Numbers 9:1-14
A year has rolled by since the departure from Egypt, and the LORD communicates to Moses His instructions for the celebration of this great anniversary. Christendom celebrates each year the birth and the death of the Saviour, but afterwards many do not give these things a thought until the following year. The redeemed of the Lord have in contrast, the privilege of remembering together His sufferings and His death each first day of the week by partaking of the Supper which He has instituted.
In Israel, grace made provision for any who were ceremonially unclean or were on a journey. The Lord knows the circumstances of His own and meets these with His mercy, but He does not lower His own standard. Even in the second month, the feast had to be celebrated according to all the ordinances of the Passover (v. 12). Just as the confession of faults was necessary here (v. 7), the Word calls on the believer to judge himself, to examine himself, before taking part in the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28). Participation today is by no means, like it was in the time of the Passover, an obligation to be observed on pain of judgment (v. 13). The Lord’s expressed wish has no less power over the heart of the redeemed because of this. Is it less serious for that reason to absent oneself on the pretext that it is not obligatory, when the Lord has said "Drink ye all of it?" (Matthew 26:27).