Numbers 15:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have full instructions about the grain offerings and drink offerings, which went with all the animal sacrifices. The opening of this law is very encouraging: “When you come into the land where I am bringing you,” then you are to do this and that (Numbers 15:2). This gives a clear sign that God had not turned away from them, even after the judgment he had announced. It also shows that he would keep the promised land for their children, even though they were quick to rebel against him.

They may have feared that someday they would commit some failure so serious that it would cut them off forever, as happened to the previous generation. But this law assumes that some of them will, in time, enter Canaan. The grain offerings were of two kinds. Some were offered by themselves, and the law for those is found in Leviticus 2:1 and following. Others were added to burnt offerings and peace offerings, and always went with them, and that is the part dealt with here.

Since the thank offerings were meant to be like food for God’s table, there had to be a steady supply of bread, oil, and wine, along with the meat. Solomon’s temple had suppliers who provided fine flour (1 Kings 4:22). It was fitting that God should keep a well-supplied table, with bread as well as meat, and a cup that overflows. “In my Father’s house there is bread enough.” The purpose of this law is to tell what amount of grain and drink offering should be given with each sacrifice.

If the sacrifice was a lamb or a young goat, the grain offering was one-tenth of an ephah of flour, about five pints. It was to be mixed with one-fourth of a hin of oil, and the drink offering was the same amount of wine, about a quart and a half (Numbers 15:3-5). If it was a ram, the grain offering was doubled, with two-tenths of an ephah of flour, about five quarts, and one-third of a hin of oil mixed with it. The same amount of wine was to be offered with it as a drink offering (Numbers 15:6-7).

If the sacrifice was a bull, the grain offering was to be tripled, three-tenths of an ephah of flour, with about five pints of oil, and the same amount of wine for the drink offering (Numbers 15:8-10). So the offering rose or fell in proportion to the sacrifice. This applied whether the sacrifice was brought by one person or paid for from the common funds. The lesson is that our worship should follow the rule of proportion, just as other duties do.

Natives and strangers are put on the same level here, as in other matters (Numbers 15:13-16). “One law shall be for you and for the stranger” who has joined the Jewish faith. This was an invitation to Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, to become followers of the true God and join his worship. In civil matters there was a difference between foreigners and Israelites by birth, but not in the things of God. As you are, so the stranger shall be before the Lord, because he shows no partiality. See Isaiah 56:3.

This was also a duty laid on the Jews to be kind to strangers and not mistreat them, since God accepted them too. Shared worship should build strong affection and put away hostility. It also humbled Jewish pride, since they were tempted to boast in their birthright. “We are Abraham’s descendants.” God reminded them that the children of the stranger were just as welcome to him as the children of Jacob. No one’s birth or family line gives them an advantage or disadvantage in being accepted by God.

This also pointed ahead to the calling of the Gentiles and their welcome into the church. If the law made so little difference between Jew and Gentile, the gospel would make even less. The gospel broke down the wall between them and brought both to God through one sacrifice, without keeping the old legal ceremonies.

There is also a law here about offering the first part of their dough to the Lord. Like the previous law, it rests on the happy assumption that they would enter the promised land (Numbers 15:18). While they lived on manna, they did not need such a specific reminder that God owned their daily bread and provided it, because the miracle said that plainly enough. But in Canaan, where they would eat the fruit of their own work, God wanted them to remember that he was still their landlord and chief benefactor.

So they were not only to give him the firstfruits and tithes of the grain in their fields, which had already been set apart. Even after the grain was brought into their houses and placed in the kneading trough, almost ready for the table, God required another act of acknowledgment. A part of their dough, the Jews say at least one-fortieth of the whole lump, was to be offered to God (Numbers 15:20-21). The priest was to receive it for the support of his household.

In this way they had to confess their dependence on God for daily bread, even when the bread was already in their house. They also had to wait on God for the comfort of using it well. We read of people who brought much home, yet God blew on it and it came to little (Haggai 1:9). Christ teaches us to pray, not “Give us this year our yearly harvest,” but “Give us this day our daily bread.” Through this law, God was saying to the people what the prophet later said to the widow of Zarephath, “Make me a small loaf first” (1 Kings 17:13).

This offering was kept up in Ezekiel’s vision of the temple, and it is a command with a promise of blessings for the home (Ezekiel 44:30): “You shall give the priest the first of your dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house.” When God has received his due from our goods, we may expect comfort from what remains to us.