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Five different concerns are addressed in this chapter: (1) supplementary data about the burnt, grain, and fellowship offerings (vv.1-16); (2) the offering of firstfruits (vv.17-21); and (3) the contrast between unintentional sin (vv.22-29) and defiant sin (vv.30-31); (4) an instance of the death penalty for Sabbath violation (vv.32-36); and (5) wearing tassels on one’s clothing (vv.37-41).
What is of interest is that here one discovers unexpectedly a conglomeration of legal material sandwiched between the spy story of chs. 13-14 and the account in ch. 16 about rebellion against Moses by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. What, if anything, is the relationship of ch. 15 to its immediate context? Most commentators suggest no relationship at all, which, I suggest, is incorrect.
To begin with, note that vv.1-21 deal with sacrifices that are voluntary and given to God in gratitude and praise. One finds little of either praise or gratitude in chs. 13, 14, and 16. Unintentional sin (vv.22-29) is contrasted with defiant sin (vv.30-31). The sin of the spies (ch. 13), the people (ch. 14), and Korah (ch. 16) was defiant sin. For these there was no sacrificial provision. Only the prayers of Moses saved the perpetrators (14:13-19; 16:22). God wants his people to be consecrated (v.40), but no holiness is exemplified in chs. 13, 14, and 16.
Most evident is the focus of this chapter on the future, evidenced by expressions like after you enter the land (v.2; cf. v.18), and the generations to come (vv.14, 15, 21, 23, 38). Yet in the previous chapter God had said that this first generation would, under no circumstances, enter the land. Ch. 15 is a word to the second generation of divine promise (“I will bring you into the land”), and of divine expectation (“You shall be my holy people”).