Burn After Reading
Numbers 28: 26-31
More sacrifice instruction. Yippee.
So on the "Day of firstfruits" (I'm not sure if this is a calendar day celebrated collectively or just the day when crops are gathered) when they make a grain offering during the Festival of Weeks they get a day off from work and are to hold a sacred assembly.
Then there's to be a burnt offering- two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs. There is also to be a grain offering with each animal offered. Once again there is to be a goat offered for atonement in addition to drink offerings. And of course the animals must be defect-free.
OK, this alone sounds like quite a bit to keep straight- but when you attach it to all of the other offerings that have been discussed in this chapter- daily offerings, Sabbath offerings, monthly offerings and Passover offerings- how were they ever able to keep it all straight? I'm guessing they didn't have calendar options on their iphones.
I guess it's likely that keeping up with all the particulars (and likely performing the actual sacrifices too) was the responsibility of the priests and they would have been trained for such tasks- and it would have been their profession- so there would be plenty of time to learn it all. Also, they probably didn't have a lot of Beatles lyrics or other random trivia bouncing around in their heads to fill up that memory space.
Even so, it seems like this is an amazingly complex process. Is that part of the deal- is God showing His power by making them jump through hoops that would be next to impossible to get right? Am I simply underestimating these people? Whichever the case- it doesn't exactly make for riveting reading.
Numbers 28: 26-31
More sacrifice instruction. Yippee.
So on the "Day of firstfruits" (I'm not sure if this is a calendar day celebrated collectively or just the day when crops are gathered) when they make a grain offering during the Festival of Weeks they get a day off from work and are to hold a sacred assembly.
Then there's to be a burnt offering- two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs. There is also to be a grain offering with each animal offered. Once again there is to be a goat offered for atonement in addition to drink offerings. And of course the animals must be defect-free.
OK, this alone sounds like quite a bit to keep straight- but when you attach it to all of the other offerings that have been discussed in this chapter- daily offerings, Sabbath offerings, monthly offerings and Passover offerings- how were they ever able to keep it all straight? I'm guessing they didn't have calendar options on their iphones.
I guess it's likely that keeping up with all the particulars (and likely performing the actual sacrifices too) was the responsibility of the priests and they would have been trained for such tasks- and it would have been their profession- so there would be plenty of time to learn it all. Also, they probably didn't have a lot of Beatles lyrics or other random trivia bouncing around in their heads to fill up that memory space.
Even so, it seems like this is an amazingly complex process. Is that part of the deal- is God showing His power by making them jump through hoops that would be next to impossible to get right? Am I simply underestimating these people? Whichever the case- it doesn't exactly make for riveting reading.
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