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Scripture Reading: Num. 15
In this message we will consider the ordinances in Numbers 15.
In the middle of all the turmoils, chapter fifteen is inserted. Why is there the need of such an insertion? According to the behavior of the children of Israel, it became clear that they did not care very much for God's interests. What they did was mostly for themselves. This situation brought in God's judgment and punishment. It is doubtful that at that time the children of Israel remembered all the instructions on how to be accepted by God. They could not be accepted by themselves or in themselves but in the One who replaced them, Christ. In the Old Testament typology, this Christ, our replacing One, has many aspects, which can be seen in the many different kinds of offerings. The main aspects are seen in the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, which may be matched by some corresponding offerings, such as the meal offering of cakes and wafers and the drink offering.
Numbers 15 might have been inserted because the children of Israel did not care for God's interests. This chapter was a reminder to them that their situation was altogether displeasing to God. Probably they had forgotten to offer the offerings required by God to make propitiation for their errors, wrongdoings, and rebellion.
Let us consider again the situation of the children of Israel. First, those who were at the borders of their encampment, not at the center, murmured evil before God. Then the mixed multitude among them lusted before God. Both received their portion of God's judgment. After that, as a great surprise to Moses, his older sister and brother, who had always been with him at the center of God's move, rebelled. Thus, the situation and atmosphere among the children of Israel were very low, and the morale, along with all the positive things, was gone. Next, the spies were sent to spy out the land, and ten of these spies brought back an evil report. They also received the proper judgment from God. Therefore, before another rebellion arose (see chapter sixteen), God came in with Numbers 15 as an insertion. If the children of Israel had kept the ordinances in this chapter, they would have been rescued from further turmoil.
Two of the ordinances inserted here concerned the offerings and the breaking of the Sabbath. To present an offering to God indicates that we realize that we cannot do anything to please God. We offer Christ to God because we are unable to make God happy, to be well-pleasing to Him, and to be accepted by Him. By offering Christ to God we admit that, in ourselves and by ourselves, we cannot please Him or be acceptable to Him.
To keep the Sabbath is to acknowledge, recognize, and receive the fact that God has done everything for us. We do not need to do anything, and we cannot do anything, for ourselves. God has done everything, and we should simply acknowledge and accept what God has done for us and rest in it. This is to keep the Sabbath.
God created everything in six days. At the conclusion of His creation, He created man. When man came forth from God's creating hand, he did not need to do anything. He began immediately to enjoy what God had made for him, and he rested in it.
To break the Sabbath is to deny what God has done for us and to try to do everything for ourselves. This is a blasphemy to God. If we try in ourselves to do something to please God, our effort is a blasphemy to God because it is a denial of what God has done for us.
We should always have the consciousness that we are nothing and that we are not able to do anything. What we can do and should do is offer Christ to God as our replacement. Christ is the One in whom we trust.
We should also keep in mind that striving in ourselves and for ourselves means nothing and is actually blasphemy. We should simply accept God and what He has done for us. We should not be like the worldly people who deny God by all their self-endeavoring. They deny God by what they do. Even some atheists would say, "Who is God? I don't need God. I can do everything myself." This is to deny God and to blaspheme Him.
As we come to the ordinances in Numbers 15, I would remind you of the difference between ordinances and statutes. Statutes are regulations without judgment, whereas ordinances are regulations with judgment. For example, the regulation concerning the breaking of the Sabbath involves a judgment.
In 15:1-31 we have the ordinances concerning the offerings.
The ordinances concerning the offerings were to be applied in the good land (vv. 2, 18). Once the people entered the land, they were to keep these ordinances.
Some offerings were for a special vow or as freewill offerings, and some offerings were offered at the appointed feasts as a satisfying fragrance to God. According to the instructions given in Exodus and Leviticus, God commanded that at the appointed feasts more offerings be offered to Him. Numbers 15 speaks of only a few of these offerings that were "a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah" (v. 3).
Verses 3 and 8 speak of the burnt offering and the peace offering. The burnt offering signifies a life that lives for God and to God for His satisfaction. The peace offering is for our fellowship with God, issuing in mutual enjoyment. To offer these two offerings is to offer the crucified Christ, Christ in His death.
The meal offering matches the burnt offering and the peace offering. Whenever we offer a burnt offering or a peace offering, we need to match this offering with a meal offering of fine flour mingled with oil (v. 4). Such a meal offering signifies Christ in His humanity mingled with the Holy Spirit to be the food of God and man. What we offer to God as a meal offering becomes food not only for God but also for us.
The wine for a drink offering is an additional matching offering (v. 5). The drink offering signifies Christ pouring Himself out for God's pleasure. Christ has poured Himself out as wine to make God happy.
All these offerings are types of Christ. Daily we need to take such a Christ as our offerings and offer Him for a satisfying fragrance to God.
The same statute and ordinance were for all the people of Israel and the sojourning strangers and the heathen among the people of Israel (vv. 13-16). This signifies that all the heathens and strangers share Christ in the same way as the people of Israel (Eph. 2:12-19; 3:6).
The sons of Israel were also to offer a heave offering to God (Num. 15:17-21). Christ in His death is signified by the burnt offering and the peace offering. The meal offering signifies Christ in His humanity mingled with the divine Spirit, and the drink offering signifies Christ being poured out for God's satisfaction. The heave offering signifies the ascended Christ, Christ in His ascension. Today Christ is not on the earth, and He is no longer in His death. Yes, He is still in His humanity, but He is a man mingled with divinity in ascension. He is the ascended Christ, the Christ in the heavens, the heavenly Christ. When we offer Him as the heave offering, we offer something with the heavenly element, atmosphere, essence, and taste.
"Of the first of your dough you shall offer a cake as a heave offering" (v. 20a). A cake of the first of the dough signifies Christ as the firstfruit (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). The Christ whom we offer in His ascension to God as God's food is the Christ who is the firstfruit in resurrection.
"As a heave offering from the threshing floor, so shall you offer it" (Num. 15:20b). The things from the threshing floor refer to fresh grain, grain that is whole and unground.
There is a difference between whole grain and a cake made from dough. Dough is made from grains of wheat that have been ground. A cake is an entity made of flour ground from many grains. The cake in verse 20 not only refers to Christ Himself but also indicates Christ's Body, the church.
When we offer up all these nourishing, satisfying, and fragrant things to God, we must not forget that we are still sinful, that we are still a natural man in the old creation. No matter how much we seek the Lord and walk by the Spirit, we are still in the flesh. Thus, we need to offer something for this.
According to 15:22-26 there had to be an offering for the sin of ignorance of the assembly of Israel, who through ignorance did not do all the commandments of God. This indicates that today we need to pray concerning the ignorant sin of the church. The church ignorantly may do certain things that are wrong with man and God. These things are done not purposely but unconsciously. Nevertheless, we need to offer something concerning them.
For the sin of ignorance, the assembly of Israel was to "offer one young bull for a burnt offering, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah" (v. 24a). This burnt offering signifies Christ in His freshness to satisfy God.
The burnt offering for the sin of ignorance was to be offered with its meal offering and its drink offering (v. 24b). As we have pointed out, the meal offering signifies Christ in His humanity to be the food of God and man, and the drink offering signifies Christ pouring out Himself to satisfy God. Such an offering is needed for the ignorant sin of the church.
The offering for the sin of ignorance also required one male goat for a sin offering (v. 24c). The sin offering signifies the Christ who was made sin for us.
"The priest shall make propitiation for all the assembly of the sons of Israel, and they shall be forgiven" (v. 25a). In the foregoing message, we saw that Moses prayed that the children of Israel would be forgiven. God's forgiveness is based on Christ's redemption for propitiation, without which God has no ground to forgive man. Thus, if the people were to be forgiven, something had to be offered to God for their propitiation. If we, taking Christ's redemptive death as our standing, ask God to forgive us, He must do it based on His righteousness, not on His mercy (1 John 1:9). This is according to God's governmental administration. Our learning of things such as this can keep us from committing further sins.
In Numbers 15:27 through 29 we have a word concerning a person sinning through ignorance.
"If one person sins through ignorance, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering" (v. 27). This goat signifies Christ, who knew no sin, being made sin for us by God (2 Cor. 5:21). This matter, which is according to God's righteousness and His governmental administration, is deep and mysterious.
