Ethan had been a Christian for fifteen years. He served as a deacon at Covenant Church, coached his son’s soccer team, and led a small group for young couples. Most people saw him as steady and spiritually mature.
What few people knew was that Ethan had been carrying quiet resentment for nearly a year. His father-in-law, a retired pastor, had made several critical comments about how Ethan was raising his children. Ethan told himself he had forgiven the man, but the truth was he still replayed the conversations in his head, growing more defensive each time. He had never actually talked to his father-in-law about it. He had simply buried it.
On a rainy Sunday in March, Ethan arrived at church already irritated. His youngest daughter had thrown a tantrum in the car, and he had raised his voice at her. Sarah, his wife, had given him a disappointed look. By the time he sat down in the sanctuary, his mind was racing through everything he needed to do that week.
The worship songs felt long. When the pastor stood to lead communion, Ethan checked his watch. He had a lunch meeting with a client afterward and didn’t want to be late.
The pastor read the familiar passage: “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
Ethan shifted in his seat. He knew the verse. He had heard it dozens of times. For a brief second he considered what the pastor was saying, but then his mind tuned it out. He didn’t pause. He didn’t pray. He didn’t ask God to search his heart. He simply took the small piece of bread when it reached him and ate it. When the cup came, he drank it quickly, already thinking about the route he would take to the restaurant to avoid traffic.
The command to examine ourselves before eating the Lord’s Supper is similar to requirements in the Mosaic Law to maintain ritual cleanliness. The 19th chapter of Numbers is one of the passages that explains those requirements. This chapter spells out the consequences of failing to be ritually pure, which reminds us to heed the warnings in 1 Corinthians 11 about how to prepare for the Lord’s Supper.
Num. 19:1 ¶ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
Num. 19:2 “This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they take to you a red heifer without blemish, in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed.
Note the requirements for this heifer. It had to be red, without blemish, and never yoked.
Num. 19:3 And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.
Eleazar was the son of the high priest. This particular step of the ritual was not carried out by the high priest. Instead, one of his sons performed it.
Num. 19:4 Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
Num. 19:5 Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.
Look at the words “burned in his sight”. Eleazar did not actually do the killing and the burning. He merely supervised the action.
Num. 19:6 And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer.
Num. 19:7 The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.
The supervising priest was one of several men involved in this ritual. He was unclean after the ritual.
Num. 19:8 The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening.
The second man in the ritual was the man who burned the heifer. He was also unclean after the ritual.
Num. 19:9 Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.
There was a third man who gathered the ashes.
Notice the word “water”. The ashes were put into water which was used to remove impurity.
Num. 19:10 And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the sojourner who sojourns among them.
The third man was also unclean after the ritual.
Num. 19:11 ¶ ‘The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days.
Num. 19:12 That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.
There were multiple incidents which caused the Israelites to be unclean. One of them was touching a corpse. The water with the ashes of the red heifer was used to purify people who were unclean.
Num. 19:13 Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, makes the tabernacle of Yahweh unclean; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not splashed on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.
Take note of the words “cut off”. If a man did not follow the rules of ritual purity, he was to be cut off because by being unclean, he made the tabernacle of Yahweh unclean.
Num. 19:14 ¶ ‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days.
Num. 19:15 And every open vessel, which has no covering tied down on it, shall be unclean.
Num. 19:16 Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.
Num. 19:17 Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in a vessel.
The word “ashes” refers to the ashes from the red heifer as explained in verses 2-9.
Num. 19:18 And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave.
Num. 19:19 Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.
Num. 19:20 ¶ ‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly because he has made the sanctuary of Yahweh unclean; the water for impurity has not been splashed on him; he is unclean.
Once again we see the words “cut off”. This chapter explains specific scenarios in which Israelites were ritually unclean, as well as what they needed to do to cleanse themselves. Failure to follow the rules had consequences.
We see something similar in the New Testament regarding the Lord’s Supper. The bread and wine of communion symbolize the body and blood of Christ. Even though communion is symbolic, there are still rules to follow. Christians must examine themselves before partaking of the symbols. Failure to do so can have consequences (see 1 Corinthians 11:27-32).
Num. 19:21 So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
Num. 19:22 Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’”
Num. 20:1 ¶ Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.
Christians partake of the Lord’s Supper many times over the course of their life. It is easy to become so comfortable with the ritual that we start to treat it casually. Furthermore, we live busy lives and sometimes it is hard to stop thinking about everything in life long enough to focus solely on the task at hand when we are partaking of the bread and wine.
However, just as the Israelites had to maintain ritual purity, and there were consequences for failing to do so, so too Christians must be diligent about how we partake in the Lord’s Supper. 1 Corinthians 11 clearly tells us to examine ourselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup. If we can’t focus enough to do that, then we are better off not partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”