Context No. 3899 of 4322 · Numbers
Context · Reflection
Numbers 29:7-11: in context
7“‘On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls. You shall do no kind of work; 8but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD for a pleasant aroma: one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old, all without defect; 9and their meal offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three tenths for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10one tenth for every lamb of the seven lambs; 11one male goat for a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and its meal offering, and their drink offerings.
This passage describes the observances of the Day of Atonement, the solemn day set apart each year for Israel to be made right with God. On this day the people were to afflict their souls, to humble themselves, doing no ordinary work, while sacrifices were offered to make atonement for all their sins.
It was a day of deep solemnity, a day for confronting the reality of sin and the need for it to be covered before a holy God. Two things are worth pausing over. The humbling of the soul: the people were to set aside their normal activity and afflict their souls, taking sin seriously, not treating their standing before God casually. And the atonement: sin could not simply be overlooked; it had to be covered by sacrifice, a life given in the place of sinners. All of this pointed forward to the once-for-all atonement Christ would make. The whole day proclaims a truth we are tempted to forget: our sin is a serious matter that stands between us and a holy God, and it can only be dealt with by atonement, which Christ has now provided once for all.
Do I take my sin seriously enough to humble my soul before God, and do I rest in the once-for-all atonement Christ has made, by which my sin is finally covered before a holy God?
Sources
- Numbers 29:7: "On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls. You shall do no kind of work."
- Numbers 29:11: "One male goat for a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering."
- Hebrews 9:12: "Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption."