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Welcome. I'm Cliff Hedges. This is Pastor Cliff's Notes. This is a podcast where we are studying the Bible. We're working our way through the book of Numbers. Today is episode 1627, and we're looking at Numbers chapter 15, verses 1 through 16. So God had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai. And there he taught them how to live in a relationship with him. He also prepared them to go into the promised land. So he brought them to the edge of the promised land, and then Moses sent the twelve scouts into the land. They scoped it all out, came back with a report, said that the land was plentiful, but there were giants in the land. The people rebelled against Moses and against the Lord. And God gave his judgment. All the men counted in the military census of chapter one would not go into the promised land. They would die in the wilderness. The next generation would go and take possession of the land of Canaan. That brings us to Numbers chapter 15, verses 1 through 16. The Lord instructed Moses, speak to the Israelites and tell them, When you enter the land I am giving you to settle in, and you make a food offering to the Lord from the herd or flock, either a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow as a free will offering, or at your appointed festivals to produce a pleasing aroma for the Lord. One presenting his offering to the Lord is also to present a grain offering of two quarts of fine flour mixed with a quart of oil. Prepare a quart of wine as a drink offering with the burnt offering or a sacrifice of each lamb. Now your first thought here is what is this doing here? We just had this incredible event of the people refusing to go into the promised land, and then it's an incredible judgment of God of, well, then this generation's going to die in the wilderness. The next generation will go into the promised land. Then we're back to these like Leviticus type descriptions about sacrifices. This out of order? Well, I don't think so. I think what it's doing is it's kind of providing a reset. God said, I'm going to destroy them all. Moses pleaded for the people. God said, Okay, I have forgiven them. People have been forgiven. They're still the people of God. And God's will is still for them to go into the promised land. By them I mean the nation of Israel. All the adults that were counted in the census of chapter one, they're not going to the promised land. But the next generation is. The nation of Israel is going into the promised land. That is still God's plan. That is still God's will. And so he's telling them when you get to the promised land that I'm giving you to settle in, so it's still the plan. And the land is going to be plentiful. The people he's speaking to, all the ones over 20, they're hearing this and we don't know what they're thinking. We don't get to participate in that. The ones under 20 are thinking this is going to be great for us when we get older and do take possession of the land. It will be a plentiful land. There will be plenty of food to have these offerings for God. And he describes a variety of offerings. And it can be from the herd of the flocks, that's the form of cows or goats or sheep. And he's talking about burnt offerings, free will offering, festival offerings. So a variety of offerings. And he says here to produce a pleasing aroma for the Lord at verse 3. Well, five times in this passage we're looking at today, we see this pleasing aroma for the Lord. And so we're seeing an idea of reconciliation that they are still God's people. And they're not just bringing sacrifices to the Lord to appease his anger. Part of bringing the sacrifice to the Lord is fellowship with God. You also are told to, in addition to the animal, bring grain and a drink for every one of these sacrifices. This makes it more like a meal. A meal to be enjoyed by the Lord as part of our fellowship with the Lord. So it's, I think it's just painting the picture here of, okay, we had this terrible thing now, but you're still the people of God. Act like the people of God, and remember you are in a relationship with God. You haven't been cast aside. Verse 6. If you prepare a grain offering with a ram, it is to be four quarts of fine flour mixed with a third of a gallon of oil. Also, present a third of a gallon of wine for a drink offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. So we see there again, pleasing aroma for the Lord. The first one was for an offering of a lamb. Now this is an offering of a ram. This would be a male goat. And it's just a larger portion of oil for the grain, larger portion of grain, and a larger portion of drink. So with a larger animal, you bring more of the other products. Verse 8, if you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering, or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or as a fellowship offering to the Lord, a grain offering of six quarts of fine flour mixed with two quarts of oil is to be presented with the bull. Also present two quarts of wine as a drink offering, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Again we see this is to provide a pleasing aroma to the Lord. And again, it's a bigger animal, so larger portion of grain, larger portion of oil for the grain, larger portion of the drink offering. Verse eleven. This is to be done for each ox, ram, lamb, or goat. This is how you prepare each of them, no matter how many. Every Israelite is to prepare these things in this way when he presents a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Again we see the pleasing aroma to the Lord. So all the Israelites, this is the way you're supposed to do it, and this is the reason you do it. Verse 14. When an alien resides with you, or someone else is among you and wants to prepare a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, you should do exactly as you do throughout your generations. The assemblies that have the same statute for both you and the resident alien as a permanent statute throughout your generations. You and the alien will be alike before the Lord. The same law, the same ordinance will apply to both you and the alien who resides with you. And the expectation is assimilation. They will come and be part of the Israelite community, they will adopt the faith of the Israelite community, they will follow the rules of the Israelite community in offering these sacrifices to the Lord. And they will assimilate into the community to become Israelites themselves. This is kind of a precursor to the evangelistic sense that we see more plainly in the New Testament that God isn't just creating his own little special club. The opportunity to know God and follow God is for all people. So we've got this little section here laying out when you do get to the promised land. So the next generation will receive the promised land. And so now we see here. And when the new generation gets to the promised land, we're going to continue in these sacrifices. You're going to be living in a close relationship with me. You will be my people. Thanks for joining me. Join me again next time as we continue working through numbers.