: God is glorified by the work of the Lord Jesus in sacrificing Himself on Calvary. But we may appreciate His sacrifice while not valuing the perfection of His person. So the grain offering reminds us of this: in every detail of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus expressed the perfection of human righteousness.
One writer draws out why the two must go together.
Numbers 15:4, 6 and 9 tell us that every offering by fire had to have a meal offering with it. This fact shows that Christ's sacrifice would not have been possible without His perfect life on earth. The two belonged together.
The oil named here also fixed the amount of wine that went with the offering.
The measure of the wine varied with the size and character of the animal offered in sacrifice. But it always matched the amount of oil appointed for the grain offering that went with it... The wine expressed the joy to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and in His death. If so, the measure of joy drawn from it matched the measure of the Holy Spirit within Him. The oil in the grain offering was a picture of that Spirit.
- Measure of grace. God tells people who had just refused the land how to worship in it. He asks for a burnt offering, not a sin offering: they are accepted.
- Measure of the Man. Fine flour with no irregularities, mixed with oil: a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit and wholly pleasing to God.
- Measure of devotion. Israel used the ram to consecrate its priests. It pictures a life set wholly for God's glory, held to that road as far as the cross.
- Measure of understanding. Two tenths for a ram instead of one for a lamb: as the grasp of His work grows, the grasp of His person grows with it.
- Measure of joy. The oil fixed the wine — joy in Christ matches the measure of the Holy Spirit who was in Him.
and of wine for a drink-offering shalt thou offer the third part of a hin; for a sweet odour to Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And when thou offerest a bullock for a burnt-offering, or a sacrifice for the performance of a vow, or for a peace-offering to Jehovah,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
then shall they present with the bullock as oblation three tenth parts of fine flour mingled with half a hin of oil;
Israel had just refused the land. Numbers 15 turns straight to rules for offerings they would bring in that land, and verse 9 sets the amounts that go with a bull. Why must a grain offering go with a blood sacrifice at all, and why does the amount rise with the size of the animal?
God gave these rules right after He turned back the generation that refused the land.
But in the middle of all this comes chapter 15. There we learn that God goes on in His purpose, as calm and quiet as if there had never been the despising of the land. For in the second verse He says, "When you come into the land of your dwellings, which I give to you." His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all... He never gives up His purpose, though He deals with the heart according to its unbelief... Your rebellions would have sinned away the land, but I have given it to you. It is not a sin offering you are to bring, but a burnt offering. You are accepted, and you are going to worship Me there.
Older translations call the flour of verse 9 the "meat offering" or "meal offering." It could never stand alone.
The meal offering (or grain offering) was never offered alone, but in connection with a blood offering. The burnt offering showed the offerer's recognition of one thing. God is glorified by the work of the Lord Jesus in sacrificing Himself on Calvary. But we may be appreciative of His sacrifice while not valuing the perfection of His person. The grain offering therefore reminds us of this. In every detail of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus expressed the perfection of human righteousness.
It had to be fine flour, ground smooth.
Now the shadow of this perfect man passes before us in the "fine flour" which formed the basis of the meat offering. There was not so much as a single coarse grain. There was nothing uneven — nothing unequal — nothing rough to the touch. No matter what pressure came from outside, there was always an even surface. He was never ruffled by any circumstance or set of circumstances. He never had to retrace a step, or recall a word.
The flour was not dry. Oil ran all through it.
Nothing is softer, more even, or less gritty than fine flour. So it is a most fitting picture of the smooth and flawless perfection of the life on earth of "the Man Christ Jesus." The oil here, as elsewhere, stands for the Holy Spirit of God. In His power the Lord Jesus walked His unmatched path of service.
Verse 9 sits at the top of a sliding scale.
The ordinary measure was the ephah, one tenth of which was an omer, the food of one man. In the meal offering, the measure of fine flour that went with the burnt offering matched the size and importance of the animal offered. So a lamb took one tenth, that is one omer. A ram took two tenths, or one fifth. A bull took three tenths — "three measures of fine flour," which speak of the fullness of Christ.
