Numbers 28 lays out the regular offerings Israel was to present to the LORD: the daily burnt offerings, the Sabbath offerings, the monthly offerings at the new moon, and the offerings for the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks. These questions are for small groups, Sunday classes, and personal study who want to work through the chapter verse by verse without a separate summary. Each set moves from what the text says, to what it means, to how it shapes everyday faithfulness.
Numbers 28 at a Glance
The chapter opens with the continual burnt offering, a pair of lambs offered every morning and evening, with flour, oil, and drink offerings attached. It then adds the Sabbath offering, the monthly offerings at the beginning of each month, and the single goat for sin. From verse 16 onward the focus shifts to the set feasts of the year, each with its own sacrifices, holy assemblies, and rest from regular work.
Read as a whole, the chapter repeats a pattern: the people give what is pleasing and without defect, at set times, and God receives it as a pleasant aroma. The rhythm of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly worship is itself the lesson.
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before anyone offers an opinion. Ask the group to point to the exact words in the text, read the verses aloud, and resist explaining the meaning until the details are clear.
Numbers 28:2
“Command the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘See that you present my offering, my food for my offerings made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to me, in their due season.’
(WEB)
Read this first to frame the whole chapter. It explains that the offerings are a form of presenting something to God, given in due season and pleasing to him.
Numbers 28:3-4
3 You shall tell them, ‘This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to the LORD: male lambs a year old without defect, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering. 4 You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and you shall offer the other lamb at evening…
(WEB)
These verses establish the daily pattern that anchors everything else. Reading them aloud lets the group hear the repetition that makes the rhythm of worship clear.
Numbers 28:9-10
9 “‘On the Sabbath day, you shall offer two male lambs a year old without defect, and two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a meal offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering: 10 this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual burnt offering, and its drink offering.
(WEB)
Reading the Sabbath offering in full shows how God set apart a special day within the ordinary week, and gives the group a way into the discussion about rest.
Numbers 28:16-17
16 “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is the LORD’s Passover. 17 On the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days.
(WEB)
These verses open the section on the annual feasts. Reading them aloud signals the shift from daily and monthly worship to the yearly calendar of remembrance.
Numbers 28:26-27
26 “‘Also in the day of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal offering to the LORD in your feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work; 27 but you shall offer a burnt offering for a pleasant aroma to the LORD: two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old…
(WEB)
The day of first fruits connects worship to gratitude for the harvest. Reading these verses helps the group see thanksgiving built into the calendar.
Memory Verse for Numbers 28
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come before you as people who are given daily, weekly, and yearly rhythms of worship, and we confess that our attention drifts easily. Teach us to bring you what is good and whole, offered in its proper season and not merely when it is convenient. Shape our mornings and evenings, our rest and our new beginnings, so that they become gifts that please you. Help us remember your faithfulness and to give you our best, without defect, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
