The Book of Numbers

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The seventh month held the crown of Israel's sacred calendar, and it opened with sound. "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month," there was to be "an holy convocation... a day of blowing the trumpets." No servile work was done; the day was set apart, and its mark was the trumpet blast ringing across the camp. With it came the offerings, "one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs," and "one kid of the goats for a sin offering." The trumpet was a summons, calling the people to attention and announcing that the most solemn days of the year, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, were now at hand. The sacred season did not slip in quietly; it was heralded, so that all Israel might hear and prepare.

Gospel Focus

The trumpet blast that opened the sacred month is a call to wake and to be ready, and it points forward to the trumpet of God. As the day of teruah summoned Israel to prepare for the holy days ahead, so the gospel sounds a trumpet call to awaken us, "it is high time to awake out of sleep" (Romans 13:11), and it looks to the last trumpet that will gather God's people at the end: "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible" (1 Corinthians 15:52). There is a season coming, heralded by a trumpet, for which we are to be ready. The blast on the first of the seventh month called Israel to attention before the day of atonement drew near; so the call of God rings out to us, summoning us to wake, to prepare our hearts, and to live ready for the coming of the Lord. Do not sleep through the trumpet. Hear the summons, prepare your heart, and be ready for the day when the last trump shall sound.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

On the tenth day fell the most solemn day of the year, the Day of Atonement, treated fully in Leviticus 16. Here its offerings are set in the calendar. It was "an holy convocation," on which the people were to "afflict your souls," humbling themselves in fasting and repentance, and do "no work." The offerings, a bullock, a ram, and seven lambs, with "one kid of the goats for a sin offering," were brought "beside the sin offering of atonement," the great atonement of that day, "and the continual burnt offering." On this day the high priest carried blood into the most holy place to cleanse the nation of all its sin. It was the solemn heart of the sacred month: a day of humbled souls and of atoning blood, when the sin of the people was covered before God.

Gospel Focus

The Day of Atonement is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, who "by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12). What the high priest did once a year, Christ did once for all; the atonement Israel humbly received each autumn is ours forever in Him. And the call to "afflict your souls" abides in spirit: God still seeks the humbled, contrite heart. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:17). Atonement is received not with pride but with a bowed soul; the way to the mercy of the cross is the lowly heart that mourns its sin. Between the trumpet's summons and the joy of Tabernacles stood the Day of Atonement, for there is no true rejoicing before God that does not pass through the humbling of the soul and the covering of the blood. Come to the atonement Christ has made, not casually but with a contrite heart, and find your sins covered once for all.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The month climaxed in the joyful Feast of Tabernacles, "the fifteenth day of the seventh month," a seven-day feast of abundant offerings. The bullocks descended day by day: thirteen on the first day, twelve on the second, eleven on the third, and so on down to seven on the seventh, seventy bullocks in all across the week, along with rams and lambs, all "without blemish." Then came a distinct close: "on the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly," an atsereth, with a single bullock, one ram, and seven lambs. The seven days of the feast were crowned by an eighth, a lingering day to tarry in worship. And through it all, the offerings were brought "beside the continual burnt offering," and "beside your vows, and your freewill offerings." The sacred year reached its height in a feast of joy, generosity, and abundant sacrifice.

Gospel Focus

Two beautiful pictures shine from the Feast of Tabernacles. First, the seventy bullocks. Jewish tradition has long seen in these seventy sacrifices a reference to the seventy nations of the world listed in the table of nations (Genesis 10), Israel offering, as it were, on behalf of all mankind. Whether or not that was its original intent, it points to a glorious gospel truth: the sacrifice of Christ was offered with all nations in view, for "he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). The feast that gathered Israel's harvest looked out toward the great harvest of every nation. Second, the eighth day. The eighth day, beyond the seven, has always spoken in Scripture of new beginnings and resurrection, the first day of a new week, the day Christ rose. And it was on this very day, "the last day, that great day of the feast," that Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). On the eighth day of Tabernacles, the true Fountain offered living water to all who would come. The trumpet has summoned us, the atonement has covered us, and the living water is offered freely; come and drink, and join the great ingathering of the nations into the joy of God.