Wine can only be furnished in times of stability. Poignantly, wine then represents rest. Wine needs deep roots, hardy vines, and vats stored with the leisure to ferment. The Mosaic Law seems at first to overlook the wine offering, but as the promised Canaan rest drew near, wine took a more prominent role in the worship of God’s people.
When we think about the sacrifices and offerings in Moses’ Law we most likely jump to thinking about the bloody offering of a lamb. While this is certainly the most prominent offering found in the Law, it isn’t the only one. Like the great Storyteller He is, God hints at another kind of covenantal offering in Exodus 29:40, where wine is poured out along with the sacrificial lamb.
In the thorough sacrificial instructions in Leviticus this drink offering gets very little mention and scarcely any description of how it should be performed. That is until it’s mentioned in connection with the Feast of Weeks––what we would call Pentecost (Lev. 23:13).