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Numbers Chapter
Twenty-nine
Numbers 29
Chapter Contents
The offering at the feats of trumpets, and on the day of
atonement. (1-11) Offerings at the feast of tabernacles. (12-40)
Commentary on Numbers 29:1-11
There were more sacred solemnities in the seventh month
than in any other. It was the space between harvest and seed-time. The more
leisure we have from the pressing occupations of this life, the more time we
should spend in the immediate service of God. The blowing of the trumpets was
appointed, Leviticus 22:24. Here they are directed what
sacrifices to offer on that day. Those who would know the mind of God in the
Scriptures, must compare one part with another. The latter discoveries of
Divine light explain what was dark, and supply what was wanting, in the former,
that the man of God may be perfect.
Commentary on Numbers 29:12-40
Soon after the day of atonement, the day in which men
were to afflict their souls, followed the feast of Tabernacles, in which they
were to rejoice before the Lord. Their days of rejoicing were to be days of
sacrifices. A disposition to be cheerful does us good, when it encourages our
hearts in the duties of God's service. All the days of dwelling in booths they
must offer sacrifices; while we are here in a tabernacle state, it is our
interest, as well as our duty, constantly to keep up communion with God. The
sacrifices for each of the seven days are appointed. Every day there must be a
sin-offering, as in the other feasts. Our burnt-offerings of praise cannot be
accepted of God, unless we have an interest in the great sacrifice which Christ
offered, when he made himself a Sin-offering for us. And no extraordinary
services should put aside stated devotions. Every thing here reminds us of our
sinfulness. The life that we live in the flesh must be by the faith of the Son
of God; until we go to be with him, to behold his glory, and praise his mercy,
who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. To whom be
honour and glory for ever. Amen.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on
Numbers》
Numbers 29
Verse 6
[6] Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat
offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink
offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by
fire unto the LORD.
Of the month — Belonging to every new moon.
Verse 7
[7] And ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month
an holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work
therein:
Afflict your souls — Yourselves, by
fasting and abstinence from all delightful things, and by compunction for your
sins, and the judgments of God, either deserved by you or inflicted upon you.
Verse 12
[12] And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall
have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a
feast unto the LORD seven days:
Seven days — Not by abstaining so long from
all servile work, but by offering extraordinary sacrifices each day. This was
the Feast of Tabernacles. And all the days of their dwelling in booths, they
must offer sacrifices. While we are in these tabernacles, 'tis our interest as
well as duty, to keep up our communion with God. Nor will the unsettledness of
our outward condition, excuse our neglect of God's worship.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Numbers》
29 Chapter 29
Verses 1-6
A day of blowing the trumpets.
The Feast of Trumpets
Some of the Rabbins fantastically suppose that it was instituted
in remembrance of the offering up of Isaac, or of deliverance from being
offered, which conceit is idle and nothing at all to the purpose. Others
imagine that it was appointed upon occasion of the wars that the Israelites had
with the Amalekites and other nations under the conduct of God, to put them in
remembrance that the whole life of man is nothing else but a continual warfare
(Job 7:1; 2 Timothy 2:1). Of this feast we
read (Leviticus 23:24). This was accounted as a
Sabbath, an holy convocation, wherein they must do no servile work. Therein the
trumpets sounded aloud, and the sound thereof was heard far and near.
1. Let us come to the uses hereof in regard of ourselves, which
served of purpose to stir up the people to return unto God praise and
thanksgiving with joyfulness of heart for all His benefits, according to that
in the Psalms (Psalms 81:1-3). So David, having
experience of God’s good hand toward him in many preservations, composed Psalms 18:1-50, as a testimony of his
thankfulness “for his deliverance from the hands of all his enemies and from
the hand of Saul.” So I should think that the cause of this feast was to be a
feast of remembrance for His manifold mercies received in the wilderness, that
thereby they might stir up themselves to be united in God. And the cause of the
institution of this feast seemeth to be contrary to that which followeth, which
is the feast of fasting. For as the Jews had a day to humble themselves by
fasting, so they were also to have a day of rejoicing when they heard of those
trumpets. And albeit we neither hear nor have these trumpets sounded in our
ears to call us to the temple and place of His worship, yet ought we to praise
His name cheerfully and readily with spiritual joy and gladness continually (Isaiah 35:2-3; Isaiah 35:10), with singing and thanksgiving
(Isaiah 49:20-21); for it is certain the
faithful only have true cause to rejoice (Psalms 32:11; Psalms 33:1); the ungodly have no cause
at all (Isaiah 48:20-22); but rather to weep and
lament (Luke 6:25).