"The priest shall make propitiation before Jehovah for the person who is in ignorance, when he sins through ignorance, to make propitiation for him; and he shall be forgiven" (Num. 15:28). Without propitiation, even though God has a heart to forgive us, He has no way. Christ's propitiation affords God the way to fulfill the desire of His forgiving heart.
"The person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is born in the land or a sojourner, reviles Jehovah, and that person shall be cut off from among his people" (v. 30). To do things with a high hand is to do as one wishes without caring for others. Those who behave in this way utterly disregard both man and God. They act as if they alone existed in the whole universe. On occasion we have observed such behavior in the church. Certain ones acted as if they were the only ones who mattered; they ignored, neglected, despised, and abandoned everyone else. We should never do things with such an attitude and spirit.
A person who does anything with a high hand "has despised the word of Jehovah and has broken His commandment" (v. 31a). Such a person behaves as if there were no God.
The iniquity of the person who does anything with a high hand will be upon him (v. 31b).
In the New Testament, which we all love, we are charged to enjoy Christ, to seek Christ, and to pursue Christ, but we are not shown the way to enjoy Christ. The road map with all the details for the enjoyment of Christ is found in the Old Testament. The ordinances in Numbers 15 concerning how to offer Christ as the various offerings are not only for the children of Israel; in typology they are also for us. When the Old Testament is applied in the way of typology, it becomes the New Testament to us, for it becomes the map showing us the way to enjoy Christ.
Because of the turmoil among the children of Israel, God was, in a sense, forced to insert the ordinances recorded in chapter fifteen. Especially in times of turmoil we need to remember the ordinances concerning our offerings to God. These will keep us in a proper relationship with God. If we ignore these ordinances, however, we will be condemned and might even become abhorrent to God.
In verses 32 through 36 we have the ordinance concerning breaking the Sabbath.
"While the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly" (vv. 32-33). The ordinance concerning breaking the Sabbath was given because of what this man was doing on the Sabbath.
The man was put into custody "because it had not been made plain what should be done to him" (v. 34). God spoke to Moses concerning this, saying, "The man shall surely be put to death; all the assembly shall stone him with stones outside the camp" (v. 35).
We may think that gathering wood on the Sabbath was not a serious offense and that the punishment meted out was too severe. We need to understand why this offense was so serious. To break the Sabbath is not merely to do something wrong; to break the Sabbath is to deny God and all that He has done for us. The keeping of the Sabbath by the children of Israel was a great sign that they recognized God and what He had done for them. Anyone who denied God and His work by breaking the Sabbath had to be cut off.
"All the assembly brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died, as Jehovah commanded Moses" (v. 36). This time the people were not disobedient. They might have been somewhat frightened. Without exception, they all did as God commanded Moses.
We need to know the significance of keeping the Sabbath. To keep the Sabbath is to believe in God and obey God to participate in what He has accomplished for us. To break the Sabbath is to break the principle that we should not strive for ourselves. Breaking this principle leads to death.
In verses 37 through 41 we have the ordinance concerning the people's dress.
"Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put upon the tassel of each corner a cord of blue" (v. 38). The Hebrew words translated "tassels on the corners" may also be rendered "fringes in the borders." Here "cord" signifies binding, and "blue" signifies heavenly; hence, a blue cord indicates a heavenly binding. For us today, this cord of blue signifies that, as children of God, our conduct and behavior should be beautiful and should be under the binding of the heavenly government.
The people were to look upon the tassel and remember all the commandments of God and do them, not seeking after their own heart and after their own eyes, according to which they committed fornications (v. 39). Thus they would remember and do their God's commandments and be holy to God.
According to the record of the four Gospels, the Lord Jesus wore this kind of garment. One day a woman came to touch the fringe (tassel) of His garment (Matt. 9:20-22), which signifies the beauty of His human virtues, from which His healing power issued forth. This indicates that we, the children of God, should walk under the heavenly binding. As people of the kingdom of the heavens, we should be bound not by the police or the law courts but by a heavenly binding, by the heavenly government and ruling. This will produce a beauty in our human conduct and virtue.
