Exodus 29:38-42

THE DAILY SACRIFICE

"Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with a fourth part of a hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink-offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and shall do thereto according to the meal-offering of the morning, and according to the drink-offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto Jehovah. It shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee."

Here is the institution of one of the most distinctive features of the Judaic faith, that of the Daily Sacrifice, an institution that was observed by Israel throughout their history unto the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus in A.D. 70. It ceased, as God prophesied that it would, "upon the wings of abomination" when God made a full end of the Old Israel (Daniel 9:27).

"Where I will meet you to speak there unto thee ..." God ordained that there should be only one altar for Israel throughout her generations, the one introduced in Exodus, the one in the tabernacle. The foolish notion that this restriction to the one altar "took place in Josiah's reign (1 Kings 23:4ff),"[27] is refuted and denied by every word of Exodus.

Some of the terminology here is not meaningful today without translating it into current language. "The ephah," for example "is about 3/5ths of a bushel."[28] A tenth part of an ephah would be about three and a half pints. The hin was "one sixth of an ephah, and a quarter of a hin was therefore about a pint and a half."[29] "The drink offering," mentioned here for the first time in connection with the rites of the altar, is subject to the Law of Drink Offerings in Numbers 25:5ff.[30]