Numbers

15.1-41

While reading this chapter, recall that chapter Numbers 14 established that the adults of the families of the ten spies (excluding Caleb and Joshua) who did not trust in Yahweh to be able to capture Canaan would perish in the wilderness while wandering over the next 40 years (one year for each day they spent in Canaan spying, 14:34). But the statutes for correct sacrifice upon entry into the land was being given to the ones who would eventually enter (their children, 15:2-13).
Today, in Christian homes, we have an inverted optic of this principle likely to occur. Parents trust in and wait on Yahweh for the coming Day of the Lord, but our children are skeptical. Although they will have been taught the truth in Christian homes, too much of a worldview has permeated their opinions of what is to come. On the day the Lord returns to rapture His church, those who trusted in Him will rise to meet Him in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Those who did not will remain to wander in the wilderness of the second half of the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21), and many of those will be our children.

Numbers 15:2-13 discussion
The command about offerings by fire to be made to Yahweh, given in the context of their impending entry into the land (v2), is significant. This command, given immediately after they had just been told they would not go into the land for 40 years (14:33-34), forms the backdrop for the discussion on the ratios and discrepancies in the offerings. These are the proscribed sacrificial offerings to be given by the Israelites when they enter into the land – following 40 years wandering in the desert and after the untrusting/disobedient fathers (those 20 and older) have all died. Failing to have done correctly, these are the commands for how to do them correctly – in due time.

Grain offering and Burnt offering Ratios; and discrepancies for grain to oil/wine.
• Lamb: (v4)1/10 ephah flour: 1/4 hin oil: 1/4 hin wine
• Ram: (v6) 2/10 ephah flour: 1/3 hin oil: 1/3 hin wine
*100% more flour, but only 33% more oil/wine
“wine as a soothing aroma to Yahweh.” (v7)
• Bull: (v8) 3/10 ephah flour: 1/2 hin oil: 1/2 hin wine – also for Vow, or Peace offering
*50% more flour and 50% more oil/wine (but 200% more flour and 100% more oil/wine than for a lamb).
“the drink offering of ½ hin of wine as an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to Yahweh.” (v10)

• Exodus 16:36, One ephah was ten omer.
• One-tenth of an ephah was one omer.
• An omer of mana was enough to feed one person for a day.
• Lev 6:10, 1/10 ephah of fine flour was the regular grain offering of Aaron and his sons.
• The elements of sacrifices described in Numbers 15 are the elements God declares He will deliver to His people who obey His commandments in Deuteronomy 11:14-15 (grain, oil, wine, flocks/herd).

Lamb: 1/10 ephah of flour = 2.1 dry quarts. 1/4 hin of oil = 1 quart: 2.1:1 ratio
Ram: 2/10 ephah of flour = 4.2 dry quarts. 1/3 hin of oil = 1 1/3 quart: 3.15:1 ratio
Bull: 3/10 ephah of flour = 6.3 dry quarts. 1/2 hin of oil = 2 quarts: 3.15:1 ratio
The Lamb sacrifice grain-to-oil ratio (2.1:1) relative to the Ram sacrifice grain-to-oil ratio (3.15:1) is a 50% increase for the Ram. The 3.15:1 ratio for the Ram sacrifice (4.2 quarts flour to 1 1/3-quart oil) is maintained in a 3.15:1 ratio for the Bull sacrifice (6.3 quarts flour to 2 quarts oil).

Numbers 15:14-41 explains and illustrates the difference between the response to ignorant and willful sin. Those who will wander in the desert and die will be understood to have been guilty of the latter. The surviving children, who will eventually enter the land, will be guilty of the former. Verses14-31 declare the laws. Verses 33-41 plainly illustrate the implementation of the law.

CHAPTER 15

Offerings When Entering Canaan

1 Now Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land of your places of habitation, which I am going to give you,
3 then make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or as a freewill offering or in your appointed times, to make a soothing aroma to Yahweh, from the herd or from the flock.
4 ‘And the one who brings his offering near shall bring near to Yahweh a grain offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil,
5 and you shall prepare wine for the drink offering, one-fourth of a hin, with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.
6 ‘Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil;
7 and for the drink offering you shall bring near one-third of a hin of wine as a soothing aroma to Yahweh.
8 ‘And when you prepare a bull from the herd as a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a special vow, or for peace offerings to Yahweh,
9 then you shall bring near with the bull from the herd a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-half a hin of oil;
10 and you shall bring near as the drink offering one-half a hin of wine as an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to Yahweh.
11 ‘Thus it shall be done for each ox, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the goats.
12 ‘According to the number that you prepare, so you shall do for everyone according to their number.
13 ‘All who are native shall do these things in this manner, in bringing near an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to Yahweh.

Statute for the Sojourner

14 ‘And if a sojourner sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he offers an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to Yahweh, just as you do so he shall do.
15 ‘As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the sojourner who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the sojourner be before Yahweh.
16 ‘There shall be one law and one judgment for you and for the sojourner who sojourns with you.’”
17 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
18 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where I am going to bring you,
19 then it shall be, that when you eat of the food of the land, you shall raise up a contribution offering to Yahweh.
20 ‘Of the first of your dough you shall raise up a cake as a contribution offering; as the contribution offering of the threshing floor, so you shall raise it up.
21 ‘From the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a contribution offering throughout your generations.
22 ‘But when you unintentionally fail and do not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses,
23 even all that Yahweh has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day when Yahweh commanded and onward throughout your generations,
24 then it will be, if it is done unintentionally, hidden from the sight of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering as a soothing aroma to Yahweh, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the legal judgment, and one male goat for a sin offering.
25 ‘Then the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they will be pardoned; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their error.
26 ‘So all the congregation of the sons of Israel will be pardoned, with the sojourner who sojourns among them, for it happened to all the people through error.
27 ‘Also if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall bring near a one year old female goat for a sin offering.
28 ‘And the priest shall make atonement before Yahweh for the person who goes astray when he sins unintentionally, making atonement for him that he may be pardoned.
29 ‘You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the sons of Israel and for the sojourner who sojourns among them.
30 ‘But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, that one is blaspheming Yahweh; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.
31 ‘Because he has despised the word of Yahweh and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’”

A Sabbath-breaker Put to Death

32 Now the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.
33 And those who found him gathering wood brought him near to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation;
34 and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
35 Then Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.”
36 So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
37 Yahweh also spoke to Moses, saying,
38 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue.
39 “And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot,
40 so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God.
41 “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am Yahweh your God.”

Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Nu 15.