Order of the Daily and Festal Offerings of the Congregation

When Israel was prepared for the conquest of the promised land by the fresh numbering and mustering of its men, and by the appointment of Joshua as commander, its relation to the Lord was regulated by a law which determined the sacrifices through which it was to maintain its fellowship with its God from day to day, and serve Him as His people (chap. xxviii. and xxix.). Through this order of sacrifice, the object of which was to form and sanctify the whole life of the congregation into a continuous worship, the sacrificial and festal laws already given in Ex. xxiii. 14–17, xxix. 38–42, xxxi. 12–17, Lev. xxiii., and Num. xxv. 1–12, were completed and arranged into a united and well-ordered whole. “It was very fitting that this law should be issued a short time before the advance into Canaan; for it was there first that the Israelites were in a position to carry out the sacrificial worship in all its full extent, and to observe all the sacrificial and festal laws” (Knobel).