The rising amounts say something about the worshipper.
The different amounts that go with the different offerings teach us this. The larger our grasp of the sacrifice of Christ, the greater our thankful response should be.
The next verse adds wine — half a hin, matching the oil.
The amount depended on which sacrifice it was. The amount of wine matched the amount of oil, and both rose in line with the amount of flour. This shows a beautiful link. The more the Holy Spirit (the oil) fills our thoughts with the excellence of Christ (the fine flour), the more joy (the wine) we will know.
The grain offering pictures Christ's life. The slain animal pictures His death. Hold the two together, but do not blur them.
We must distinguish, in order to keep both these precious things in all their preciousness. The lesson here is that we must, along with the burnt offering which is for acceptance, bring to God the meal offering also, which speaks of Christ in person and life.
- Grace first. God gave this rule to people who had just refused the land. His purpose stood as if there had been no rebellion.
- With, never alone. No one could bring the grain offering by itself. It always went with a blood offering, so worship never prized the sacrifice and missed the person.
- With flour and oil. Fine flour pictures a life with nothing rough in it. The oil points to the Holy Spirit's power in that life.
- With a rising measure. Three tenths, the largest amount, speaks of the fullness of Christ. The bigger our grasp of His sacrifice, the bigger our response.
- With matching joy. Oil and wine were always equal, so the more the Spirit fills us with Christ's excellence, the more joy follows.
and of wine shalt thou present half a hin, for a drink-offering, as an offering by fire, of a sweet odour to Jehovah.
Numbers 15 gives laws for the sacrifices Israel would bring once they entered the land. Verse 10 names the largest amount of wine in the list — half a hin, poured out with a bull. Why does wine belong on God's altar at all, and why does the amount keep rising?
The chapter follows Israel's refusal to enter Canaan. One writer finds comfort in the timing:
First, we have a law given about the offerings they should bring when they come into the land. What a comfort this quiet assurance is: they would come into the land after all. And they would come with full hearts — hearts needing to express themselves to God in free gifts and offerings like those described here. When they wanted to bring such an offering, God Himself prescribed how it should be done.
The offering here is wine, not blood. That choice shapes what it pictures:
Wine is a symbol of joy both to God and to man (Judges 9:13; Psalm 104:15), and this is what marks the drink offering. It does not speak directly of Christ's death. If it did, the offering would be made of blood — the blood poured out in the animal sacrifices, or burned in the fire as a picture of the judgment of God... The drink offering speaks instead of God's joy at the accomplishment of the work of Christ at Calvary.
Commentators differ over who is rejoicing. Some read the wine as God's own delight, and note where drink offerings appear:
These two items — the wine and the sweet aroma — make it clear that the drink offering is about God's joy over the finished work of His Son, and not so much our joy. Notice also that drink offerings always seem to stand at the end. That is, they come when something has been fully finished, and especially when God had reached His goal with the person in question.
Others read the same wine as the worshipper's gladness, set beside what the other offerings stand for:
In the burnt offering, the one bringing it acknowledged that the Lord Jesus glorified God by sacrificing Himself at Calvary. But we may appreciate His sacrifice while not valuing the perfection of His person. So the grain offering reminds us of His person. In every detail of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus expressed the perfection of human righteousness. Then the drink offering of wine stands for the joy of the one who brings it — the believer's joy in the Lord Jesus Himself and in the value of His work.
A lamb called for a quarter of a hin, a ram a third, a bull a half. Writers see in that rising amount a rising capacity in the one who brings it:
The bull was patient and enduring, and it had strength, vigour and maturity. These features bring before us what marked the Lord Jesus as the true burnt offering and peace offering... This offering surely speaks of someone enriched in the things of God, who brings to God an enlarged appreciation of what Christ was to God in life and death.
