And in the seventh month, on the first of the month, ye shall have a holy convocation no manner of servile work shall ye do; a day of blowing the trumpets shall it be unto you.
The seventh month opens with a day of assembly, of rest from work, and of trumpet blasts. Numbers 29 lists the offerings for that day. Commentators read it both as a real date in Israel's year and as a picture of what God will yet do for that nation.
This day opens a short cluster of feasts in the seventh month.
This happened on the first day of the seventh month. It was to be "a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation." On it they were to do no ordinary work. They were to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord (Leviticus 23:23-25). It indicated a renewal of blessing, and the day of atonement and the feast of tabernacles followed it in the same month. It foreshadowed the future day of Israel's awakening, when the revival of their blessing will be at hand.
One writer reads the ban on work as a statement about who does the work.
So the blowing of trumpets was another "holy convocation." Again, they were to do no customary work, because human energy will have nothing to do with this great regathering of Israel (v. 25). It will be exclusively the work of God.
The kind of trumpet matters here, and so does what it was normally used for.
In Numbers 10:2, God commanded Moses to make two silver trumpets. The trumpets called the assembly together, and they started the camps on their journey... They were also used at their set feasts and at their new moons. God said they "shall be for you a reminder before your God." The silver speaks of redemption. Those notes on the silver trumpets brought to mind God's covenant with His earthly people and His promise to His heavenly people. They also brought to mind the price paid on the cross to buy the redemption of both the heavenly and the earthly people.
A fresh word from God opens this feast, and its call goes out to Israel.
Next a new speaking of Jehovah to Moses is announced. It is a fresh testimony, a memorial of blowing of Trumpets. This new Feast, like those that follow, falls in the seventh month; and this one on its first day. Here Jehovah summons His ancient people from their sleep — from their "graves," as Ezekiel pictures it. Compare Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2. The Christian call is past; the Jewish appeal will then begin and go on. Grace is preparing a people for Jehovah on earth, as now under the gospel for heaven.
The offering asked here is smaller than at other feasts, and one writer finds the difference deliberate.
Here the difference stands out, for God asks only for "one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish." It lacks the fullness of testimony to grace that went out to the Gentile as well as the Jew... There is only one young bull — not the two found in the previous case.
Another writer points out that this day's offering came on top of the regular new-moon offering.
The first day of the seventh month referred to the recall of Israel. That was something special: the renewal of God's connection with the earth, and above all with Israel, according to the value of Christ's work. So besides the regular recognition of grace on the first of the month, they offered one more bull, ram, and seven lambs.
One writer applies the day to a later gathering held on the same date, where Scripture never mentions the trumpets.
The first day of the seventh month was the feast of the blowing of trumpets (Leviticus 23:24; Numbers 29:1), a figure of the restoration of Israel in the last days. It would move the hearts of all true Israelites who understood its meaning. Whether the trumpets were blown on this occasion is not recorded; and the very fact that it is not, is significant... When everything is in confusion because people have neglected the word of God, the first thing to do is not to restore the feasts. It is to restore the authority of the Scriptures over the conscience.
Because trumpets appear elsewhere in Scripture, one writer warns against merging them.
This feast does not foreshadow the coming of the Lord to take up the heavenly saints. It foreshadows the regathering of Israel into the land of promise. And do not confuse the trumpets spoken of here with the resurrection trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15:52, or the "trumpet of God" in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
- Call. The day opens with a sound, not a task. Silver trumpets are a reminder before God of the price paid for redemption.
- Rest. God allows no ordinary work, because the regathering this day pictures is His work, not human energy.
- Recall. The seventh month begins God's fresh dealing with Israel. It is a summons to a people asleep, even in their graves.
- Measure. One bull, one ram, seven lambs, added to the regular new-moon offering. It is a narrower witness than the offerings that reached Gentile as well as Jew.
- Caution. This trumpet calls Israel home. It is not the trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4:16. And where people have neglected God's word, Scripture must regain its authority before feasts return.
And ye shall offer a burnt-offering for a sweet odour to Jehovah one young bullock, one ram, seven yearling lambs without blemish;
These offerings belong to the first day of the seventh month, the day trumpets called Israel together. Why does God ask for these animals — one bull, one ram, seven lambs — and why does He call the whole list "a pleasing aroma"?
