We have seen that there were specified offerings for a variety of situations, such as burnt offerings for sin (Leviticus 1:3-9), fellowship offerings (Leviticus 3:1-5), and restitution offerings (Leviticus 6:1-7). In addition to all of these, a morning and evening offering were required each day, of a yearling lamb without blemish, along with choice grain and wine (Exodus 29:38-46).

The narrative does not give us details to measure how much time has passed from one incident to the next: we can only guess that at this point in the story perhaps twenty or thirty years had gone by since the time of the crossing of the Red Sea. Here we see the requirements for the daily offering are repeated here for the new generation (Numbers 28:1-8): the new version is worded differently enough that we can see it hasn’t simply been copied from the previous edition, but the requirements remain the same.

But here comes something that the story had not told us up to this point. Now we learn that on the sabbath the regular daily offering is to be doubled. The daily requirement was one lamb in the morning and another in the evening, along with their grain and drink offerings; now for the sabbath day it will be two in the morning and two in the evening. “On the sabbath day: two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour for a grain offering – this is the burnt offering for every sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering” (28:9-10). This requirement is not listed in Exodus. Had they been sacrificing a lamb in the morning and another in the evening every day for twenty years or more without doing this extra on the sabbath? Or had they been doing the sabbath offering with two lambs in the morning and two more in the evening all along, and just hadn’t written it down before?

And wait: the importance of the sabbath has been emphasized over and over again. On the sabbath no one is to do any work at all. We might recall the story we read just a few days ago regarding the man who gathered up a bundle of firewood on the sabbath, who therefore had to be stoned to death (15:35). But on the sabbath the priests in the sanctuary have to do the daily sacrifices just like every other day, morning and evening: except now it turns out they have to do twice as much work on the sabbath. Thus this text (Numbers 28:9-10) is probably the passage Jesus had in mind when he said “Have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless?” (Matthew 12:5).

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Our hearts should be devoted to you every day, Lord, and especially on the sabbath; but we are not good at that. We are likely to apply the exceptional character of this text to mean that we can do whatever we want on the sabbath after all. Protect us from that self-centeredness, we pray: and give us your grace, to devote ourselves to you “every day and twice on Sunday.”

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