The oil and the wine come in equal measure — half a hin each. One writer builds on that match:
As we really come to know Him, joy in Him grows too. The drink offering pictures that joy — a joy that is not just gushing words or feelings, but spending and being spent for Him. The measure of the oil for the grain offering is the measure of the wine for the drink offering. So the measure of the Spirit in our grasp of Christ is the measure of our joy and devotion.
This wine comes to God as "a pleasing aroma to the LORD." That phrase marks a limit:
Drink offerings were never to go with the sin or trespass offerings. There could be no joy for God in Christ's sufferings when He was made sin on the cross. That is why no drink offering went with the sin and trespass offerings. But there is always joy for God in the total obedience of Christ, even to death, in fulfilling the will of God. So the drink offering was to go with the burnt and grain offerings. God gave this instruction for when they came into the land. It was not for the wilderness. This again shows that the drink offering speaks of the joy of God when His work is complete and His people fully possess their blessings.
- Land — God gave this law to people who had just refused Canaan. It quietly assured them they would still arrive, and arrive with full hearts.
- Wine — the drink offering is not blood but wine, the symbol of joy to both God and man.
- Measure — a quarter hin with a lamb, a third with a ram, half with a bull. The wine rises with an enlarged appreciation of Christ.
- Match — the oil and the wine match. Our grasp of Christ by the Spirit sets the size of our joy and devotion.
- Boundary — no drink offering ever went with a sin offering. Joy belongs where the aroma is pleasing, and that is why it belongs here.
Thus shall it be done for one ox, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or for a kid;
This verse closes a short table of offerings. Whatever animal an Israelite brought — bull, ram, lamb or young goat — it had to come with a measured portion of flour, oil and wine. Why could no one bring the animal alone? And why does the measure change with the animal?
The timing is striking. Israel had just refused the land, and God warned them of discipline to come. At once He began giving rules for their worship in that same land.
But in the middle of all this comes chapter 15. There we learn that God goes on with His purpose as calmly and quietly as if they had never despised the land. For in the second verse He says, "When you come into the land of your dwellings, which I give to you." His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. After telling them of the discipline to come, He says, You shall come into the land; it is settled with Me; I go on in the steadfastness of My own purposes. It is not a sin-offering you are to bring but a burnt-offering. You are accepted, and are going to worship Me there.
A lamb or a young goat sits at the bottom of the scale. Even that smallest gift carried the full worth of what it pictured.
When someone offered freely in the land, the smallest offering the LORD required was a lamb or a young goat (Num. 15:11). The lamb might come from a young person, from a poor person, or from someone with no deep sense of what was owed to the Lord. Even so, the offering itself stood before the LORD as something perfect and acceptable to Him. It was like the lamb of the daily sacrifice, whose pleasing aroma was always before Him.
Commentators see the killed animal as a picture of Christ's death, and the flour as a picture of His life as a man. The two always went together, and their order says something.
The measures of the required grain offering were fixed, usually varying with the animal brought: a tenth of an ephah of flour for a lamb, two tenths for a ram, three tenths for a bull. For both the death of Christ and the life of Christ were to be brought to mind before God. His death was pictured as a sacrifice with a pleasing aroma, and His life was pictured too. No one was to picture His death without His life. The order, though, says something. The grain offering came with the burnt offering or the peace offering. Men can only take up Christ's life before God in connection with His death, reading His history, as it were, backwards.
The oil and the wine rose along with the flour. Losing that proportion is a warning sign.
When these offerings are out of proportion, it shows at once a tendency to separate them. Can we know the work done for us better without growing in the knowledge of Him who did the work? And with real knowledge of Him grows joy in Him too, the joy pictured by the drink offering. That joy is not just gushing words or feeling, but spending and being spent for Him. The measure of oil for the grain offering is the measure of wine for the drink offering. The measure of the Spirit in our understanding of Christ is the measure of our joy and devotion.
The graded animals raise an obvious worry. Is the man with the lamb less welcome than the man with the bull? Commentators answer no.