This feast falls months after the earlier feasts of the year. That gap is part of the picture.
About four months passed before the Feast of Trumpets took place. This pictures the long time that has passed since Pentecost. Pentecost opened the long age of the grace of God, and through it Israel has stayed in unbelief. But the Feast of Trumpets stands for the regathering of Israel to their land, as Matthew 24:31 notes: "And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." When the church of God is caught up to heaven, this call by angelic power will have great public effect, for the trumpets speak of a clearly declared testimony.
One phrase governs the verse: "a pleasing aroma." It turns attention away from what we receive and toward what God enjoys.
We can learn here, without any effort, that the great leading thought is Christ presented to God. It is not so much Christ meeting our need — though He truly does meet it, and richly — as Christ feeding and delighting the heart of God. We all have a sad tendency to see Christ only as the cause that obtains our salvation — the One through whom we are forgiven and saved from hell, the channel through which all blessing flows to us.
The sin offering is not missing from this chapter. It comes a few verses later. But the two lists differ sharply in size.
The sin offering is never missing. But the sweet savour offerings hold the leading place, as even the quickest reader can see. We do not think anyone can read this remarkable part of Scripture without noticing the contrast between the place of the sin offering and the place of the burnt offering. The first is named only as "one male goat," while the second comes before us as "fourteen male lambs," "thirteen bulls" and the like.
Three kinds of creature appear in one offering. Writers take each one as showing a different side of the same sacrifice.
These speak of the great value of the sacrifice of Christ in itself, as that which glorifies God for eternity. The bull emphasizes the strength of that sacrifice; the ram, its devotion; and the male lamb, its submission.
Seven lambs come back again and again in Israel's calendar of feasts.
The seven male lambs a year old without blemish tell of the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God. At every appointed feast this same number of lambs formed part of the burnt offering set for that feast. The one exception was the first seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, when the number doubled.
The list for this day is short. Its shortness is part of what it teaches.
This month is the recognised picture of what belongs to Israel in particular — Israel called and brought into the blessing of God. Here the difference is clear. Only "one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish" is asked for. There is but one bull — not the two found in the earlier case. It lacks the full witness to grace that went out to the Gentile as well as to the Jew. It is but a single witness to the grace that God is about to display to His people Israel.
One writer states plainly why this matters for readers today.
Why insist on this? To show the Christian reader the true character of the worship God looks for, and in which He delights. God delights in Christ; and it should be our constant aim, to present to God that in which He delights. Christ should always be the substance of our worship. And He will be, as far as the Spirit of God leads us.
- The day. Trumpets open the seventh month. They picture Israel brought home after a long time of unbelief.
- The aroma. "A pleasing aroma" points upward first: Christ delighting God, not only Christ meeting our need.
- The three. Bull, ram and lamb hold strength, devotion and submission together in one sacrifice.
- The seven. Lambs without blemish return at feast after feast. Perfection stays at the centre.
- The one bull. Where other feasts had two, one marks this day as Israel's own — a narrower witness to the same grace.
- The result. God delights in Christ, so Christ should be the substance of our worship.
and their oblation of fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth parts for the ram,
This verse sets the flour and oil that went up with each animal on the seventh month's day of trumpet blasts. Why did God tie a grain offering to every bull and ram, and what does the rising scale of measures teach?
One writer marks the seventh month out as Israel's own season, and points to how few animals it calls for.
The seventh month is the acknowledged type of what particularly concerns Israel — Israel summoned and brought into the blessing of God. Here the difference stands out sharply. God asks for only one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs a year old without blemish. It lacks the fullness of testimony to grace which went out to the Gentile as well as the Jew. It is but a single witness to the grace that God is about to display to His people Israel.
The grain offering in this verse is not an independent gift. It goes with the animals already named.
The grain offerings formed part of the other offerings ("and its grain offering"). Numbers 15:4, 6, 9 shows that offerings by fire had to have grain offerings with them (compare Numbers 28:5). This shows that Christ's sacrifice could not have happened without His perfect life on earth. The two belonged together.
Yet God names one of the pair first, and the order teaches us something.
First and last they were bound together. So we should honour the Lord Jesus in our faith. We honour not only His devotion in giving Himself up to death as a sacrifice, but also all the holy and obedient acts of His life. In Him the Father found His delight; and so His voice declared. But there is much to learn here: in these divine pictures the burnt offering stands first, not the meal offering. The meal offering always follows as an addition to it. Those who dwell on His coming as man in order to belittle His atoning death speak very differently!
