Numbers 29.
IN the 23rd chapter of Leviticus we were given a picture of the coming thousand years of enjoyment of God’s blessing on earth, commonly called the millennium, and here is another, but as always in the Scriptures, there is no mere telling again what has once been told, but new light is given.
There are three parts to this story just as in Leviticus 23. First, the sounding of the trumpets calling Israel to be gathered before God. Second, the day of atonement (verses 7 to 11); and third, the feast of tabernacles (beginning at verse 12). For each one, you will find the expression, “Ye shall do no servile work;” or “Ye shall not do any work therein,” and in the third part it is repeated (verses 12 and 35).
Many today are counting on their works to help them to meet God about their sins, but the Bible says,
The next thing we may notice is that this chapter is all about offerings to God. As we have before seen, these offerings speak of Jesus, God’s Lamb; His precious blood was shed for sins; “by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). Continuous shedding of blood these picture-stories have to include, so that our eyes will be opened to see that “without shedding of blood is no remission” of sin (Hebrews 9:22; 10:8-2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)
8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:8‑22)).
Then we should notice that these offerings which were advance pictures of Jesus, the Christ of God, in His devotedness, and the worth that belonged to Him alone, the God-Man, both in His spotless life, and in His death as a substitute for the believing sinner, of them, God says here no less than five times, “a burnt offering of a sweet savor” unto Him. Reader, nothing can please God, that you and I can do, that does not tell Him of His beloved Son in connection with His death on Calvary’s cross. Have you claimed Him as your own personal Saviour?
This chapter, being then an account of the millennium, shows us first the people of Israel, called back to God in that coming day when He will take them in hand again for blessing. We are then shown that they condemn themselves, they “afflict their souls” (verse 7), because of their sins, and they see at last that the Man they rejected was in truth their Messiah, their Saviour, their King.
Next, (verse 12) the people are gathered in full heart to God; it is not perfection (13 bullocks, not 14, which would have expressed full devotedness to God), but the high tide of the millennium. Yet there is even here decline; the millennium will have sinners in it, and even the earthly saints will not be all that they should be for God. This is pictured in the declining number of the young bullocks.
ML 06/15/1924