God's food was to be offered to Him "at its appointed time" (v. 2b). As we will see, God needs to eat daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. He wants to enjoy something daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. God's yearly food is related to the annual feasts.
Numbers 28:3-8 speaks of the continual burnt offering for every day. This daily offering consisted of two lambs a year old without blemish (v. 3). One lamb was offered in the morning with a meal offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mingled with oil, and its drink offering of a fourth of a hin (vv. 4, 7). The other lamb was offered at dusk with the same meal offering and drink offering (v. 8). The drink offering was to be poured out to Jehovah in a holy place. (For the details on the offerings, you may consult the Life-study of Leviticus.) This was God's daily food, food that included meat, bread (the meal offering), and drink.
In addition to the continual burnt offering for every day, there was a burnt offering for every Sabbath (vv. 9-10). This offering was two lambs a year old without blemish, with a meal offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour and its drink offering.
There was also a burnt offering for the beginning of every month (vv. 11-15). In His creation, God has ordained that there should be twelve months in a year. At the beginning of every month, God wanted to eat something particular, and His people were required to prepare this food for Him. First, this burnt offering included two young bulls with a meal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour and its drink offering of half a hin of wine for each bull. Second, the people were also to offer a ram with a meal offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour and its drink offering of a third of a hin. In addition, this monthly burnt offering included seven lambs a year old without blemish, with a meal offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour and its drink offering of a fourth of a hin for every lamb. Furthermore, in contrast to the daily and weekly burnt offerings, the monthly burnt offering had to include a male goat for a sin offering. God, of course, has nothing to do with sin. However, the serving ones were sinful and needed redemption in order to be qualified to serve God. If we would serve God by offering to Him His food, we need to offer a sin offering.
The offerings in Numbers 28 and 29 follow two lines—the line of ordinary human life and the line of the yearly feasts. The offerings for ordinary life are daily, weekly, and monthly, but the offerings for the feasts are yearly.
Concerning the annual feasts, we need to see that they correspond to our spiritual experience. Our spiritual life begins with the Passover and consummates at Pentecost (the feast of weeks). At Pentecost we have the fullness of the consummated Spirit to be our enjoyment and also to be God's food. The sequence of these feasts is marvelous and full of significance.
In 28:16-25 we have the burnt offering following the Passover. The Passover was only one day, the fourteenth day of the first month. The fifteenth day of this month was the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread, a feast which lasted seven days. On the first and seventh days of this feast, there was to be a holy convocation, and on those days no laborious work was to be done. Instead of work, there was to be rest and enjoyment. The offering for every day of the seven days was the same as that offered at the beginning of each month.