Two ingredients are named in this verse, and neither of them is there for atonement.
The grain offering is a picture of Christ in His perfect humanity and holy, devoted character. It was not for atonement. The holy humanity of Christ and the devotion of His life could not atone for sins. It is called "most holy." The fine flour is sifted and pure, and it comes from the grain of wheat. It is the fitting and beautiful picture of His perfect humanity. The oil, so prominent in this offering, is the picture of the Holy Spirit… The fine flour was mixed with oil. This pictures His coming as man, His conception by the Holy Spirit, His whole being filled with the Spirit.
The three tenths and two tenths are not random amounts. The size of the animal sets the measure.
The ordinary measure was the ephah, and one tenth of it 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; and a bull took three tenths, "three measures of fine flour," which speak of the fullness of Christ.
One writer sees a rule for the worshipper in that fixed ratio.
These offerings go with us through the whole double series. Only the number of the first three animals changes, and the meal offering that goes with them always keeps the same proportion. Our grasp of Christ's Person grows with our grasp of His work, if that grasp is real.
Notice the words God uses of these offerings in this part of Numbers.
"My offering," "My bread," "My sacrifices," "A pleasing aroma to Me." God marks all this out clearly. We may learn here, without any effort, that the great leading thought is Christ toward God. It is not so much Christ meeting our need — though He does meet it richly — as Christ feeding and delighting the heart of God. It is God's bread — a truly wonderful expression, and one little thought of or understood.
- Occasion — The seventh month's trumpet day points to Israel called back into God's blessing. Its single bull makes it a narrower witness than the earlier feasts.
- Pairing — No animal went up alone. The grain offering tied to it says Christ's death could not have happened without His perfect life. Yet God names the burnt offering first, so His life never crowds out His atoning death.
- Substance — Fine flour speaks of His humanity, sifted and pure. Oil mixed right into it speaks of the Holy Spirit filling His whole being.
- Proportion — Three tenths for the bull, two for the ram, one for a lamb. The measure rises with the sacrifice. A real grasp of His work grows into a greater grasp of His Person.
- Purpose — God calls these offerings His own bread. The measure of Christ we bring is food for the heart of God.
and one tenth part for each lamb of the seven lambs;
This verse belongs to the rules for the first day of the seventh month, the day of trumpet blasts. It fixes the exact amount of flour that goes up with each of the seven lambs — so why does God measure worship this closely?
The offerings here belong to one day. They almost match an earlier feast, with one change.
On this day of the blowing of trumpets there was to be a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven lambs in their first year, all without blemish. At Pentecost they offered two young bulls. Otherwise the offerings were the same, and the grain offering was the same for each animal. A young goat was again included as a sin offering, "to make atonement" and not "as a sweet aroma." All of these were added to the regular monthly offerings, as verse 6 shows.
The gap in the calendar before this day carries meaning too.
About four months passed before the Feast of Trumpets. This pictures the long stretch of time after Pentecost, which opened the long age of the grace of God, while Israel has stayed in unbelief. But the Feast of Trumpets stands for the regathering of Israel to their land, as Matthew 24:31 says: "And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Before asking what the flour means, ask who the meal is for.
We can see here, without any effort, that the great leading thought is Christ presented to God. It is not so much Christ meeting our need — though He does meet it, and wonderfully — as Christ feeding and delighting the heart of God. It is God's bread. That is a wonderful phrase, and one that few people think about or understand. We are all too ready to look at Christ only as the One who obtains our salvation, the One through whom we are forgiven and saved from hell, the channel through which every blessing flows to us.
The seven lambs are not special to this day. The same number comes up at feast after feast, with one exception.
The seven lambs in their first year, without blemish, tell of the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God. At every set feast this number of lambs was part of the appointed burnt offering. The one exception was the first seven days of the feast of Tabernacles, when the number was doubled (Num. 29:13-32). The bull, as the largest animal offered in sacrifice, may stand for energy and devotedness, while the ram speaks of consecration.
The measure named here is a human-sized portion, and the animal decides how much flour goes with it.
