What is a drink offering?

THE DRINK OFFERING. This was not usually offered alone, but see Gen. 35:14. It was offered with the morning and evening sacrifice, which was a burnt offering, accompanied by a meat offering. It consisted of wine, the quantity varying with the animal offered . Num. 28:14. "In the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink offering." Num. 28:7. In the land of Canaan a drink offering was to be joined to the sweet savour oblations. The quantity of oil and of wine was equal, and proportionate to the importance of the victim. Num. 15:1-11. The drink offering may be typical of joy in the Spirit in the sense of the value of Christ's work as done to God's glory. Phil. 2:17 may allude to the drink offering.

Answer: First, because being a liquid, it could hardly be burned on the altar. Some have thought it may have been poured over the sacrifice, but we have no direct Scripture to this effect so far as I can find. We may have an indirect indication of this in Phil. 2:17 where Paul says, "Yea, and if I be offered (poured forth) upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." This is regarded as a New Testament answer to the type, joy and rejoicing being the element typified by "wine."

For myself, I have long thought the "drink offering" was not so much the sacrifice — it was not a sacrifice — but rather the divine delight obtained as the result of a work accomplished both for the pleasure of God and the blessing of His creature. For this reason it always comes in last as though it suggested the securing of the delight of God as the result of the sacrifices which it followed. The first "drink offering" ever recorded in Scripture was poured out by Jacob, Gen. 35:14. Here, I gather, it was the result of God's dealings with Jacob till at last he is in full communion with God and from now on is moving in a way pleasurable to God. It is the only "drink offering" recorded in Genesis. The next and only one in Exodus is found in ch. 29:40-41. Here again it is the last offering mentioned in the consecration of the priesthood and, being bound up with the morning and evening lamb, it suggests the continual delight of God in the accomplished work of His Well-Beloved Son. The sacrifice was offered up and thus consumed. The "drink offering" was poured out and so remains.

The drink-offering is universally the joy of God. It was thorough action between God and the people.

The drink offerings were to be composed of “strong wine” (Num.28:7), which would answer to the animal sacrifices having to be without blemish, perfect in all respects (Lev.22:17-25) and the meal offering having to be composed of fine flour with the exclusion of leaven and honey (Lev.2:11). This is because the offerings are to speak to God, and to us, of the Lord Jesus Christ and hence they are to display the sinless perfection and absolute purity of His humanity (c.f. 1 John 3:5, 1 Pet.2:22, 2 Cor.5:21). The wine was to be pure, in the sense that it was not to be watered down. Only perfection can please God. Christ’s perfect sinless humanity is always maintained in type.

The use of wine is also instructive. 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 or else the offering would be composed of blood which was poured out in the animal sacrifices, or consumed by fire in picture of the judgment of God. There is no such command, indeed the practice of offering blood as a drink offering was condemned by God (Ps.16:4, 106:37-38). The drink offering speaks rather of God’s joy at the accomplishment of the work of Christ at Calvary. This will become clear when we consider the passages in more detail.

Jacob’s Drink Offering (Gen.35:14)

Certain sacrifices were accompanied by drink-offerings. These consisted in wine, a symbol of joy (Jdg. 9:13; Ps. 104:15). An informative passage on the drink-offering is Numbers 15, where we learn that drink-offerings were bound up with those offerings by fire which were ‘of a sweet odour’ to God, i.e. the burnt-offering and the peace-offering: ‘When ye come into the land of your dwellings, which I give unto you, and will make an offering by fire unto 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, 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; and of wine for a drink-offering shalt thou offer the fourth part[6] of a hin with the burnt-offering, or with the sacrifice, for one lamb’ (Num. 15:2–5).

These two items (the wine and the sweet savour) make it clear that with the drink-offering it is a matter of God’s joy over the finished work of His Son and not so much ours. It is noticeable that drink-offerings always seem to stand at the end, i.e. when something has been fully accomplished, and particularly when God had achieved His end with the soul in question. A few examples will illustrate this:

The Altar then re-arranged, the morning burnt-offering was offered up, accompanied by its appointed meat-offering and drink-offering, viz., a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil for the meat, or meal-offering, and a fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink-offering (Ex. 29:38-42). Thus was set forth in that daily burnt-offering, and twice each day, first in the morning and then in the evening, the death of Christ and His life on earth as a man, in whom God can find joy. Of this last, the drink-offering it was that bore witness.

The Drink Offering to Accompany the Continual Burnt Offering (Ex.29:38-46, Num.28:3-8)

We first read of the drink offering in connection with the Israelites in relation to the continual burnt offering. The children of Israel were to offer “two lambs of the first year day by day continually”, one in the morning and the other in the evening, and each was to be accompanied by a meal offering and a drink offering of a fourth part of a hin of wine. It was to be offered at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, and it was there that God said He would speak to them.

