Numbers 28 Study Notes

28:11-15 At the beginning of each of your months additional burnt offerings of consecration were made, constituting a grand rite through which the nation paid homage to God as its Creator and Sustainer.

28:16-25 According to Ex 12:8, the foundational Passover foods were the Passover lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. These helped the people remember the events that brought about the redemption of Israel from Egypt. Passover lambs were offered as communal sacrifices, with portions consumed by both the priests and the offerers in the presence of God in the Israelite camp, or later in Jerusalem after the temple was built. Unleavened bread, which Deuteronomy calls the “bread of hardship,” was consumed in imitation of the original setting. The bitter herbs were a reminder of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. In this passage some elements are added to the celebration: Sabbath designation (meaning no work) for the first and final days of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, complete with a sacred assembly at the sanctuary; and additional sacrifices equivalent to those offered on the New Moon (two bulls, one ram, and seven lambs, each accompanied by their appropriate grain/oil and libation offerings). The sacrificial list was completed with the offering of a goat for a sin offering on behalf of the people.

28:26-31 The first day of the Festival of Weeks (Hb shavuoth) was called the day of firstfruits. It was considered a Sabbath, with burnt and sin offerings essentially the same as the New Moon sacrifices. The firstfruits offering of the new grain harvest was included in the ritual practices for the day when the seven weeks after the first sheaf (Lv 23:10) were completed. Sheaves of new barley and wheat were elevated and waved before the Lord in celebration of the gift of the harvest. These were in addition to the prescribed offering of two loaves of leavened bread (Lv 23:15-22; Dt 16:3) given in thanksgiving for the abundance of God’s blessing. In the NT, the Festival of Weeks is called Pentecost, based on the Greek pentekoste (fiftieth), since the day is the fiftieth day after the first sheaf.