Bible Commentaries
Numbers 28

Verses 1-40

VIII

THE TIMES OF COMING BEFORE THE LORD

Leviticus 23:25; Numbers 28-29

Our study is Leviticus 23:25, considered with Numbers 28-29. The general theme is, "The Times of Coming before the Lord."

1. What has already been considered concerning coming before the Lord?

Ans. – We have considered the place to come; we have considered the sacrifice with which to come; we have considered the priests through whom the approach is made to God; and now we are to consider the times in which God is to be approached, or the appointed times.

2. How often every day?

Ans. – Every morning and every evening, Numbers 28:1-9.

3. What is its name, and why so called ?

Ans. – The continual burnt offering, because it is day by day, forever, or unto the end of the Jewish dispensation; hence it is called "continual."

4. What constitutes the sabbatic cycle?

Ans. – (1) The weekly sabbath; (2) The lunar, or monthly sabbath; (3) The annual sabbaths – those sabbaths connected with the Day of Atonement, the feast of weeks, Pentecost, the Trumpets and Ingatherings, and quite a number of other annual sabbaths; (4) Then the land sabbath, or every seventh year; (5) Then the Jubilee year sabbath, or every fiftieth year. That is the sabbatic cycle. Every one is a sabbath of a certain period. When you talk of the monthly sabbath, remember that the Jews reckoned by lunar months, not calendar months as we do, and they had their own way of finishing out the year. The month of the Jew was four weeks – four times seven) or twenty-eight days.

5. Give an account of the weekly sabbath for (1) the race, (2) the Jew, (3) the Christian; i.e., its origin and purpose.

Ans. – (1) The sabbath for the race was ordained before man sinned. You will find an account of it in the Genesis I (the real first chapter, though it commences the second chapter, that is, it ought to be a part of the first), and it commemorates God’s work of creation. (2) The Jewish sabbath was instituted on Sinai, an addition to the commemoration of the creation sabbath and brought in the idea of a redemption, so called because of the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. (3) The Christian sabbath is the first day of the week, and it commemorates, not the work of God, but the work of Christ in redemption. Each of these three sabbaths is commemorative. It not only looks back to some great event, but each one looks forward to some event.

6. What says our Lord as to the purpose of the sabbath?

Ans. – He says that the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath, that is, when you make man for the sabbath, you are making "the tail wag the dog." The dog wasn’t made for the tail; the tail was made for the dog. Now the sabbath was made for man, as commemorating the creation, or deliverance, of Christ’s work of redemption. It was made for man, i.e., to serve some good purposes concerning man.

7. What literature is specially commended concerning the weekly sabbath?

Ans. – I commended the work of the great Baptist, George Dana Boardman, on the Ten Commandments. This he delivered before the University of Pennsylvania, and I don’t know anything in literature that is better. The other is the special literature in the three sermons preached by the author on the sabbath, on the opening of the Waco Cotton Palace. They are the last three sermons in the first book of sermons.

8. What is the New Testament proof of the abrogation of the Jewish sabbath?

Ans. – You will find the proof in the letter to the Colossians, where it states that the whole cycle of Jewish sabbaths was nailed to the cross of Christ, and "therefore let no man judge you concerning the sabbath days."

9. Give an account of the lunar sabbaths, i.e., the monthly sabbaths.

Ans. – As these are so easily found, I am going to leave it to you to find out. Those of you who are happy enough to have The Students’ Bible by Nave, with marginal notes and footnotes, will find it of incalculable value in this and any other work on the Bible. For instance, in the index it takes the new moon, and it refers you to all the scriptures bearing upon it, and a complete analysis is given. Now you will have very little trouble just to answer from the Bible itself that question. Now we come to the annual sabbaths.

10. Give an account of the Passover – when instituted, why instituted, date, the great observances of it, type of what, and the New Testament ordinance analogous to it.

