Numbers 28:16-31 - Passover and Pentecost

Numbers 28:16-31

Offerings at Passover (Leviticus 23:5–14)

16 On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the LORD. 17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast; unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. 18 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. 19 And you shall present an offering made by fire as a burnt offering to the LORD: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year. Be sure they are without blemish. 20 Their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah you shall offer for a bull, and two-tenths for a ram; 21 you shall offer one-tenth of an ephah for each of the seven lambs; 22 also one goat as a sin offering, to make atonement for you. 23 You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a regular burnt offering. 24 In this manner you shall offer the food of the offering made by fire daily for seven days, as a sweet aroma to the LORD; it shall be offered besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. 25 And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work.

Offerings at the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15–22)

26 ‘Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the LORD at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. 27 You shall present a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the LORD: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, 28 with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, 29 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; 30 also one kid of the goats, to make atonement for you. 31 Be sure they are without blemish. You shall present them with their drink offerings, besides the regular burnt offering with its grain offering.

These ritual sacrifice offerings included the Passover and the feast of weeks or harvest, starting seven full weeks, or exactly 50 days, after the Feast of Firstfruits.  Since it takes place exactly 50 days after the previous feast, this feast of weeks is also known as “Pentecost” which we are more familiar with.  The Passover is the easiest to remember because it was a remembrance of the passing over of God’s judgment on the firstborn in Egypt who had the blood of the lamb applied on the outside of the doors of their dwellings, just as now the lifeblood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, covers our sins and keeps us from the destruction of hope in the final judgment on all the world.  The Passover required a perfect sacrifice to atone for their sins to be acceptable to God as they attempted to do no work, just as we in Christ remember it is His work alone through His suffering and sacrifice on the cross which atones for our sin forever.  Only a perfect Lamb of God (John 1:1-2, 29) who is divine God is able to make the perfect sacrifice that is eternally atoning (Isaiah 53:11, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 2:2) to cover all our past, present, and future (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 10:10) sin.  The following feast of weeks, the Pentecost, was fulfilled in the bringing of the Spirit of God into believers to create the church of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes our sins away and nails the requirements of working for salvation to the cross (Colossians 2:13, 14) as the final nail in the coffin of our eternal penalty of death for sin, promising a resurrection out of the coffin’s graves as our ongoing and never ending story of our atonement and redemption by His work alone and the ceasing of our own flawed works in our vain attempts (Romans 3:20, 23, Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 4:9-10) to earn a place in heaven.  This is Grace and the gospel in shadows given long ago for us to read and understand His marvelous plan to deliver us through and to Himself.  This is Passover and Pentecost for our souls, the account of the original celebrations of Passover and Pentecost that we find fulfilled in the work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world as our efforts are incapable of ever being able to do.  Amen.