God is a god of times and seasons. In the hymn “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” we sing, 

Crown him the Lord of years, 

the Potentate of Time!

While for him “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8), the Scriptures nevertheless reveal God’s deliberate interest in his people’s time. 

We find that theme, for instance, in the Book of Numbers. The book’s Hebrew name, ba-midbar (“in the wilderness”), gives a clearer sense of the overall story. But the English title remains fitting. The book has quite a bit to say about numbers—about dates, about how God instructs his people to order their time. That is not new or unique. It has been that way from the beginning.  In his recently published commentary on Numbers, Michael Morales calls time “the atmosphere within which humans engage with God” and goes on to suggest that “the meaning and purpose of creation, especially of humanity, are found not in creation itself but in time.”¹

In Numbers 28, in anticipation of leaving the wilderness and living in the Promised Land, Moses lays out the annual calendar of offerings for God’s covenant people. He prescribes daily offerings (28:3–8), weekly offerings (28:9–10), monthly offerings (28:11–15), and the annual offerings of the Jewish festivals (28:16–29:38). Every one of these was an important, structural part of God’s relationship with his people. The offerings enabled communion, and the schedule was set to keep communion close. Let’s briefly consider the sequence.

Israel’s Devotional Calendar

Moses begins with daily offerings, the ṯāmiḏ (“continual”) or whole burnt offerings (cf. Exod. 29:38–46):

Command the people of Israel and say to them, “My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time.” And you shall say to them, “This is the food offering that you shall offer to the LORD: two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day, as a regular offering.” (Num. 28:2–3)²

Moses instructs that one lamb be offered in the morning (v. 4) and the other to be offered at twilight (v. 8). Every day began and concluded with devotion.

Next, Moses goes on to speak about the Sabbath, the weekly offering (28:9–10). God doubles the daily allotment. 

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. (Num. 28:9–10)

The daily ṯāmiḏ would be offered first, followed (note the word “besides” in v. 10) by the two Sabbath burnt offerings. 

Of course, the Sabbath day was already set apart as special by creation and in God’s Law. But, as the passage continues, Moses sets aside other days. In verse 11, he establishes an offering at the beginning of each month: “At the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD” (Num. 28:11). He also prescribes the annual offerings: Passover (vv. 16–15), the Feast of Weeks (vv. 26–31), the Feast of Trumpets (29:1–6), the Day of Atonement (29:7–11), and the Feast of Tabernacles (29:12–28). 

The passage ends with the reminder that these are not suggestions, but mandates: “So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (29:40).

Our Own Devotional Calendars

What should we do with all that? God no longer commands his people to offer lambs or grain or bulls or goats. The only sacrifice we will ever need has been offered in our place; Jesus is today at the right hand of God (Heb. 10:11–13). Nevertheless, the way God ordered his old covenant people’s time demonstrates his interest in times and seasons. He is acutely aware of the calendar and directs us to pay attention to it as well— not for his sake alone, but for our spiritual good. 

Numbers 28–29 lays out a prescription for spiritual health. What do God’s people need? We need: daily devotion (morning and evening!). We need to increase that devotion on the Lord’s Day. We would be wise to give attention to months and to special days that remind us of the great things God has done to redeem and engage us to himself. 

What would it do for our spiritual well-being if we matched our devotional schedule to what Israel was commanded? What would it do for our families’ devotion? Our churches’? What spiritual benefit might result if every pastor and elder made it his unbroken habit to pray morning and evening each day, to double those prayers on Sunday, and to specially pray on the first day of each month? 

God cares about our calendar. He is invested in how we allocate our time. He knows that we need him and that we need him regularly. But the truth is, we forget the “regularly” part—or we don’t believe it. In the grace of the Law being fulfilled (Matt. 5:17), we miss its wisdom. 

For as long as we’re here, ba-midbar (“in the wilderness”), we need to remember. Time is the atmosphere for our engagement with God. If we use it well, if we discipline ourselves to bring God the devotion that he asks for, the devotion we owe, we will find––like the hymn goes on to say––that our loving Father is “ineffably sublime”! We will enjoy closer communion. We will find ourselves moved more often, to say: 

All Hail, Redeemer, Hail, for thou hast died for me!

Thy praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity.