Numbers 15:3

_AND WILL MAKE AN OFFERING BY FIRE UNTO THE LORD, A BURNT OFFERING, OR A SACRIFICE IN PERFORMING A VOW, OR IN A FREEWILL OFFERING, OR IN YOUR SOLEMN FEASTS, TO MAKE A SWEET SAVOUR UNTO THE LORD, OF THE HERD, OR OF THE FLOCK:_ A burnt offering. It is evident that a peace offering is referred to, because this term is frequently used in such a sense (Exodus 18:12; Leviticus 17:5)....

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....

Verse Numbers 15:3. _AND WILL MAKE AN OFFERING_] For the different kinds of offerings, sacrifices, c., see Leviticus 1:2, Leviticus 1:7....

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

AND WILL MAKE AN OFFERING BY FIRE UNTO THE LORD, A BURNT OFFERING,.... The first of these respects such offerings by fire, which were not wholly burnt, but part of them were eaten by the priests, Deuteronomy 18:1; and the latter such as were wholly burnt, unless the latter can be thought to be only an explanation of the former: OR A SACRIFICE IN PERFORMING A VOW, OR IN A FREEWILL OFFERING; these were peace offerings, some of which were for thanksgiving, and others were either a vow or a freewill offering, as here: see Leviticus 7:11; OR IN YOUR SOLEMN FEASTS; as the passover, pentecost, c. of which, and the offerings in them, see Leviticus 23:4 to make a swe

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

OFFERING. Hebrew. _'ishsheh_. App-43. BURNT OFFERING. Hebrew. _'olah._ App-43. SACRIFICE. Hebrew. _zebach._ App-43. FREEWILL OFFERING. Hebrew. _nedabah._ App-43....

_Meal-offerings and Libations_. These are to accompany both private and public sacrifices, and are arranged according to a fixed scale as follows (_ephah_= _c._1 bushel; _hin_= _c._1½ gallon): _Meal. Oil. Wine_. With every lamb 1/10 ephah. ¼ hin. ¼ hin. With every ram 2/10 ephah ⅓ hin. ⅓ hin. With every bullock 3/10 ephah. ½ hin. ½ hin. It will be seen that the amount in each case varies according to the size of the animal. Ezekiel, in his ideal arrangements for worship in the restored Jerusalem, has a similar scale (Ezekiel 46:5-7; Ezekiel 46:11; Ezekiel 46:14), but the amounts are larger, they are not graduated so carefully with respect to the size of the animal, and the libation of

AN OFFERING BY FIRE— Respecting these different offerings, we refer to the notes on Leviticus....