UNROLL
Evening on a hilltop in Canaan: a round stone threshing floor with a heap of winnowed golden grain and a wooden winnowing fork, olive trees and terraced fields falling away below, under a calm warm sky.

The Book of

Numbers 15

Right after God said ‘not this generation,’ He began: ‘After you enter the land…’

41 verses≈ 7 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–10Ready at SinaiCounted and ordered
  2. 11–14GrumblingTo Kadesh and refusal
  3. 15–21Forty yearsRebellion and mercyChapter 15
  4. 22–25BalaamA curse turned to blessing
  5. 26–36A new generationReady for the land

Laws about Offerings

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land that I am giving you as a home

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After you enter the land that I am giving you as a home

Numbers 15:2

On a reed mat before the court's white linen wall, a clay jug pours a thin stream of dark red wine into a small bowl, beside a wide bowl of fine flour glistening with oil and a small oil jar.

What to bring

With every offering

  1. When

    A burnt offering or sacrifice

    and you present a food offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to produce a pleasing aroma to the LORD—either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, for a special vow or freewill offering or appointed feast—

  2. Lamb

    Flour and oil with a lamb

    then the one presenting his offering to the LORD shall also present a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter hin of olive oil.

  3. Wine for each lamb

    With the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb, you are to prepare a quarter hin of wine as a drink offering.

  4. Ram

    With a ram: more flour, oil, wine

    With a ram you are to prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of olive oil, and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

  5. Bull

    With a bull: three-tenths

    When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the LORD, present with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of olive oil.

  6. Half a hin of wine

    Also present half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It is a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

  7. Every one

    Bull, ram, lamb or goat

    This is to be done for each bull, ram, lamb, or goat.

  8. However many there are

    This is how you must prepare each one, no matter how many.

In the morning outside the court's plain woven gate, two men wait side by side with a lamb each, an Israelite in a dyed wool mantle and a foreigner in an Egyptian-style white linen kilt and shawl, seen from behind.

Everyone who is native-born shall prepare these things in this way when he presents a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. And for the generations to come, if a foreigner residing with you or someone else among you wants to prepare a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he is to do exactly as you do. The assembly is to have the same statute both for you and for the foreign resident; it is a permanent statute for the generations to come. You and the foreigner shall be the same before the LORD. The same law and the same ordinance will apply both to you and to the foreigner residing with you.”

0:36

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

God

Reflect

The first, not the leftovers

God asked for “the first of your dough”: the first cake of the day’s bread, set aside before anyone ate. Not what was left over at the end. What would it look like to give God the first of something this week: the first minutes of your day, the first part of your pay, the first thought when you wake? Write down one ‘first’ you could give Him, and when you will start.

Offerings for Unintentional Sins

A strong male goat with long ridged horns stands tethered beside the corner of the bronze altar in the court; a fringed wool cloak and a staff lie at the edge of the frame.

The law

When sin is unintentional

  1. By mistake

    When commands are missed

    Now if you stray unintentionally and do not obey all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses— all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come—

  2. All the people

    The congregation: a bull and a goat

    and if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, then the whole congregation is to prepare one young bull as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and drink offering according to the regulation, and one male goat as a sin offering.

  3. The priest makes atonement for all

    The priest is to make atonement for the whole congregation of Israel, so that they may be forgiven; for the sin was unintentional and they have brought to the LORD a food offering and a sin offering, presented before the LORD for their unintentional sin.

  4. Foreigners forgiven too

    Then the whole congregation of Israel and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally.

  5. One person

    One person: a year-old goat

    Also, if one person sins unintentionally, he is to present a year-old female goat as a sin offering.

  6. Atonement made, and forgiven

    And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD on behalf of the person who erred by sinning unintentionally; and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven.

  7. For everyone

    One law for all

    You shall have the same law for the one who acts in error, whether he is a native-born Israelite or a foreigner residing among you.

But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people. He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”

A Sabbath-Breaker Stoned

While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation, and because it had not been declared what should be done to him, they placed him in custody.

And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”

So the whole congregation took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Pray

Reverence and rest

The man was found gathering wood on the day God had made holy. The camp learned that God’s word is not to be treated lightly. Pray for a heart that takes what God says seriously, gladly, and not out of fear alone. Then thank Him that in Christ we enter His rest: not by our work, but by His.

The Law of Tassels

God
God

And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout the generations to come they are to make for themselves tassels for the corners of their garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.

These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.

Then you will remember and obey all My commandments, and you will be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.”

Numbers 15:40–41

Question

Quick question

God gave Israel something to wear that would help them remember His word every day.

What color was the cord to be on each tassel?

You’ve experienced

Numbers 15

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A verse to carry with you

Then you will remember and obey all My commandments, and you will be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.

Numbers 15:40–41

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