Numbers 29
Sunday Evening Bible Study
April 19, 1998
Introduction
The Israelites are right on the verge of entering into their Promised Land.
The last time they were right on the edge of entering in, they were discouraged by the reports of giants, and they didn’t think they could trust God to take care of them.
So they’ve spent the last 40 years, wandering in the wilderness as God has been transforming them from a bunch of complaining slaves, into a lean, mean, fighting machine.
They’ve actually began the "warm-up" exercises, by conquering the Amorite kings Sihon and Og.
But then a tragedy has struck, as they got sidetracked by a temptation to sin. The Moabites sent their young ladies into the Israeli camp to tempt them into fornication, and as a result there was a plague, and 24,000 died.
Now, after having taken the second census in the wilderness, they’re beginning to get a "refresher course" on the basics of their worship, beginning last week with a reminder of some of the basic offerings, and now we’ve begun a review of the major feasts.
The Feasts were important for several reasons:
1. They taught the people history.
Sometimes a feast was tied to an historical event, and the yearly celebration helped the people remember what God had done in the past, such as the Passover, when God had delivered Israel out of Egypt.
2. They were opportunities to pass on the faith.
These were times to make the children ask questions and learn about their family’s faith.
3. They brought the people together.
These feasts were often called "holy convocations", we call it "fellowship".
4. They had prophetic importance.
COL 2:16-17 Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- 17 things which are a {mere} shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Numbers 29
:1-6 Feast of Trumpets
:1 a day for blowing trumpets
Actually, trumpets were blown on the first of every month, during the New Moon Festivals.
(Num 10:10 KJV) Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.
But this was a special feast, on the first of the seventh month.
There was to be a "holy convocation", and it was to be a Sabbath day, a day of rest.
(Lev 23:24-25 KJV) Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. {25} Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Historically
Again, no real historical tie is given in Scripture.
The reason for this feast seems to be to call attention to the fact that the seventh month has arrived. That meant that the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was just around the corner, and the people better get ready for it.
This has become known as the Jewish New Year, because according to the Jewish Civil Calendar, this was "New Year's Day". The Jewish religious calendar was different in that the month of the Passover was to be the "first of months" for them.
This is known today as "Rosh Hashanah". It typically falls in the September/October time frame.
Prophetically
There doesn't seem to have been any sort of fulfillment of this as of yet. There hasn't been any kind of trumpet blast yet to get people ready.
But one is coming!
1TH 4:15-17 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.
1CO 15:50-53 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
What's the "last trumpet"?
1. Some think it could be the last of the seven trumpets in Revelation, putting the rapture at the end of the Tribulation period.
2. Could it be the last time that Rosh Hashanah is celebrated?
3. Could it be the right "shofar"?
This was a trumpet that was curved, shaped like, or even made from a ram's horn.
This was thought to be the trumpet that was blown on the first of the seventh month, for the "Feast of Trumpets".
Later, around 500 B.C.., the rabbis (according to Chuck Missler) added a second day to the feast of trumpets.
On the first day, the left horn of a ram was blown, call the "first trump", on the last day, the right horn was blown, called the "last trump".
Could it be that the "Rapture" could occur on Rosh Hashanah? An interesting possibility. Does this mean we have to wait for another year? Don't count on it!
Lesson:
We should ALWAYS be ready for the Rapture.
(Mat 24:45-51 KJV) Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? {46} Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. {47} Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. {48} But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; {49} And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; {50} The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, {51} And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It is the "evil slave" that says "He's not coming today".
It doesn't matter whether you're pre- mid- pre-wrath or post-, all that matters is that you are ready to meet your master.
:7-11 Day of Atonement
:7 on the tenth day of this seventh month
The Day of Atonement, or, Yom Kippur.
Yom = Day, Kippur = Atonement (same word used in Num.29:11)
Again, it falls in the September/October time frame.
Historically
This was another feast day not tied to commemorate some historical event, but was intended to be a day when a specific religious function was carried out by the high priest. (Leviticus 16)
This was the one day of the year when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and make atonement for the sins of the nation upon the mercy seat (God's throne).
After getting properly dressed and washed, the High Priest would make a sin offering for himself, sprinkling the blood of a bull in the holy of holies upon the mercy seat while burning incense.
Then, the High Priest would make a sin offering for the people, and take the blood of the goat and sprinkle it in the holy of holies on the mercy seat.
Then the High Priest would confess the sins of the nation over the head of another goat, which would be set free in the wilderness, to carry the people's sins away from them.
The overall purpose of the day:
(Lev 16:29-30 KJV) And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: {30} For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
For today's Jews, the day is handled quite differently.
Today a good Jew will spend the day thinking about all the good things and all the bad things he's done over the year.
If the good things outweigh the bad things, then everything’s fine. If not, then you've got some work to do.
But where's God's purpose of atoning for sin? Where's the blood that is supposed to be spilt?
Prophetically
In one aspect, this has been fulfilled. In another, it hasn't.
Fulfilled:
The Great High Priest has entered into the Holy of Holies once for all and offered His own blood for our sins.
HEB 9:24-26 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a {mere} copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Not yet fulfilled:
DAN 9:24 "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy {place.}
Even though atonement for sin was accomplished by Jesus on the cross, the whole package of the seventy-weeks isn't over until Jesus comes again.
Sin is still around. It hasn't ended yet.
The seventy weeks end with the return of Jesus Christ.
Some have theorized that the day of Jesus' coming could be on Yom Kippur.
:12-40 Feast of Tabernacles
:12 fifteenth day of the seventh month
Historically
Also called "Succoth", "Feast of Booths", as well as "Feast of Ingathering". It was celebrated at the time when the crops were all harvested and the barns were full.
The people were to all go camping in their backyards, building "booths", or, "tabernacles" out of tree branches. For seven days they would live in the booths, teaching the people how the children of Israel lived in tents, wandering for forty years.
The people didn't always celebrate this feast. But when they returned from their exile in Babylon, one day somebody was reading the Bible, and they discovered something!
Neh.8:1-13 Ezra gathers everyone on Feast of Trumpets and reads.
NEH 8:14-18 And they found written in the law how the \Lord\ had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. 15 So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches, and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of {other} leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." 16 So the people went out and brought {them} and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate, and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 And the entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. 18 And he read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day {there was} a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.
Lesson:
Joy in Jesus.
I think there should be a joy involved in obeying the Lord. If your walk in the Lord is not fun, I think there must be something wrong!
PSA 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Prophetically
This is the only feast that we know for sure will be celebrated after Jesus returns.
(Zec 14:16 KJV) And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Why is this feast going to be celebrated during the Millennial Kingdom?
Because the Kingdom is when Jesus will live and rule among us. He will permanently "tabernacle" ("dwell") with us.
(John 1:14 KJV) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Kingdom is when God has done his final "Ingathering" of his people.
So, the Feast of Tabernacles speaks of the Kingdom Age.
:13-38 thirteen bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs
During the seven days of the feast there was an elaborate scheme of sacrifice that was to go on.
Each successive day was to offer up one less bull, but all the other animals, until after seven days, there would be a total of seventy bulls, fourteen rams, and ninety-eight lambs sacrificed.
This was by far the most costliest feast yet.
This was also called the "Feast of Ingathering" because it took place after all the crops had been harvested, and the people were settling down for winter.
It would be taking place during the time of greatest stored up abundance on the farm.
:39 beside your vows, and your freewill offerings ...
These were the basic requirement offerings. There were still offerings on top of this that the people could perform.