Ans. – (In the footnote on page 231 of the Nave Bible you have all that answered without any trouble at all. Just take it and study it. You will need it, and in Hiscock’s Analysis of the Bible, and a number of other Bibles that have helps to them, you will find valuable help in this work.) In general terms, the Passover was instituted in Egypt. There was first the Passover lamb, which was slain and its blood sprinkled upon the door, through which the first-born of Israel were delivered. Now the Feast of the Passover, the one that commemorates this great deliverance, was established at the same time and place through Moses. The same place will give you the dates exactly. For instance, the Passover lamb was slain on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan.

The Feast of the Unleavened Bread followed that for one week. The Passover lamb is the type of our Lord Jesus Christ: "Christ, our Passover, is slain for us." The great historical observances of it are these: (1) The first observance when it was instituted in Egypt; (2) Joshua’s observance of it when he reached the Holy Land; (3) Hezekiah’s great observance of it; (4) Josiah’s great observance of it; (5) The observance of it after the return from Babylonian captivity; (6) The observance of it by Christ and his apostles. Another part of the question is: What New Testament ordinance is analogous to it? The Lord’s Supper. As that Passover lamb was slain, and the feast commemorated it, so Christ is our Passover lamb, and in commemoration of his death for sin, we have the Lord’s Supper.

Provision was made also for what is called the "Little Passover." If unavoidable circumstances prevented the Jews from observing the Feast of the Passover, then a month later there was what is called the "Little Passover," in which they could comply with the law. See Numbers 9:6-12; 2 Chronicles 30:2-4.

11. Give an account of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread; its relation to the Passover; its purpose; and the New Testament’ reference to it.

Ans. – The relation of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread to the Passover is that it immediately follows it, and carries out its idea. In this feast, even the very houses must be purged from leaven, as Paul says, "Let us purge out the old leaven of malice and wickedness, and eat our bread with sincerity and truth."

12. What days of this feast are holy convocations?

Ans. – The first day and the seventh day. Both of them are constituted sabbaths, and the people came together; therefore they are called the convocations. You will find in Numbers in one of the two chapters I give you (Numbers 28-29) that there is a difference in what are called the feasts and the convocations. Exodus says that there are three great feasts, and in Numbers you will find six, yet it does not conflict with Exodus. The names are different; one of them means times, i.e., set times, and the other means feasts proper. The whole matter is elaborated in Numbers 28-29.

13. Give an account of the Day of Atonement.

Ans. – I have already answered it in Leviticus 18:1-30.

14. Give an account of Pentecost; its origin, date, purpose, type of what, and spiritual meaning.

Ans. – Count fifty days from the sabbath after the Passover was slain, that is, seven times seven, and then the next day – that was the Pentecost. It is from the Greek word which means fifty, that is, the fiftieth day. The Jewish Pentecost was a type of the outpouring of the Spirit of God, as we find in Acts 2.

15. Give an account of the Feast of Tabernacles, or Ingatherings, date, purpose and New Testament references.

Ans. – Now I am putting more in these questions than in the answers, for it will be brought out in recitation. You ought to learn this so that you will never forget it. See "The Students’ Bible," by Nave.

16. The Feast of the Trumpets: give an account just as you do of the others.

Ans. – You may form your own answer to that in the same way.

17. In these annual feasts, how many days of holy convocation are there?

Ans. – That you will find in Numbers 28-29.

18. In those feasts are there any references to agriculture?

Ans. – There are some. Three of them, at least; one of them comes at the opening of the barley harvest, one at the wheat harvest, and one at the harvest of the oil, wine, and of fruits at different seasons of the year.