The bull is more valuable than a sheep or goat; the sheep or goat more valuable than the turtle doves or young pigeons. This shows us the varying degrees of appreciation the believer has of the death of Christ. But thank God, He accepted the sacrifice of pigeons just as much as the sacrifice of a bull. He accepts us, not according to the measure of our understanding of the death of Christ, but according to His own full and perfect appreciation of that death.
The list stops at a bull, but the worshipper's capacity is not meant to stop there.
Even if an Israelite offered a bull, he had not reached the limit of devotion to God. No limit was set on the number of bulls, rams or lambs that anyone could offer to God. Nor is there any limit to growth in the things of God: growth in spiritual understanding of the truth, growth in the knowledge of the Father and the Son, growth in spiritual desire and devotion.
- Promise — God gives worship rules for a land Israel had just refused. Their rebellion did not move His purpose.
- Pattern — "thus it shall be done" for every animal. The sacrifice pictures Christ's death, and the flour with it pictures His life. Neither comes to God alone.
- Proportion — flour, oil and wine rise with the animal. The oil and the wine always match. Understanding of Christ and joy in Him grow at the same rate.
- Acceptance — God receives the lamb as He receives the bull. What varies is the worshipper's appreciation, not God's estimate of the sacrifice.
- Progress — the bull tops the list but is not the end of the road. Nothing limits how much a worshipper may bring.
according to the number that ye offer, so shall ye do to every one according to their number.
Numbers 15 breaks into the story right after Israel refused the land. It tells them what to offer once they live there. Verse 12 fixes the rule of repetition: every animal brought carries its own full set of flour, oil and wine.
Notice the timing. Israel had just been turned back, yet God gives a law for the day they arrive.
But in the middle of all this comes chapter 15, where we learn that God goes on in His purpose as calmly and quietly as if the land had never been despised. For in the second verse He says, "When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I give you." His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. After telling them of chastisement, He says, You shall come into the land. It is settled with Me. I go on in the steadfastness of My own counsels… He never gives up His purpose, though He deals with the heart according to its unbelief.
The animal is never enough by itself. Flour, oil and wine must come with it, and each element carries its own meaning.
No one ever brought the grain offering on its own; it always went with a blood offering. The burnt offering spoke of the offerer's recognition. He saw that God is glorified by the work of the Lord Jesus in sacrificing Himself on Calvary. But we may appreciate His sacrifice while not valuing the perfection of His person. So the grain offering reminds us of His life on earth. In every detail of it the Lord Jesus expressed the perfection of human righteousness. Then the wine of the drink offering stands for the offerer's joy in the offering. That is the believer's joy in the Lord Jesus Himself and in the value of His work.
Verse 12 does not let the worshipper pool his animals and bring one grain offering for them all. Each animal needs its own, and the amounts grow as the animal grows. Oil and wine stay tied to each other.
Numbers 15 teaches us that once the children of Israel had entered their land, a grain offering and a drink offering had to go with every animal offered up. This held whether the offerer belonged to Israel or not, and whether he brought a burnt offering from the herd or the flock, a sacrifice for a vow, a free-will offering, or an offering at Israel's set feasts… The measure of the wine varied with the size and character of the animal, but it always matched the amount of oil set for the grain offering that went with it… If the wine expressed the joy found in the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and in His death, then the measure of joy drawn from it matched the measure of the Holy Spirit within Him. The oil in the grain offering was the picture of that Spirit.
The law ties the amounts together. A broken ratio is not a slip in arithmetic; it says something about the worshipper.
Wrong proportions in these offerings show at once a tendency to separate them. Can we know the work done for us better without also growing in the knowledge of Him who did the work? And if we really know Him, that joy in Him grows too — the joy pictured by the drink offering. It is not a joy of gushing words or feeling only, but of spending and being spent for Him.
The verse fixes the proportion but names no maximum. Even the largest animal was not the end of what a person could bring.