The usual measure was the ephah. A tenth of an ephah was an omer, the food of one man (Ex. 16:16, 36). In the grain offering, the amount of fine flour that went with the burnt offering matched the size and importance of the animal offered. So a lamb had one tenth, that is one omer; a ram had two tenths, or one fifth; and a bull had three tenths, "three measures of fine flour," which speak of the fullness of Christ.
The proportion holds steady right through, and one writer admits the measures still hold more than he can explain.
These offerings go with us through the whole double series. Only the number of the first three animals changes, and the grain offering that goes with them keeps a constant proportion. Our grasp of Christ's person grows along with our grasp of His work, if that grasp is real. The measures themselves still need someone to explain them.
The flour never goes up alone. It follows the animal, and that order carries meaning.
Christ in His death and Christ in His life were both to be brought to mind before God. His death as a sacrifice of pleasing aroma was to be pictured in advance, but so was His life. The one was never to be pictured without the other. The order, though, tells us something. The grain offering came with the burnt offering or the peace offering. People can only take up Christ's life before God in connection with His death. They read His story, as it were, in reverse order.
- Trumpet — This verse belongs to the day of trumpet blasts. It pictures Israel gathered back from the four winds after a long silence.
- Bread — The offering is God's own bread. The leading thought is Christ delighting the heart of God, not only meeting our need.
- Lamb — Seven lambs without blemish speak of the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God. This was the set number at the feasts.
- Measure — A tenth of an ephah is an omer, one man's food. The flour rises with the animal: a tenth for a lamb, two for a ram, three for a bull.
- Proportion — Our grasp of Christ's person grows with our grasp of His work. The flour never goes up without the blood.
and one buck of the goats for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you,
Numbers 29:5 sits inside a long list of offerings for the first day of the seventh month, and it is the one line that deals with guilt rather than fragrance. One small goat stands beside the bull, the ram and the seven lambs — so why did God keep placing it there?
The offerings of this chapter belong to a day marked out by trumpet blasts. Commentators read that day as a picture of something still ahead for Israel.
It is beautiful to see the significance of these feasts. It shows a wonderful unity: all the people gather together in Jerusalem on the first day of the seventh month. This is exactly the meaning of the feast of trumpets. It foreshadows a time when the people of Israel, now scattered all over the globe, will be gathered together again.
Everything else that day counts as a pleasing aroma to God. The wording changes for the goat, and one writer points to that change.
On this day of blowing of trumpets there was to be a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven lambs in their first year, all unblemished. A kid of the goats was again included as a sin offering, "to make atonement" rather than "as a pleasing aroma." These were all added to the regular monthly offerings, as verse 6 indicates.
The choice of animal carries its own weight.
Only one kid of the goats was given as a sin offering. The goat brings out the substitutionary character of the sacrifice of Christ. As the sin offering He took our place in suffering and death.
A feast day is a day of joy, so the presence of a sin offering can look out of place. It is there because of who is doing the approaching.
Need we say that the sin offering is essential, since man is the one in view, and man is a sinner? You cannot deal with man's approach to God, his worship, or his fellowship with Him, without bringing in the atoning death of Christ as the necessary foundation. The whole heart confesses this with supreme delight. The mystery of Christ's precious sacrifice will be the wellspring of our souls for ever.
Count the animals across these feasts and the balance becomes clear: one goat against whole herds and flocks.
Throughout the entire range of feasts, the leading idea is Christ as a pleasing aroma. The sin offering is never lacking, but the pleasing aroma offerings get the prominent place, and any reader can see it. The first is only spoken of as "one male goat." The second comes before us as "fourteen lambs," "thirteen bulls" and the like.
The difference between the goat and the animals burnt whole is not a difference of value but of direction.
It was Christ toward God. This is the special point in the burnt offering. The sin offering is Christ toward us. In the sin offering, the question is the hatefulness of sin; in the burnt offering, the question is the preciousness and excellence of Christ.
There is a difference between what lets us come near to God and what our worship is made of.
Real worship, although there is a sacrifice for sin, is not founded on the presenting of the sin offering. As redeemed people, we cannot draw near to worship without it. It is the door we come in by, but it is not the true character of our worship. Worship assumes the "pleasing aroma" of the burnt offering — coming up to God not only in the value of the blood, but in our acceptance in Jesus, with all the positive fragrance of what He was and did toward God.