19. Therefore, what do the radical critics affirm of all these feasts, and the reply to it?

Ans. – They say that these Jewish feasts are no more than the feasts of other nations that are based upon nature, the different seasons of the year and hence of lunar origin; and that the historical account of their institution is unreliable; and that they were really originated in the time of Ezekiel, during the Babylonian captivity. If you ask one of them to state any book of history, sacred or profane, that testifies to this allegation, they will tell you there is none. In other words, their conviction is supported by no historical evidence whatever. Their philosophy about these things is to try to account for everything in the book, without recourse to the supernatural. They deny all miracles, as they interfere with the affairs of nature, and of course, in accounting for these things, they apply to them what they call the theory of development or evolution, viz.: that the history had an evolution. You ask them for proof, and they tell you that from the books themselves they get these things, that is, they evolve it from their own consciousness. It is impossible to have any respect for them. No man who denies the supernatural has the right to try to expound the Bible. Now as proof: In three of the other feasts there is no reference to products, i.e., the year in different harvests, and the historical account given here cannot be explained by any reference to nature. Take the Passover, for instance and there is nothing in the word, Passover, that nature explains. This book tells us that the Passover was commemorative of the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, and all their history from that time on points to the same thing. In the same way, there is nothing analogous in any historical feast; nothing that approximates the land sabbath or the Jubilee sabbath, or the purpose for which these sabbaths were instituted. I used to be an infidel myself, and used to question all these things, and I always felt how lame a thing it was to try to prove it by some historical testimony.

20. From what came our National Thanksgiving?

Ans. – It may be found in any good encyclopedia. See answer to the next question.

21. What woman, after eighteen years of labor, brought about the National Thanksgiving, which had been disused from the time of Washington? Who was the President whom she induced to issue a National Thanksgiving proclamation?

Ans. – The states of New England had their annual Thanksgiving Day, and the governor issued the proclamation. When Washington was President, he issued a National Thanksgiving proclamation. I have a copy of it; no other President followed his example for many years. John Adams and Jefferson, who followed him, were both free thinkers; didn’t either of them have any religion, and they disbelieved in the nation issuing anything that referred to God, or God’s government of man. Now this woman that I am telling about, determined that there should be a revival of the National Thanksgiving, and after working eighteen years, she succeeded. Now my question is, who was the woman, and who was the President that resumed the Washington example, that has been kept up by every succeeding President to the present time?

Ans. – The woman was Mrs. C. C. Gale and the President was Abraham Lincoln. The date was 1863.

22. Were there no other times to come before the Lord, except those times mentioned, viz.: every morning, every evening, every month, these annual comings, the seventh-year comings, and the fiftieth-year comings?

Ans. – No other set times, but, of course, whoever committed a sin, he could come at any time, when he committed a sin; whoever, because of ceremonial uncleanness, could not come at the sat time could come at another time, but that isn’t a set time. A set time is one that is appointed; that must be observed always.

23. What later annual feast was established by the Jews? Give an account of it, and the book in the Bible from which you get its history.

Ans. – The Feast of Purim, a Jewish feast commemorating the defeat of Hainan’s plot to massacre the Jews, observed about March I each year. The book of the Bible is Esther. The Jews observe it now. They do not those others, but they do this last one.

24. How many of the annual feasts are reckoned from the Day of Atonement?

Ans. – Take the Day of Atonement, and you reckon so many days; you come to one, then reckon so many days and you get to another. Now I want to know how many days are reckoned from the Day of Atonement. All of them except the Passover and the Unleavened Bread, and they refer back to a special atonement of their own.

25. All of these feasts, including the sabbath day, the monthly, the annual, the seventh year and the fiftieth year, all of these were feasts of great joy except one. Which one was it?

Ans. – The great Day of Atonement. Now these are the questions. This is unlike any other chapter that I will give; the object is (the answers are so easy) to get the reader to do the studying. So if any one asks you on the street, or you are to go to preach, or a man should step up and say: "Give an account of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or the Feast of the Tabernacles, what about it?" – why, you are ready to answer, and to show the spiritual significance of it, and you will observe that all of these constitute a symmetrical sabbatic cycle. You cannot take away any one of them without breaking the symmetry of all of them. It is like the joints of a skeleton; every one has its place.

26. Now I will give you another question: Who wrote the famous poem on the "Holy Year"?

Ans. – With the Jews all the year was holy, and certain days, recurring days, brought them to God for one purpose or another. This English poet that I am telling you about did not take the Jewish calendar, he took the Christian calendar for his holy year. While some of the sentiments in it can scarcely be sustained, yet the sentiment of it is so pure, so holy, that it would be well for you to read it. The title of this book is The Christian Year, by Rev. John Keble.