Even if an Israelite offered a bull, he had not reached the limit of devotion to God. There is no limit to the number of bulls, rams or lambs that anyone could offer to God. Nor is there any limit to growth in the things of God — growth in spiritual grasp of the truth, growth in the knowledge of the Father and the Son, growth in spiritual desire and devotion. A father in the divine family may have reached maturity, but he has not reached the end. We see this in the Apostle Paul. Though no doubt he had matured beyond anyone in the knowledge of Christ, he could still say, "that I may know him" (Phil. 3:10).
- Number one: grace. Israel had just refused the land. God still spoke of the day they would live in it, calm in His own purpose.
- Number two: never alone. The slain animal always draws flour, oil and wine with it: His work, His perfect life, and the offerer's joy in Him.
- Number three: each one. Every single animal carries its own set, so nothing is averaged out. What is true of one holds for all.
- Number four: in proportion. Amounts rise with the animal, and oil always matches wine. Break the ratio and you split His work from His Person.
- Number five: no last number. The verse names no maximum, so maturity is never the end. Paul, furthest along, still said, "that I may know him."
And all that are born in the land shall do these things thus, in presenting an offering by fire of a sweet odour to Jehovah.
Numbers 15 gives laws for the offerings Israel would bring "when you come into the land." God spoke them right after He told the generation who refused that land that they would die in the wilderness. Verse 13 fixes the pattern. Every native-born Israelite brings these gifts God's way, as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
The placing of this chapter is its first lesson. God had just turned Israel back from Canaan, yet He speaks as though nothing had happened.
But in the middle of all this comes chapter 15. In it we learn that God goes on with His purpose, as calm and quiet as if the land had never been despised. For in the second verse He says, "When you come into the land of your dwellings, which I give to you." His purpose is as settled as if there had been no rebellion at all. ... Your rebellions would have sinned away the land, but I have given it to you. It is not a sin-offering you are to bring but a burnt-offering. You are accepted, and are going to worship Me there.
So the whole scene of verse 13 — worshippers bringing free gifts in the land — rests on mercy, not merit.
We have vows and freewill offerings, sacrifices of righteousness, and the wine of the Kingdom, all based on the sovereign grace which shines in the very first verse... The unbelief, the murmuring, the rebellion, are all over and all forgotten.
The verse says not only what to bring but how. A willing heart still needs God's instruction.
When it would be in their hearts to bring such an offering, then God Himself prescribes the way in which it was to be done. Sad to say, in our best moods and highest purposes we blunder badly. As everywhere, we need His thoughts to control and shape us.
"These things" in verse 13 means the animal together with the fine flour, oil and wine of verses 3–12.
Along with the burnt-offering, which is for acceptance, we must bring God the meal-offering too. The meal-offering speaks of Christ in His person and life. And the faith that does this will, if real, be fruitful.
The drink-offering follows the same rule from the other side.
But God commanded no drink-offering apart from the sacrifice... A whole Christ, as it were, must be before the worshipper before a drink-offering would be in place. When that was before the eye and the heart, they were not to hold back the drink-offering. They could then pour out the wine that cheers God and man. It was a token that in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died, there was something that gave joy to God — and those who offered it could share that joy... And this was to hold good for Israel, for those born in the land, and for the stranger who lived among them as well.
A lamb called for one measure of flour, a ram for two, a bull for three. The gift grew with the size of the sacrifice.
The amounts that went with each offering were different. They teach us that the larger our grasp of the sacrifice of Christ, the greater our thankful response should be. Those born as natives in Israel were to bring such offerings (v. 13). In the same way, every born again person should respond to the value of the person and offering of the Lord Jesus.
Verse 13 speaks of the home-born. The next verses give the foreigner living among them the same rule.
See how "the branches run over the wall," in God's heart running out, as in verse 14, to the stranger... Here God is saying, I cannot have a person in My land and not a worshipper, not enjoying God. All must be happy there. If anyone is in the land of God, he must know the mind and temper of the God of the land. There is one law for all. God will be Himself, and make Himself known.
