Num 29:39+40. 'You shall present these to the Lord at your appointed times, besides your votive offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings and for your grain offerings and for your libations and for your peace offerings.'" And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 
	In this morning’s reading we have the additional festivals and feasts detailed very precisely for that generation that was about to enter into the Promised Land. As we have considered, the Lord may well have interjected this and the previous chapter into this account in order to show that the transition from the leadership of Moses to that of Joshua did not repress or do away with the sacrificial responsibilities that were given by the Lord through Moses. 
It would not be too far fetched to think that the people would consider that the change in leadership might do away with certain aspects of the law that could be considered burdensome and expensive. The idea might have been no more Moses meant no longer having to abide by the regulations to which he gave voice, and that certainly would have appealed to some of the Children of Israel. Therefore, God might just have reiterated, for the sake of continuity and clarity, exactly what He expected from the people in the course of their honoring Him.
The last chapter dealt with those daily and weekly sacrifices as well as the Passover. This chapter deals with some of the special times of sacrifice that were required by God from His Chosen people. It deals with the Festival of Trumpets, which included the blowing of the ram’s horn in celebration of what became the New Year, or Rosh Hashanah.
As well, this chapter details the holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atoning. This was the most solemn of Israel’s holy days. It was a time of fasting rather than feasting. It was a time of solemnity rather than rejoicing. The people were to consider the sins they and the whole nation had committed and seek to atone for them through sacrifices and fasting and prayer. Even today, the devout among the Jews will spend the day in the temple, prostrate in their sorrow and their humbleness for hours as they contemplate the sins of the people.
The last special time of sacrifices mentioned was the seven day Feast of Tabernacles or Booths with the detailed number of sacrifices that were required for each day. The number of the sacrifices diminished as each day passed, yet the total quantity required was still tremendous. When we consider how many animals, how much premium flour and oil and wine was required in these sacrificial rites, along with the daily and weekly ones, we see that the priests were in constant and perpetual activity. This was the physical demands of dealing with the sacrificial necessities that would allow the Lord to forgive and to cleanse and to find satisfaction in the service and the hearts of His people. 
All these sacrifices were not a minor or insignificant obligation before the Lord. The vast quantity of surrendered animals and materials was staggering. And please remember how the Lord spelled out very clearly and distinctly that the animals were to be the best of the flocks and the herds. They were to be exactly as prescribed without spot or wrinkle or blemish. They were not to be crippled or deformed, but pristine examples of the best that could be gathered together for this service of sacrifice.
Sorrowfully, this dedication in sacrificial services by the people and the priests deteriorated as the nation was enticed by the idols of the realms surrounding it. Finally, there was the disintegration into two separate nations and then ultimately the complete collapse as ordained by God through His use of the most powerful nations of that time invaded and captured all the Children of Israel. This ended the temple service and all the sacrifices at that time. 
After Judah’s enslavement and then eventual release from Babylon, the Prophet Ezra records that the people desired for the sacrifices to be reinstituted. They meant much to the remnant of the Children of Israel who had come through the fiery ordeal of captivity and destruction. They wanted to have that reestablishment of what would honor the Lord, as had not been true before their enslavement. The Prophet Ezra recounts this for us in Ezra 3:2-5.
Ezra 3:2-5, Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brothers arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. So they set up the altar on its foundation, for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they celebrated the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the fixed number of burnt offerings daily, according to the ordinance, as each day required; and afterward there was a continual burnt offering, also for the new moons and for all the fixed festivals of the Lord that were consecrated, and from everyone who offered a freewill offering to the Lord. 
The people returning from Babylon knew that they needed to honor God as He so required and had ordained. They had been swept away because of the unfaithfulness and idolatry which the nation had practiced in its refusal to so honor God Alone. Therefore, they were willing to offer what they had in homage and obedience to God, knowing that He would make every provision for them in their renewed faithfulness unto Him and His Law.
