Daniel 9:25b …there shall be seven weeks…
The context of this series of posts is the course of the Jewish people for the initial 49 years of the 483 year period communicated from the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel. The city of Jerusalem has been rebuilt post exile. These events are covered in Nehemiah 8-13. Israel is returning to God’s Law. The focus is Temple worship service. The grain offering has been reviewed. Next, Nehemiah reminds the Jewish people of the Sabbath Offering.
Nehemiah 10:33b …the Sabbaths…
The concept of the Sabbath has its roots in the creation week. The Sabbath is “barak” in the Hebrew or blessed. This day is set apart and clean. Even God rested. He set the precedent. He was not tired. God blessed the seventh day.
Genesis 2:2-3 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
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The Sabbath offering is a bit different than the daily offering.
In both cases, two male lambs without blemish are sacrificed.
What is different is the amount of flour. The daily offering has 1/10 of an ephah. The Sabbath offering has 2/10 of an ephah. As a reminder, an ephah is roughly one bushel or 8 dry gallons or 35 liters or 8 pounds. Multiply x .2. We are looking at 1.6 gallons or pounds or 7 liters of flour.
There is a progression of the amount of flour from the daily offering to the Sabbath offering to the monthly offering. The daily offering has 1/10 of an ephah. The Sabbath offering has 2/10. And the monthly offering has multiple recipes pending the sacrifice being offered. In the case of the monthly offering, more fine flour is offered.
The fine flour is mixed with an amount of oil that is not defined.
There is also an undefined amount of wine as well.
The text is clear with a reminder. The daily offering is different than the Sabbath offering.
Numbers 28:9-10 On the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without blemish, and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering: this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.
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The Sabbath is unique in that it was created and written before the law. Its foundation is in the creation week. The Sabbath was instituted before the Mosaic Law. If anything the Sabbath law in the 10 Commandments is a reminder.
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Fast forward roughly 1,440 years from Moses receiving the law on Mount Sinai to Jesus. The context of the discussion is a wheat field with the disciples and the religious leaders on the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27-28 And He (Jesus) said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
See also Matthew 12:8, Luke 6:5.
Jesus is the author of the law as given to Moses. The Sabbath was created for man to rest. Jesus fulfilled the law. It is good for us to rest in Him.
Christ is the Creator. Jesus is greater than traditions of men or the Sanhedrin in this context.
John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.
As believers in Christ we have our Sabbath in Him because of His death, burial, and resurrection.
