Numbers 15:1

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ Speak unto the children of Israel. Some infer from Numbers 15:23 that the date of this communication must be fixed toward the close of the wanderings in the wilderness, and also that all the sacrifices prescribed in the law were to be offered only after the settlement in Canaan. At all events, after the great change which had taken place in the prospects of the people, the legislation henceforth recorded, as might have been expected, is prospective, having respect to what should be done when the next generation should enter Canaan....

1._And the Lord spake. _He partly here adverts to those precepts of which he had treated more distinctly and fully in Leviticus, and partly gathers into one place what he had before spoken of in various places and more obscurely. For as yet he had delivered no certain regulations as to the accessories to the meat-offering of oil and wine; but what he had before appropriated to particular cases he now commands to be observed generally, and what he had treated of more accurately he now lightly passes over; for he does not enter into full particulars, but only forbids that sacrifices should be offered without flour, a libation of wine, and oil. We have seen elsewhere that in the sacrifices and oblations, wherein God consulted the rude condition of the people, He took as it were the character of a man, as if He feasted there familiarly with them. In this sense He elsewhere calls the sacrific...

1-21 Full instructions are given about the meat-offerings and drink-offerings. The beginning of this law is very encouraging, When ye come into the land of your habitation which I give unto you. This was a plain intimation that God would secure the promised land to their seed. It was requisite, since the sacrifices of acknowledgment were intended as the food of God's table, that there should be a constant supply of bread, oil, and wine, whatever the flesh-meat was. And the intent of this law is to direct the proportions of the meat-offering and drink-offering. Natives and strangers are placed on a level in this as in other like matters. It was a happy forewarning of the calling of the Gentiles, and of their admission into the church. If the law made so little difference between Jew and Gentile, much less would the gospel, which broke down the partition-wall, and reconciled both to God....

CHAPTER XV _Directions concerning the different offerings they should bring_ _unto the Lord when they should come to the land of Canaan_, 1-3. _Directions relative to the_ meat-offering, 4; _to the_ drink-offering, 5. _Of the_ burnt-offering, vow-offering, peace-offering, drink-offering, _ c._, 6-12. _All born in the country must perform these rites_, 13, _and the strangers also_, 14-16. _They shall offer unto the Lord a_ heave-offering _of the_ first-fruits _of the land_, 17-21. Co

The contents of the next five chapters must apparently be referred to the long period of wandering to which Numbers 14:33 the people were condemned....

EXPOSITION VARIOUS LAWS OF SACRIFICE (Numbers 15:1). NUMBERS 15:1 THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES. IT must have been during the years of wandering, but within those limits it is impossible even to conjecture the probable date. There is no external evidence, and the internal evidence is wholly indecisive. Neither can it be reasonably maintained that these regulations were designed to revive the hope and sustain the faith of the rising generation. Incidentally they may have had some effect in that way, but it is evident that the primary object of their promulgation was simply to supply certain defects and omissions in the Levitical legislation. Why that legislation should have had the frag

THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES,.... After the murmurings of the Israelites by reason of the spies, Numbers 14:2; and their being threatened with a consumption of them in the wilderness on that account, Numbers 14:12; and their defeat at Hormah, Numbers 14:45: and lest their posterity should be discouraged, and despair of ever enjoying the good land: SAYING; as follows....

WANDERING The wilderness was part of the necessary discipline of the redeemed people, but not the years of wandering. The latter were due wholly to the unbelief of the people at Kadesh-barnea. The Red Sea, Marah, Elim, Sinai, were God's ways, in development and discipline, and have, of necessity, their counterpart in Christian experience. The Red Sea speaks of the cross as that which -- death to Christ but life for us -- separates us from Egypt, the world (Galatians 6:14) Marah of God's power to turn untoward things into blessings; Elim of God's power to give rest and refreshment by the way; Sinai of God's holiness and our deep inherent evil, the experience of (Romans 7:7) So far the path was and is of God. But from Kadesh-barnea to Jordan all save the grace of God toward an unbelieving pe

5. VARIOUS LAWS, THE SABBATH-BREAKER, AND THE TASSELS ON THE GARMENTS CHAPTER 15 _ 1. Concerning offerings in the land (Numbers 15:1)_ 2. The second communication concerning offerings (Numbers 15:17) 3. The Sabbath-breaker (Numbers 15:32) 4. The tassels on the garments (Numbers 15:37) The historical account is here interrupted. What the critics have to say about this chapter speaking of it as an evidence of the patchwork of different persons, we care not to follow. Our space is too valuable for that. The chapter is beautifully in order at this point. God gave two communications to M

NUMBERS 15. A NUMBER OF DETACHED REGULATIONS (from P). NUMBERS 15:1. THE QUANTITIES OF FLOUR, OIL, AND WINE APPROPRIATE TO VARIOUS SACRIFICES. The practice of adding such accompaniments to flesh-offerings preserves the primitive idea that certain sacrifices were meals of which the deity partook (_cf._ Judges 9:13; 1 Samuel 1:24, Bel. 3- 6). The use of corn and wine in sacrifice could have come into vogue only after Israel had ceased to be a pastoral and had become an agricultural people. Wine probably replaced milk, which, though it does not occur among the offerings prescribed in the Jewish law, was offered by the Arabs, as also by the Carthaginians (a Phœ nician race). Milk formed the libation at the earl