Numbers 28

THE LAWS OF THE DAILY WORSHIP AND THE ANNUAL FEASTS RESTATED AND CODIFIED. CHAPS. 28, 29.

Israel was soon to enter the promised land and to have a stationary tabernacle, and for the first time ample facilities for the daily and festal offerings in perfect conformity to the statutes. “It was very fitting that this law should be issued a short time before the advance into Canaan; for it was there first that the Israelites were in a position to carry out the sacrificial worship in its full extent, and to observe all the sacrificial and festal laws.” Knobel. In addition to a conspectus, or condensed view of the national sacrifices, the fact is here brought out that the daily sacrifice was not to be omitted when the general and special sacrifices occurred, but the latter were to accompany the former, and rest upon them as their basis. Thus daily worship is especially honoured, being made fundamental to all extraordinary acts of religious service. “In the daily burnt offering the congregation of Israel was to sanctify its life, body, soul, and spirit to the Lord its God; and on the Lord’s feast days it was to give expression to this sanctification in an intensified form.” Keil and Delitzsch. All the feasts formed a series of concentric circles, of which the sabbath was the centre. From this point, proceeding outward, we find the feast of weeks, months, years, and periods of years arranged according to the number seven. The yearly feasts were seven, two of which lasted seven days. The days of sabbatical rest and holy meeting in all the feasts were seven, the symbol of perfection. Leviticus 4:6, note.