2. This warneth us of the preaching of the gospel concerning Christ
the Saviour of the world, the Conqueror of all our enemies and of them that
hate us (Isaiah 57:1; Zechariah 9:1-17.). For this was a
warlike instrument ( Joshua 6:1-27.). God hath caused the
doctrine of salvation to be sounded out into the world so that all have heard
the sound of it (Psalms 19:4; Romans 10:18). Such a trumpet was John
the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who was sent “to prepare the way of the
Lord” (Mark 1:1-2), and to call upon them to
repent because the kingdom of God was at hand. And this commendeth to the
ministers in the execution of their office, diligence, carefulness,
continuance, cheerfulness, and zeal (1 Corinthians 9:17; 1 Peter 5:2).
3. As the ministers must be the Lord’s trumpets, so indeed ought
every faithful soul to be a trumpet. For when this feast was yearly observed,
such as heard the trumpets were warned by it all the year after to stir up and
awaken themselves, remembering that God doth call them as with a loud voice
daily, that they should yield up themselves souls and bodies unto Him to
worship and serve Him as He requireth. When this feast was celebrated, all the
males were not commanded to repair to Jerusalem, as they were at the three more
solemn feasts (Exodus 23:17), to wit, if they were free
men and in health, able to go to the place of His worship (Deuteronomy 12:6; Deuteronomy 16:2). And hence it is that
the Jewish doctors, out of that law of all males appearing before the Lord
three times in the year, do exempt eleven sorts; and therefore they say that
women and servants are not bound, but all men are bound, except the deaf and
the dumb, and the fool, and the little child, and the blind, and the lame, and
the uncircumcised, and the old man, and the sick, and the tender or weak which
are not able to go and travel upon their feet; nevertheless, though the people
were far from Jerusalem when this feast was holden, and that they could not
resort thither daily to do sacrifice in the temple, yet they were to consider
in their absence that sacrifices were offered there even in their behalf, and
God was worshipped there in the behalf and name of all the tribes. True it is
this figure is utterly abolished by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
howbeit this remaineth that we ourselves should serve for trumpets. For as the
temple being destroyed we must be spiritual temples unto God; so the trumpets
being taken away, every one of us must be spiritual trumpets, that is, we
should rouse up ourselves, because we are naturally so wedded to the world and
unto the vanities here below that it seldom cometh into our minds to think of
God, of the gospel, of the kingdom of heaven. Our ears are so possessed with
the sound of earthly things, and our eyes so dazzled with the pleasures of the
flesh, that we are as deaf and blind men, that can neither hear nor see what
God saith unto us. He calleth unto us daily, and maketh the gospel sound aloud
in the midst of us that we might have the inward remorse of a good conscience,
to repent us of all our evil ways, yet we, notwithstanding this summoning of
us, do remain dull and deaf, and dumb and blind. Wherefore we must not look
till there be a solemn holy day to call us unto the Church, there to keep a
feast of trumpets, but it must serve us all the days of our life as a spur to
cause us to return to God. (W. Attersoll.)
Verses 12-40
The fifteenth day of the seventh month.
