Skip to content Numbers 29-30: A Sacred Calendar of Worship Mar 27 · 14 min ...more
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
93.9K followers
Family Research Council is serving in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, & freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
93.9K followers
God's Sacred Calendar of Worship 0:09 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word, and thanks for joining me this morning. Alright. You want a reason to celebrate? That's what we're gonna look at today as we look at numbers, chapters 29 and 30. And I'm also0:21 gonna include chapter 28 because we didn't look at it yesterday. Verse 2 of chapter 28, command the children of Israel and say to them my offering, my food for my offerings made by fire as a sweet aroma to me, you0:33 shall be careful to offer to me at their appointed time. At first glance, chapters 28 and 29 appear to be a repeat of what we saw back in Leviticus when the tabernacle was created, but they go0:44 further in establishing a comprehensive worship calendar, a celebration calendar for the nation by systematizing and scaling the sacrifices to the occasion. Now the introduction of0:56 these sacrifices took place about 40 years previous, about 38 years prior to this as the new nation was in transition into the wilderness out of Egypt. Now there's a new1:08 generation about to enter the land of promise and to establish a permanent nation. So in preparation, God establishes the centrality and the consistency of worship that will1:20 sustain the covenantal faithfulness of this new nation. Now the offerings are laid out in a structured rhythm of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual feast, the1:32 Passover, the unleavened bread, Pentecost, trumpets, day of atonement, and tabernacle or booths. This is the first time these all are all brought together in a single,1:44 ordered calendar of worship. Before, they stepped into the land, god was making sure He was making sure that he would be at the center of the life of the nation, not just the individuals.1:56 A lot of what we've seen previously dealt with the individuals. This is the nation. Israel's calendar, their economy, and their identity would be structured around worshiping2:09 god. Now pause for a moment and think about that. Is your life structured around the worship of the lord? What what about your family? What would we2:21 say about our nation? Verse 1, chapter 28. Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the children of Israel and save them my offering, my food for my offerings, made by fire as a sweet aroma to me. You shall be careful2:33 to offer to me at their appointed time. And you shall say to them, this is the offering made by fire, which you shall offer to the Lord, 2 male lambs in their first year without blemish, day by day2:45 as a regular burnt offering. Now this is the daily offering, but then there are the Sabbath offerings. Verse 9, and on the Sabbath day, 2 lambs in their first year without blemish and 22:56 tenths of a ephah of fine flour as a grain offering mixed with oil with its drink offering. Then there are the, there were the monthly offerings, verse 11. At the beginning of your3:08 months, you shall present a burnt offering to the Lord, 2 young bulls, 1 ram, 7 lambs in their first year without blemish. Then we get into the the annual festivals, the Passover.3:20 The Passover is celebrated for 8 days and encompasses the feast of the unleavened bread and the feast of first fruits. This is 1 of the feast that required a pilgrimage to the tabernacle3:32 or later the temple. Then we have the 50 days, 50 days later, we have Passover. There is the feast of weeks or Pentecost. 50 days after the Passover, we have3:44 the the feast of weeks or Pentecost, which is the Greek, term. This too required a pilgrimage to the tabernacle or temple. Then there is the temple of trump the3:56 feast of trumpets, which begins, 10 days of repentance culminating in the day of atonement, the most holy day, on the Jewish calendar. Then the feast of tabernacle,4:08 Tabernacles or booths, is the third of the 3 pilgrimage, which pilgrimages, which was the biggest celebration of the year. Now while these offerings, and4:20 these feast were established back in Leviticus, their scale expands as Israel moves from a mobile transitory expands as Israel moves from a mobile transitory nation to a settled fixed ones. Now if my calculations4:32 are correct, this is what was offered on behalf of the nation. This does not include the individual sacrifices. The this is the nation, on, throughout the year.4:43 113 bulls, 37 rams, 1093 lambs, over a ton of flour, and, over4:57 agrarian society, this was in a significant expense for the nation, which all of this was funded through the tithes of the people, the first fruit offerings, and the5:11 temple tax. Now this wasn't just worship. Okay? This be this went beyond worship, and this is why god was establishing it establishing it. When you consider that5:23 this was their livelihood, this is how they made their living, this is how their nation worked, an agrarian society. This was a national declaration of dependence upon5:35 god. Now except for the day of atonement, which was a day of fasting, the other festivals were times of celebration. It was an opportunity to stop and reflect upon what God had5:47 done for them both with thanksgiving and with celebration. I mean, believe it or not, and we've talked about this before, but god wants us to celebrate. He just needs to be at the center of5:59 the festivities. You recall from the verse in Nehemiah. Well, we haven't gotten there yet, but we will if you've been on the journey before. I love the book of Nehemiah. Can't wait till we get to it. It's 1 of my6:09 favorite favorites. Nehemiah 8 9, and Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to the people, this day is holy to the lord your God.6:21 Do not mourn or weep, for all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. They hadn't heard it, and their hearts were convicted. Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet wine, and send6:32 portions to everyone who has nothing ready. For this day is holy to our lord, and do not be grieved for the joy of the lord is your strength. Now they were observing the feast of the the trumpets6:44 for the first time in a long time there in Nehemiah. The word of god was read. There was repentance for their wayward living. But look at the instructions. Do not be grieved for the6:56 joy of the lord is your strength. God's plan for you, for me, for us as followers of Christ, as we walk in fellowship and obedience to him, is to7:07 experience joy and to celebrate. Yes. God puts celebration on their calendar. God is a God of joy. And when we're walking in fellowship with7:19 him, cleansed of our sins because of our relationship with Jesus Christ, because of the redemptive work that he did, even though we're still in a fallen world, our hearts can be filled with7:31 joy and gratitude toward God, and we can celebrate what god has done. Too often, we focus on on the things that are not right or the things that we don't have.7:43 You know what? That's ingratitude. We need to foster within our hearts a gratitude toward God, celebrating his goodness. Look for those things that God7:55 has done in your life. Alright. Chapter 30 is 1 that we might be tempted to move right through thinking it has no application to us us because it's, it it provides guidanceThe Power of Keeping Vows 8:07 in the for the ancient, patriarchal society. But if we do that, we miss the real message here. Let me start verse 2 of chapter 30. If a man makes a vow to the8:19 Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord and binds herself by some8:31 agreement while his father's while in her father's house in her youth, and her father hears her vow, and the agreement by which she has bound herself and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand,8:43 and every agreement with which she has bound her shall self shall stand. But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound8:55 herself shall stand, and the Lord will release her because her father overruled her. Now the chapter continues on addressing vows in various family settings, but I don't want us to miss the central message,9:06 and this is the central takeaway. The the main takeaway from chapter 30 is our words and promises matter. God is a promise keeper. He keeps his word,9:18 and he expects his children to do the same. Rash promises that we make in those moments of desperation or fear do not gain us9:30 favor with God. In fact, long after we have forgotten a careless or a flippant word, God remembers. That's why Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, he said this, but let your yes be yes and your no be no,9:42 for whatever is more than these is from the evil 1. You see, God is faithful to his word because it reflects his very character, and how we keep our word reflects our9:53 character as well. In fact, this is 1 of the fruits of the spirit. It's a part of the fruit of the spirit as we see in Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the spirit, and he goes on, part of it is10:05 faithfulness. Faithfulness is simply doing this, doing what we say we will do. And that is a part of the fruit of the spirit abiding within us. But these10:17 these characteristics of a spirit filled life do not just appear automatically. Okay? Like fruit on a tree, they must be cultivated. You know, I've I've shared this before, but when we're saved,10:29 when we accept Christ, we're saved. And and salvation is a is really a 3 part process. We are justified when we ask Christ into our life and we're10:41 forgiven of our sins. We are sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is a lifelong process, and then we're glorified when we appear with Christ. Well,10:53 the fruit of the spirit is a product of the sanctification. So in in the Old Testament, these qualities, like faithfulness, were often shaped by external structures, like the11:05 instructions here in Numbers chapter 30. But in the New Testament, they are formed from within through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. So how does that sanctification occur? Well,11:16 Jesus gives us the answer in John 17 17. He was he prays for his followers. He said so the father, he said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. You see, you and I are sanctified11:29 by the word of God. Well, how does how does that happen? Well, by doing exactly what you're doing right now, abiding in the word, reading it, meditating upon it, and praying11:41 it back to God. And and here's the confidence we have. If Jesus asked the father to sanctify his followers by his word, then when we pray in agreement with11:53 Jesus and according to the will of the father that we be sanctified by his word, god will answer that prayer. And so we need to cultivate that12:05 in our lives by abiding in his word and praying his word back to him because the lord wants us to be faithful, to keep our word. The words we speak12:16 matter, and we should make sure that we keep our word and that we're careful about the words that we speak. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that12:28 your word will not return unto you void. Thank you for the promises in your word. Thank you, lord, that you are a promise keeper, and you desire for your children to be promise keepers. So12:40 I pray, father, that we would be found faithful, that the fruit of the spirit would abound in our lives, that we would not walk according to the flesh, but we would walk according to the spirit, and that we would be12:51 faithful, that we would do that which we say we're going to do, and that we would guard our lips, that we would not speak anything, that in any way13:03 would run counter to your purposes and your will for our lives and the lives of others. For we pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Thanks for13:15 joining me this morning, and until next time, keep standing on the word.13:23 Today's study comes from the stand on the word bible reading plan available for free at frc dot org slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day,13:35 you can read through the entire Bible in just 2 years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 God's Sacred Calendar of Worship8:07 The Power of Keeping Vows
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.