Numbers 29:39 These things ye shall do unto the LORD in your set feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meat offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings
Recently my wife and I enjoyed a dinner with my parents and some old friends. It is always fun to listen to a generation up from me talk about things, whether it is remembering the past or talking about events of the present. There are always perspectives I do not have and I couldn’t have because I don’t have the life experience they have. Likewise, I talk to my children or people of their generation and I am shocked about what they do know, because they know things I don’t know, and what they do not know, because they don’t have the experience. There are things I take for granted.
Numbers 28-29 is a reminder of the importance of each generation fulfilling their particular obligations. The Bible doesn’t particularly mention that specifically, but what is happening is that Israel is about to go into the Promised Land and God reiterates things He had said before. He is giving this to people who don’t have a depth of experience. He is reminding them of what is to be done.
The chapters end in verses 39-40 which say, “These things ye shall do unto the LORD in your set feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meat offerings, and drink offerings, and for your peace offerings. And Moses told the children of Israel according to all the LORD commanded Moses.” This is important and emphatic. This was authority coming from God through Moses to a younger generation. It reminds me that every truth is new to the young and should be taught as fresh by the old. It is easy for youth to think, “I already know this.” Well, no, you don’t know this and the fact is you probably don’t know what it is that you do not know. On the other hand, it is easy for the older to take things for granted and think, “Everyone knows this,” when not everyone does know it. So, simplicity and repetition may be boring to us at times, but they are both very important.
There are four elements you find repeatedly in Numbers 28-29. First, there is the idea of due season. That is time. Back in Numbers 28:2 it says, “Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.” Moses said this to remind the people of due season. Time is the stuff of life. To waste your time is to waste your life. There are things that are due; they are obligatory. They are fitting and found within the confines of time. We can do them too late. So, due season reminds us of the element of time.
Second, there is the way things ought to be done. Repeatedly the Bible says “according to the manner.” Numbers 29:18 says that these “shall be according to their number, after the manner.” We are in Numbers, so we count things that matter, and there is a certain number and there is a certain way things are to be done in the particular sacrifices and celebrations Israel was to hold. I’m not Jewish and do not celebrate all these things, but the point is these things were not arbitrary. There was a way in which to do them.
We moderns are so used to be so democratized. Everyone does what they want, whatever suits them. You be you. It is important to remind yourself that there is a God in heaven. He is the authority. There are things in life that are to be done according to the number and according to the manner. There is a time and there is a way to do things. There is an importance to be placed in the way we serve and worship God.
Third, repeatedly the Bible talks about things that are a “holy convocation,” usually in conjunction it says, “Ye shall do no servile work.” In various elements that God is giving here, there was to be no manual labor done at these particular times. It wasn’t because of laziness. It was because there was an importance to be placed on these observances. It was a holy convocation. They were set apart by God and were to come together for God. There was to be distinction involved. Some days were not just another day. They were special unto the Lord.
Finally, there is a significance. Again these observances were to be unto the Lord. No servile work and the sacrifices were to be brought without blemish. The upshot of all this is every truth you have learned is new to people who haven’t learned it, and every truth that you have learned is easy to take for granted and to forget the importance of passing it along. Are we observing all these things that were given to Israel in Numbers 28-29? No, but there are things in life worth remembering and doing in a certain way as to set it as special and holy to the Lord.
A place you can begin is the celebrations we have every year, whether it is Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other national holidays. They can all be remembrances. So, don’t count God out in the things that you recall. Remember to incorporate God into your life when you celebrate things in life. Even birthdays are remembrances because birth and life are gifts from God. So, it is fitting and proper to acknowledge with thanksgiving my life and the lives of those dear to me.
I often forget what it is my kids don’t know and my parents could forget more than I have ever learned. That is just a matter of time and timing and passing on from one generation to the next what is important. Let me just encourage you that spring is coming up and there may be things we acknowledge or remember. Let me remind you of Easter or Resurrection Sunday that acknowledges the fact that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day victorious over our sins. We are living in a day when people don’t even know what that means or that is has happened. We are but one generation away from our own children forgetting the significance of life.
Life has no meaning if we don’t incorporate that meaning into the daily aspects of life. So, here we have a number of celebrations, feasts, and so on, but there was also a weekly rhythm to this. May God help us every day, every week, and at certain times especially to pass on the truth to those who follow us and to accept the truth from those who love the Lord and go before us because every truth is new to the young and should not be taken for granted by the old. It should be treated as fresh as we pass it on to the next generation.