However, the later generations would again succumb to treating God with less than the best that they could offer. They would defame the Lord and refuse to bring unto Him all that He required. The lessons of the remnant from Babylon would be lost and in the last book of the Old Testament, the Prophet Malachi voices the displeasure of the heart of God in Mal 1:6-8.
Mal 1:6-8, "'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, 'How have we despised Thy name?' "You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled Thee?' In that you say, 'The table of the Lord is to be despised.' "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the Lord of hosts. 
	The people were not willing to offer the best of the herds and the flocks. They were not practicing the sacrificial ordinances with the understanding that it was meant to bring before the Lord their humbleness of heart. By offering only the best of the best, their attitudes would show that Jehovah deserved the foremost of what they had. It all came from Him and was to be dedicated back unto Him. As all they had was from Him, so what they offered was to be the expressed gloriousness of their consideration of His grace and His mercy and His provision and His honor. Such was so lacking as evidenced in their miserable dealings with God. Was it any wonder that God then chose to remain silent for all the following centuries with this nation that defrauded and defiled that which was to be so very sacred and holy in the sacrificial service? 
    	After those 400 years of silence, God brought forth the perfect sacrifice for all mankind who would but believe on and receive the gift of His Only Begotten Son. The Apostle Paul delineates this for us all in Rom 3:21-26. Please open to this passage in order to relish the truth of Christ together. 
	Rom 3:21-26, But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 
    	The Writer to the Hebrews has so much to say in comparing the so feeble efforts of the priests of old with the final and perfect priestly ministry of Jesus Christ in His perfect sacrificial service. We will begin with Heb 9:6-14. Please turn to it. 
	Heb 9:6-14, Now when these things have been thus prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship, but into the second only the high priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 
	What the sacrifices of old served to do, as with the various feasts and convocations and holy days, was to point to the need for repentance and for forgiveness and for the remembrance of the preeminent presence of God in the lives of the people. It was a continual, daily reminder that man needed God. Humanity needed to be humbled and contrite and remorseful for the manner in which mankind failed to bring to God the worship and the praise and the adoration and the honor and the obedience that the Lord God Almighty, Alone, requires and deserves. 
The Writer mentions this with respect to the yearly sacrifices for atonement in Heb 10:3. Heb 10:3, But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. 
	Again, in Heb 10:11-22, the Writer details the difference in how the sacrifices of the OT could only point forward to the greater sacrifice of Christ Jesus. They are imperfect types highlighting just how much His perfect work triumphantly did in achieving redemption and justification for those who believe upon Him for all of eternity. 
Heb 10:11-22, And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them," He then says, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 
	We will bring this morning’s consideration to a conclusion with the following quote from Dr. Ronald B. Allen in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. In it, Dr. Allen delineates the magnificent difference of the work of Christ in relationship to the vast and sundry sacrifices of the Old Testament which did serve to bring to man’s conscious awareness the complete need for God to do the work and to be Our Redeemer. 
Quote, Sacrifice was a continual process in the courts of the Lord, a theme picked up by the writer to the Hebrews who speaks of “the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year” (Heb 10:1, For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near). This writer then points to the sacrifice of the Savior Jesus, which was singular and nonrepeatable (Heb 10:10, By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all), after which He sat down (Heb 10:12, but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God). No one reading these sections in Numbers would ever imagine a godly priest sitting down; the work was never done. But in Jesus all the work of priestly sacrifice was fulfilled; in Him all meaning was realized - and He sits down. Sacrifice of animals, offerings of grain, and libations of wine are all fulfilled in His own work, to the praise of the Father. End Quote
Thank You Lord and so be it!
'You shall present these to the Lord at your appointed times, besides your votive offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings and for your grain offerings and for your libations and for your peace offerings.'" And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is 2 Chron 6:14. The prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple - And he said, "O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no god like Thee in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Thy servants who walk before Thee with all their heart; Amen.