"16 “On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord's Passover, 17 and on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast. Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. 18 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, 19 but offer a food offering, a burnt offering to the Lord: two bulls from the herd, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old; see that they are without blemish; 20 also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil; three tenths of an ephah shall you offer for a bull, and two tenths for a ram; 21 a tenth shall you offer for each of the seven lambs; 22 also one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you. 23 You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a regular burnt offering. 24 In the same way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It shall be offered besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. 25 And on the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work.
26 “On the day of the firstfruits, when you offer a grain offering of new grain to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, 27 but offer a burnt offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old; 28 also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each bull, two tenths for one ram, 29 a tenth for each of the seven lambs; 30 with one male goat, to make atonement for you. 31 Besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, you shall offer them and their drink offering. See that they are without blemish."
Numbers 28:16-31
There are two phrases and ideas in common usage in our thinking, and especially in our hymnology, the Fatherhood of God, and the Lover of our souls. Both ideas underline and emphasise the reality of fellowship and relationship. The important thing in a family is not work or service, but relationship. A father takes pleasure in his family. In a true family the important thing is not the getting or the giving by the one or the other, but the relationship of love and care and concern between its members. And in particular, a bond of love, such as that implied in the phrase, 'the lover of our souls'. It is a relationship that is paramount and supreme, and alongside it service simply pales into insignificance. In the book of Revelation we have the real picture, as it ought to be 'For Thy pleasure they are and were created'. For His plea- sure! This is the end of worship. When this is paramount, and central, everything else is right, for everything is then rightly related to Him. In this connection we should note how frequently throughout these chapters the sacrifices are said to be 'a sweet savour to God'. This is the point at issue. This should be the aim of our worship, not getting things from God, but giving pleasure to Him. This is seen supremely in the pleasure given by the Son to the Father in the worship He gave Him, as the story of the Transfiguration well illustrates, when the love and desire of the Son for the Father broke through the bonds and barriers of human nature in a grand oblation to the Father of lights. This is the real test: do we think of giving God the plea- sure in us that He desires? Do we come to His house Sunday by Sunday with this thought in view?