Numbers 15. Laws and Tassels

Laws About Sacrifices

• The first 16 verses of Numbers 15 can feel repetitive because we’ve already seen grain offerings, drink offerings, and rules for sojourners
  • However, there is a bit more detail, (God now specifies how much grain, oil, and wine must accompany different sizes of animal sacrifices) and it shows that God’s laws have not ended despite Israel’s punishment.

 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, 

• God maintains His promise that their offspring WILL enter the Promised Land. It is up to them to continue the teachings so they are prepared to enter the land.

³ and you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing aroma to the Lord, ⁴ then he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter of a hin^[c] of oil; ⁵ and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering for each lamb. ⁶ Or for a ram, you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. ⁷ And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ⁸ And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the Lord, ⁹ then one shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil. ¹⁰ And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

• What’s new here is the  amount paired with each animal:
  • Lamb: 1/10 ephah flour ＋ 1/4 hin oil ＋ 1/4 hin wine.
  • Ram: 2/10 ephah flour ＋ 1/3 hin oil ＋ 1/3 hin wine.
  • Bull: 3/10 ephah flour ＋ 1/2 hin oil ＋ 1/2 hin wine.
• Wine is explicitly required as a drink offering. Drink offerings aren’t new (see Exodus 29) but now we see the proportions for the different animals.

¹¹ “Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each lamb or young goat. ¹² As many as you offer, so shall you do with each one, as many as there are. ¹³ Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in offering a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁴ And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he shall do as you do. ¹⁵ For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the Lord. ¹⁶ One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

• A sojourner is also supposed to follow these rules if they are to offer a sacrifice.

¹⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you ¹⁹ and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the Lord. ²⁰ Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. ²¹ Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord as a contribution throughout your generations.

• New offering alert! Dough offering!
  • When they come into Canaan, they must offer a portion of the first dough to the Lord.
  • This command is called “hafrashat challah”הַפְרָשַׁת חַלָּה or separating a piece of dough before baking. Some Jewish homes still practice it.
    

Laws About Unintentional Sins

• Leviticus 4 already talks about unintentional שְׁגָגָה (shegagah) sins and offerings. Now they divide it by:
  • the whole congregation sinning unintentionally (vv.22-26)
  • an individual sinning unintentionally (vv.27-29)

²² “But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, ²³ all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the Lord gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, ²⁴ then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one male goat for a sin offering. 

• Even if you mess up on accident, it is still considered sin.
• Congregation sins unintentionally
  • If this happens, the congregation will offer one bull for a burnt offering, with its matching grain and drink offering, and finally a goat sin offering.

²⁵ And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake. ²⁶ And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake.

²⁷ “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. ²⁸ And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. ²⁹ You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. 

• The individual sins unintentionally
  • female goat sin offering

³⁰ But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. ³¹ Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

• Anyone who sins defiantly (with a high hand) is to be cut off

A Sabbathbreaker Executed

³² While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. ³³ And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. ³⁴ They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. ³⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” ³⁶ And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.

• A man caught gathering wood on the Sabbath is stoned (by God’s command) which shows the seriousness of breaking God’s law intentionally

Tassels on Garments

³⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁸ “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. ³⁹ And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. ⁴⁰ So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. ⁴¹ 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.”

• Command to wear tassels צִיצִת (tzitzit) on garments to remember God’s commandments and remain faithful
• “This was practised by the Pharisees in Christ’s time, who are noted for making their borders larger than ordinary, Matthew 23:5; and by Christ himself, as may [be] gathered from Luke 8:44.”
  • Poole, Matthew A Commentary on the Holy Bible, Volume 1 (London, Banner of Truth Trust, 1968)