God does not give the outsider a lesser version of Israel's worship. He gives the same one.
The stranger is placed on the very same platform with Israel! "As you are, so shall the stranger be," and this, too, "before the Lord."... Israel had forfeited everything... but God's eternal purpose of grace must stand... On what ground? On the ground of sovereign mercy. Well, it is on the very same ground that "the stranger" shall be brought in.
- Purpose — These offering laws come right after Israel refused the land. Their rebellion did not cancel God's settled purpose.
- Pattern — A willing heart is not enough. God sets the manner, because our best intentions go wrong without His direction.
- Fullness — Sacrifice, flour, oil and wine belong together. A whole Christ, in life and in death, must be before the worshipper.
- Proportion — The measures rise with the size of the animal. A bigger grasp of Christ's offering brings a bigger response.
- Reach — The native-born sets the standard. God brings the stranger onto the same platform, on the same ground of mercy.
And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whoever be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering by fire of a sweet odour to Jehovah, -- as ye do, so shall he do.
Numbers 15 comes right after Israel refused the land and turned back. God still gives laws for the day they will live there, and one of them puts the outsider on Israel's own footing.
Notice where this law sits. It follows the worst moment in Israel's history. Its tone is not punishment but settled purpose.
The people had shown all this unbelief. God had declared that the earth would be filled with His glory, by the cutting off of the rebellious congregation. One might have supposed they had forfeited the land for ever. Yet in chapter 15 it is beautiful to see the Lord returning into the perfect rest of His fore-ordained counsels, and of His unchangeable being. He gives instructions about the time when the people will have entered the land He has given them. It speaks of the offerings of righteousness they are invited to bring to Him of their own free will, and of the wine of joy that was to go with these offerings. Since this is grace, the love of God reaches out beyond Israel. He brings the stranger near to His people, and makes one law for both.
The verse does not give the foreigner a lesser version of the ritual. It gives him the same one, whether he is passing through or settled for good. One commentator notices what is missing here. An earlier law about the Passover required the foreigner to be circumcised first (Exodus 12:48).
What a place for the stranger! What a lesson for Israel! The stranger stands on the very same platform as Israel! "As you are, so shall the stranger be," and this, too, "before the Lord." … But in Numbers 15 there is no mention of circumcision at all. Why? Not because such a point could ever be set aside. We believe the omission here is full of meaning. Israel had forfeited everything. God would set the rebellious generation aside and cut it off. But His eternal purpose of grace must stand, and all His promises must be fulfilled. … On what ground? On the ground of sovereign mercy. Well, it is on the very same ground that "the stranger" shall be brought in.
Commentators differ on how much that silence means. Another writer reads the law as still assuming the earlier rule, and draws a lesson for today:
It was understood that only those circumcised were to offer sacrifices. It is not mentioned here, yet Exodus 12:48 is clear. A stranger coming among Israelites must have all his males circumcised before eating the Passover. … This is just as true in the assembly of God today: there are to be no double standards.
The open door is not Israel's generosity. It is what God is like. He will not be one thing to the native and another to the newcomer.
See how God's heart runs over the wall to the stranger, as in verse 14. … Here God is saying, I cannot have a person in my land who is not a worshipper, not enjoying God. All must be happy there. If any person is in the land of God, he must know the mind and temper of the God of the land. There is one law for all. God will be Himself, and make Himself known.
The offering in this verse rises to God as a pleasing smell. It is not the offering that deals with sin; it is about acceptance.
In the sacrifice we are considering, sins are not laid on Him — that was the sin offering. Here is the perfectness, purity, and self-devotedness of the victim … rising as a pleasing aroma to God. In this acceptance — in the pleasing aroma of this sacrifice — we are presented to God. We are accepted in all the delight God finds in this sacrifice.
If one law covers both, ancestry cannot be what qualifies a person.
In all this, one thing is pressed especially: there is one law for the stranger and for the home-born. The grace that is in Christ welcomes all alike. What the Jew can only have on condition of faith is for the Gentile too, wherever there is faith.
One writer links this law to a promise in Isaiah about foreigners.
Since all is grace here, there is one law and manner for all. The stranger may share in this happy delight of approaching the Lord. Isaiah speaks in this way about foreigners in the purpose and grace of God: "these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." (Isaiah 56:7.)
- Cause — mercy. This law follows rebellion. Native or foreigner, the only ground anyone stands on is sovereign mercy.
- Gift — one law. Mercy produces a single standard: the same offering, the same manner, the same acceptance for all.
- Reach — the stranger. God's heart runs past the boundary; He will not have a person in His land who is not a worshipper.
- Condition — faith. Since the law is one, birth qualifies no one; faith qualifies anyone.
- Result — joy. The outsider is not just let in; he shares the gladness of approaching God.
As to the congregation, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an everlasting statute throughout your generations as ye are, so shall the stranger be, before Jehovah.
Numbers 15 comes right after Israel refused to enter the land. Even so, God speaks about the day they will offer sacrifices there. Into that promise He puts a rule about the outsider. The foreigner living among Israel comes under the same lasting statute as Israel itself.
These instructions come at a moment when the nation seemed to have thrown away every claim. One writer shows how God's return to His own settled purpose opens the door to the outsider.
After all this unbelief of the people... when you might have thought they had lost the land for ever, it is beautiful to see, in chapter 15, the Lord going back to the settled rest of the purposes He had fixed beforehand... The chapter speaks of the offerings of righteousness He invites them to bring Him of their own free will, and of the wine of joy that was to go with these offerings. And since this is grace, the love of God reaches out beyond Israel. He brings the stranger near to His people and makes one law for both.
The wording does not just allow the stranger to come near. It measures him by Israel. He stands there for the same reason Israel still stands at all.
God puts the stranger on the very same platform as Israel! "You and the sojourner shall be alike," and this, too, "before the LORD."... Israel had forfeited everything. God would set the rebellious generation aside and cut it off. But His eternal purpose of grace must stand, and He must keep all His promises... On what ground? On the ground of sovereign mercy. And it is on that very same ground that God brings in "the stranger."
The rule flows from what God is like. He will not have someone living on His ground and remaining a stranger to His joy.
See how "the branches run over the wall" — God's heart reaching out, as in verse 14, to the stranger. Christ said He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But the poor Gentile woman appealed to the nature of God as a giver, and He could not turn her away, because He could not deny what He was. Here God is saying, I cannot have a person in My land who is not a worshipper, not enjoying God. All must be happy there... There is one law for all. God will be Himself, and make Himself known.
The one statute levels the terms of entry. Birth into Israel never gave anyone an easier route than the outsider had.
In all this it is also pressed home that there is one law for the stranger and for the home-born: the grace that is in Christ welcomes all alike. What the Jew can have only on the condition of faith is for the Gentile too, wherever there is faith.
Sharing the privileges meant sharing the obligations. One writer also answers a question this chapter leaves open: was the foreigner circumcised?
A stranger coming to live in Israel had to live under the same order as the Israelites (vv. 14-16). The rules of the offerings applied to him. It was understood that only those who were circumcised could offer sacrifices. Though it is not mentioned here, Exodus 12:48 is clear that a stranger living among Israelites had to have all his males circumcised before eating the Passover... "One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you" (Ex. 12:49). This is just as true in the assembly of God today: there are to be no double standards.
The statute held for every generation, and God's heart did not stop at Israel's borders. The same grace, one writer says, is why we stand near to God today.
So the heart of God always reached out, in His indescribable grace, beyond His chosen people, to provide blessing for the "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." We ourselves owe that wonderful place of nearness to this sovereign grace of His, and the close relationship into which He has brought us through the death and resurrection of Christ.
- One failure. Israel had forfeited everything. Yet God kept speaking of the land as theirs. Mercy, not merit, holds the promise open.
- One ground. The stranger comes in on the very same footing as Israel. The ground is sovereign mercy, so that he and Israel stand "alike before the LORD."