- Trumpets. The day this goat belongs to pictures Israel, now scattered, gathered again.
- Substitute. The goat takes the offerer's place, and points to Christ suffering and dying in our place.
- Foundation. Without the atoning death underneath, no approach to God and no worship is possible. So the sin offering appears at every feast.
- Proportion. One goat against fourteen lambs and thirteen bulls. Sin is fully met, but the larger place goes to what delights God in Christ.
- Doorway. Atonement is the entrance, not the destination. Beyond it lies worship offered in the fragrance of Christ.
-- besides the monthly burnt-offering and its oblation, and the continual burnt-offering and its oblation, and their drink-offerings, according to their ordinance, for a sweet odour, an offering by fire to Jehovah.
This verse closes the instructions for the first day of the seventh month, the day of trumpet blasts. It closes them with one governing word: besides. So why does God pile offering on offering, and then call the whole thing His food?
These chapters open with God calling the offerings "My offering" and "My bread" — where the ESV reads "food offering." One writer treats that line as the key to the whole section.
These words give the reader a key to unlock this whole portion of the Book of Numbers. It is as clear and simple as possible: "My offering," "My bread," "My sacrifices," "A pleasing aroma to Me." We may learn here, without effort, that the grand leading thought is Christ to Godward. It is not so much Christ as meeting our need — though surely He does most blessedly meet that — as Christ feeding and delighting the heart of God. It is God's bread — a truly wonderful expression, and one little thought of or understood.
The verse looks back to "the burnt offering of the new moon." That monthly offering carries its own picture of Christ.
"In the beginnings of your months," that is, at the new moon, when there was the shining out again of what had waned away... The bull represents the largest form of setting forth Christ offered to God, with the idea of energy of devotedness to God, and in the adequate testimony that "two" stands for... The ram is a picture of Christ as an offering of consecration to God... The "seven lambs" mean the completeness of the pleasing aroma of Christ before God.
These offerings belong to the Feast of Trumpets. One writer reads that feast as a picture of something still ahead.
About four months passed by before the Feast of Trumpets took place. This illustrates the long time that passes after Pentecost. Pentecost introduced the extended age of the grace of God, while Israel has been in a state of unbelief. But the Feast of Trumpets symbolizes the regathering of Israel to their land, as Matthew 24:31 notes: "And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Something changes in the seventh month. The new moon offering called for two young bulls; this day calls for one.
The change we find in the seventh month brings the truth out more clearly. This month is the accepted picture of what belongs to Israel in particular — Israel called and brought into the blessing of God. Here the difference is plain, for it asks only for "one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish." It lacks the full testimony to grace that went out to the Gentile as well as the Jew. It is only a single witness to the grace that God is about to show to His people Israel.
The word "besides" carries a rule that runs through both chapters. A special day never cancels the daily sacrifice, which older translations call the continual burnt offering.
There was a firm command never to let the fire of the altar go out... However many sacrifices might be offered on this altar under the detailed instructions in the book of Leviticus, the daily morning and evening burnt offering was never to be left out... God appointed special sacrifices for the Sabbath and for the other feasts. But these were never to replace or exclude "the continual burnt-offering." (Num. 28, 29.)
Trumpet day was also the start of a month. One writer adds up what that put on the altar, and reads meaning in the numbers.
The feast of trumpets has only one bull as its special offering, with the ram and seven lambs. But this day is also the beginning of a month, so these are added to the regular offering, as is explained. So there are, in fact, three bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs. The fourteen lambs, as twice seven, may speak of redemption for Jew and Gentile — separate companies, however, no longer united as in the body of Christ.
The verse also names the drink offering, the wine poured out. It is not a second picture of death.
Wine is a symbol of joy both to God and to man (Jud. 9:13, Ps. 104:15), 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... The drink offering speaks rather of God's joy at the accomplishment of the work of Christ at Calvary.
- Foundation. The daily burnt offering holds everything up. No feast, however special, could replace it.
- Renewal. The new moon pictures light shining out again after it had waned — the monthly offering this verse builds upon.
- Call. The trumpet is God's summons, gathering Israel back after long unbelief.
- Measure. One bull instead of two marks a blessing aimed at Israel, narrower than the grace that reached the nations.
- Delight. Everything stacked on that altar — burnt, grain and poured wine — rises as one pleasing aroma, Christ as food for the heart of God.