Numbers 28:11. The beginnings of your months; the new moons, as many affirm. Colossians 2:16. Every Hebrew at the new moon made some small offering, or performed some extra devotion to the Lord.
Numbers 28:15. And one kid of the goats, as soon as the new moon was seen. The Sabians at this time, Numbers 28:11, made offerings to the moon, calling her the queen of heaven; here the Lord diverts the people from those practices by a hallowed attendance at his altar. The fat &c. of this goat was burned on the altar, and the flesh of all the ordinary sin-offerings was eaten by the priests.
REFLECTIONS.
The old generations having passed away, the Lord here reports to the rising age, the leading sacrifices prescribed in the Levitical law: viz. the daily, the weekly, the monthly, and the annual victims. Next follow in order the national festivals, all of which have been illustrated. These sacrifices forming here the subject of a new revelation, we may notice not only their importance, but also the necessity of inculcating with new force, religious precepts on the young people of every age. Man, attracted by the glare of the exterior world, forgets his God, and forgets himself. Religion has need to be obtruded on his regards, pressed on his conscience, and enforced by every new motive which providence daily affords. If the religious precepts are not thus often inculcated, and if discipline is not maintained, the church of God very soon becomes as a neglected garden, or a desert.
We find here a double lamb ordained for the sabbath. On that hallowed day we should appear before the Lord with a double devotion, and with peculiar diligence and fervour. We should, in particular, ever have before our eyes the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. A lamb was the most frequent victim presented on the Hebrew altar, being most expressive of the innocence and meekness of our Saviour. A male of the first year was chosen to indicate his sovereignty and strength; and a lamb without spot, to mark the innocence of his nature, and consequently his fitness to atone for our guilt. And as these lambs, and pieces of the other victims, were kept burning night and day on the altar, we learn that the merits of Jesus, embraced by faith, are every moment the ground of our standing approved in the sight of God. The Lord having been graciously pleased to repeat to the new generation, the heads of the ritual law, let us be cautious to keep and revere every command of Christ; and lest we should forget, let us pray the Holy Spirit to be a remembrancer to us, and to write the law of kindness and love on all our hearts. The souls most exact and conscientious in the discharge and exercise of religion, are generally found the most stedfast in the time of temptation, and happy in the hour of death.