The Feast of Tabernacles
It is called the Feast of Tabernacles because during the days of
this feast they were to live in tents or tabernacles, it being a memorial of
God’s preserving of them in the wilderness where was no house for them in which
to rest. This was a most holy feast to remember them when they had no
dwellings, and therefore Moses doth so largely dwell upon the solemnities of it
; then they were especially enjoined to read the Law at this feast, when all
Israel was to appear before the Lord (Deuteronomy 31:10; 2 Chronicles 8:13; Ezra 3:4; Nehemiah 8:14-15; John 7:2). This feast is now abrogated,
and belonged not to the Gentiles that were converted to the faith, after the
passion and ascension of Christ (Colossians 2:17; Acts 15:10; Hebrews 10:1-39). Notwithstanding we must
consider the inward signification of this ceremony, and see what uses remain
thereof to ourselves. And therefore the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 14:16), describing the calling
of the Gentiles to the true God, and their gathering into the true Church,
setteth it forth according to the manner of God’s service used in the law, that
they should go up from year to year to worship the Lord of hosts, and to keep
the Feast of Tabernacles: alluding to the ceremony of the law, as our Saviour doth
(Matthew 5:23-24), meaning that they
should worship God according to His commandments, and not after their own
fancies.
1. First, we learn hereby that it is a duty belonging to all to
remember the days of their troubles and afflictions, from which God in great
mercy hath delivered us. We ought also to consider what we have been in regard
of temporal deliverances, and in
regard of spiritual deliverances from the bondage of sin (Ephesians 2:1-4; Ephesians 2:11-13), for their deliverance
from the slavery of Egypt did figure out our deliverance by Christ from the
bondage of sin, Satan, and hell itself.
2. Secondly, observe from this feast that God evermore preserveth His
Church, even when it is oppressed with greatest dangers and troubles, nay, then
His power and mercy is made most manifest; His power shineth brightest in our
weakness, and His mercy appeareth most of all in our misery.
3. Thirdly, though the Feast of Tabernacles be not any longer in use,
that we should be bound to the keeping of it, yet the doctrine arising from it
concerneth us as much as ever it did the Jews. Our keeping of this feast must
not be for a week or twain, but all our life, so long as we live upon the
earth. We must acknowledge that we are pilgrims in this world (Hebrews 11:16), and if we be not
strangers in this present world we have no part in the kingdom of heaven. If,
then, we will have God to accept us for His children, we must assure ourselves
that this life is nothing to us but a way, or rather, indeed, a race, toward
our heavenly country. It is not enough for us to go fair and softly, but we
must always run apace, pressing forward with all our strength and force,
holding on our way, and straining ourselves to attain to the end of our course.
4. Lastly, we are hereby put in mind of the shortness of this life;
we are here for a season, and by and by gone. And albeit we make our houses
never so strong, and build them up with brick and stone to continue, yet our
bodies are all as tabernacles, always decaying. Let us therefore learn the
doctrine of the apostle (2 Corinthians 5:1), If our outward
man decay we have a building prepared for us in heaven. And we must say with
Peter, “I must shortly put off this my tabernacle, as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath showed me” (2 Peter 1:14). When this lodging of
ours shall decay we shall dwell in an house incorruptible. Our bodies are but
as arbours made of green leaves, which are of no continuance, one blast of wind
is strong enough to blow them away (Isaiah 40:6). Every man hath some disease
or other about him that will not suffer him to endure long. And if he had no
disease or distemper, yet wait but a while, and age itself will be a disease,
and as the messenger of death unto him, that even without sickness he slideth
away, as the fruit of a tree, when it is ripe, falleth down of itself, though
there be no hand to pluck it, or wind to shake it, or thief to steal it, or
tempest to drive it. When we diligently consider this, then we have indeed
learned to keep this Feast of the Tabernacles spiritually. To conclude,
therefore, let every man beware that he seek not his own ease over much. This
is one rule, that we do not pamper our own flesh in the lusts thereof (Romans 13:14). Secondly, such as are
planted commodiously in this world must beware that they do not forget the
world to come; and they that enjoy the earth at will must remember the kingdom
of heaven, wherein they must only place the top of their happiness. If we seek
heaven upon earth we shall never find it in the next life. Thirdly, let us use
this world as though we used it not; rejoice as though we rejoice not, and weep
as though we weep not, considering that the fashion of this world vanisheth
away (1 Corinthians 7:30-31). (W.
Attersoll.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》