Numb, xxviii. 3 — 10. Thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord; two lambs of the first year without spot, day by day, for a continual burnt-offering. Tlie one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even ; and a tenth part of an ephah of flour for a meat-offering, mingled with the
fourth part of an kin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt- offering, which tvas ordained in Mount Sinai for a siveet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord. And the drink-offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an Jain for the one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink-offering. And the other lamb shalt thou offer at even : as the meat-offering of the morning, and as the drink-offering thereof, thou shalt offer it, a sacrifice made by fire, of a siveet savour unto the Lord. And on the Sabbath-day, two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth-deals of flour for a meat-offering, mingled with oil, and the drink-offering thereof. This is the burnt- offering of every Sabbath, beside the continual burnt-offering, and his drink-offering.
THIS burnt-offering, our text informs us, " was ordained in Mount Sinai," nearly forty years before the period at which it was again enjoined3. Com- mentators are not agreed respecting the reason of its being again so circumstantially repeated. Some have thought that the observance of this ordinance had been entirely neglected in the wilderness ; and that from hence arose the necessity of enjoining it again, in order that it might not be neglected when they should come into the land of Canaan. Nor is this opinion without some foundation : for the prophet Amos, and after him the first martyr, Stephen, com- plains of the most grievous neglect of duty among the Israelites in the wilderness, and of their worshipping idols in preference to the living God : " It is written in the book of the Prophets," says Stephen, " O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilder- ness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon \" But it is altogether incredible that Moses should have suffered such a public dere- liction of duty as this : and, if he had, it is impossible that God should have spoken of him as a servant " faithful in all his house." We apprehend therefore that it was not of these sacrifices which depended
a Exod. xxix. 38 — 41. >' Amos v. 25—27. Acts vii. 42,43.