- One law. What the Jew could have only by faith is open to the outsider wherever there is faith. The statute levels the entrance for both.
- One standard. Equal privilege carries equal responsibility. The sojourner lived under the same order, with no double standards.
- One heart. God will not have someone in His land who is not a worshipper. That same reaching grace brings those once "without God in the world" near to Himself, through the death and resurrection of Christ.
One law and one ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
Numbers 15 comes right after Israel refused to enter the land. God's answer is to give rules for offerings "when you come into the land." Inside those rules sits a line that reaches past Israel: the same law covers the foreigner living among them.
Notice where this chapter sits. God had just sentenced the people to forty years of wandering. His next word to them assumes they will arrive.
The opening words of Numbers 15 are remarkable. God had just told the people that their stay in the wilderness would stretch to forty years. They tried, in self-will, to dodge this and push their way in at once, and the attempt failed completely. The next thing is a set of rules to take effect "when you come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you." In speaking this way, God made it plain that His purpose for them stood firm despite all they had done. He would bring them in at last.
This rule is no small legal footnote. One writer points to the ground God brings the outsider in on — the same ground that keeps Israel alive.
What a place for the stranger! What a lesson for Israel! The stranger is put on the very same platform with Israel! "As you are, so shall the stranger be," and this, too, "before the Lord." … Israel had forfeited everything. God would set aside and cut off the rebellious generation. But His eternal purpose of grace must stand, and He must keep every promise. All Israel shall be saved. They shall have the land, offer pure offerings, pay their vows, and taste the joy of the Kingdom. On what ground? On the ground of sovereign mercy. Well, it is on that very same ground that "the stranger" shall be brought in.
Why let a foreigner sacrifice at all? One writer answers from God's own character.
See how "the branches run over the wall," in God's heart running out, as in verse 14, to the stranger. Christ said He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But the poor Gentile woman appealed to the nature of God as a giver. He could not refuse her, because He could not deny what He was. Here God is saying, I cannot have a person in My land, and not a worshipper, not enjoying God. All must be happy there. If anyone is in the land of God, he must know the mind and temper of the God of the land. There is one law for all. God will be Himself, and make Himself known.
Equal welcome carries equal duty.
A stranger coming to live in Israel was to be subject to the same order as the Israelites (vv. 14-16). The rules of the offerings applied to him. It was understood that only those who were circumcised could offer sacrifices, and though it is not mentioned here, Exodus 12:48 is clear that a stranger among Israelites must have all his males circumcised before eating the Passover. … This is just as true in the assembly of God today: there are to be no double standards. Anyone who does not want to come under the order of the assembly is by that very fact shutting himself out of its fellowship.
Mackintosh weighs that silence differently: "In Numbers 15 there is no mention of circumcision at all. And why? Is it that such a point could ever be waived? No; but we believe the omission here is full of meaning."
The principle is not left in the past. One writer applies it to the terms on which anyone comes to God now.
In all this the point is pressed hard: there is one law for the stranger and for the home-born. The grace that is in Christ welcomes all alike. What for the Jew can only be on the condition of faith is for the Gentile also wherever there is faith.
One writer traces that open door back to God's own heart.
The heart of God has always travelled out beyond His chosen people, in His indescribable grace. He moved to provide blessing for those who were "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." We ourselves owe that wonderful place of nearness to this sovereignty of His grace, and the close relationship into which He has brought us through the death and resurrection of Christ.
- One purpose. God gives rules for a land Israel had just refused to enter. His plan stood firm despite their failure.
- One ground. The stranger comes in on the same footing that keeps Israel alive: sovereign mercy.
- One law. Equal access means equal duty. There are no double standards for the newcomer and the home-born.
- One God. He will not have anyone in His land who is not a worshipper. He means to be known on His own ground.
- One result. Faith is the one term, for Jew and Gentile alike. Those once without hope are brought near through the death and resurrection of Christ.