The numerous references to the drink offering in these two chapters shows the inestimable joy that God has in Christ because of the work He accomplished to divine satisfaction in glorifying God. That we can have part in this in worshipping God, in presenting Christ in all His perfection, is wonderful grace on God’s part.

The amount of wine to be offered was also prescribed by the law. The drink offering was to be poured out (whether onto the sacrifice or beside it we are not told, although Gen.35:14 and Phil.2:17 suggest that it was poured onto the sacrifice) in its entirety before the Lord. There was no part of the offering to be consumed by the offerer, all was for God. Thus the drink offering, as the burnt offering, has in view Christ’s work Godward (this would also explain the absence of any mention of a drink offering accompanying any peace offering).

However, we shall look at each occurrence of the drink offering in turn to determine what this offering typifies and to learn the lessons that the Spirit of God would teach us.

But no drink-offering was commanded apart from the sacrifice. No drink-offering was enjoined in connection with the meat-offering by itself. No drink-offering would the sons of Aaron have poured out in connection only with the animal on the altar. 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, the drink-offering was not to be withheld; the wine which cheereth God and man could then be poured out in token that in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died, there was that which gave joy to God, and in which those by whom it was offered could share. And as redemption by blood had in type been accomplished, God made known that men could have joy in common with Him, though only in connection with, and with reference to, that which the sacrifice on the altar prefigured. And this was to hold good for Israel, for those born in the land, and for the stranger which sojourned with them as well. (Num. 15:13–15.) Yet, never, let it again be observed, was this offering commanded to be brought apart from the sacrifice on the altar, though Israel, it would seem, did separate the two in their idolatrous rites.

But not only was the drink-offering to accompany the daily oblation, for in Numbers 15 we are instructed that, after the children of Israel had entered their land, as often as any one, whether of the race of Israel or not, brought a burnt-offering of the herd or of the flock, a sacrifice in performing a vow, or a free-will offering, and at Israel's solemn feasts, a meat-offering and a drink-offering were to be the accompaniment for every animal offered up. In Exodus 29, where the daily burnt-offering was spoken of, the measure of the drink-offering was fixed at the fourth part of an hin of wine. In Numbers 15 however we learn that the measure of the wine varied with the size of the animal. But, though it varied with the size and character of the animal offered up in sacrifice, it always corresponded to the amount of oil appointed to be used in the accompanying meat-offering. The offerer knew that he had to increase his drink-offering the larger the animal he brought; but the measure of oil, appointed for the accompanying meat-offering, was the measure of wine, which he must provide for the drink-offering. From this rule we read not of any deviation, and its propriety we can surely discern. For if the wine was the expression of joy to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and in His death, the measure of joy derived therefrom corresponded to the measure of the Holy Ghost within Him, of which the oil in the meat-offering was typical.

But no drink-offering was commanded apart from the sacrifice. No drink-offering was enjoined in connection with the meat-offering by itself. No drink-offering would the sons of Aaron have poured out in connection only with the animal on the altar. 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, the drink-offering was not to be withheld: the wine which cheers God and man could then be poured out in token that in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died, there was that which gave joy to God, and in which those by whom it was offered could share. And as atonement was portrayed in type upon the altar, God made known that men could have joy in common with Him, though only in connection with, and with reference to, that which the sacrifice on the altar prefigured. And this was to hold good for Israel, for those born in the land, and for the stranger which sojourned with them as well. (Num. 15:13-15.) Yet, never, let it again be observed, was this offering commanded to be brought apart from the sacrifice on the altar, though Israel, it would seem, did separate the two in their idolatrous rites.

But not only was the drink-offering to accompany the daily oblation, for in Numbers 15 we are instructed that, after the children of Israel had entered their land, as often as anyone, whether of the race of Israel or not, brought a burnt-offering of the herd or of the flock, a sacrifice in performing a vow, or a free-will offering, and at Israel's solemn feasts, a meat-offering and a drink-offering were to be the accompaniment for every animal offered up. In Exodus 29, where the daily burnt-offering was spoken of, the measure of the drink-offering was fixed at the fourth part of an hin of wine. In Numbers 15 however, we learn that the measure of the wine varied with the size of the animal. But though it varied with the size and character of the animal offered up in sacrifice, it always corresponded to the amount of oil appointed to be used in the accompanying meat-offering. The offerer knew that he had to increase his drink-offering the larger the animal he brought; but the measure of oil, appointed for the accompanying meat-offering, was the measure of wine, which he had to provide for the drink-offering. From this rule we read not of any deviation, and its propriety we can surely discern. For if the wine was the expression of joy to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and in His death, the measure of joy derived therefrom corresponded to the measure of the Holy Ghost within Him, of which the oil in the meat-offering was typical.