Numbers 9:7 And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in his appointed season among the children of Israel?

The Passover was the annual Hebrew festival on the evening of the 14th day of the month of Niṣan, the first month of the Jewish calendar. The Passover was first celebrated in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-51). This feast was instituted by God to commemorate the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, and the sparing of their firstborn, when the destroying angel smote the first-born of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:13). It was primarily a commemorative ordinance, reminding the children of Israel of their deliverance out of Egypt. God had given particular orders for the keeping of this Passover. All Israel were to keep the Passover.

But certain questions arose because there were certain men who were defiled by being in contact with a dead body which rendered them unclean and could not keep the Passover (Numbers 9:6). Those men came to Moses, and asked, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the LORD's offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” (Numbers 9:7, ESV).

Those men were unclean by reason of coming into contact with a dead body. Probably they had just buried a loved one. But they desired to keep the Passover. We can feel their earnest begging to Moses: “Please, let us keep the Passover. There must be a way. Please help us.”

The Lord’s Supper is the anti-type of the Jewish Passover feast. As the Jewish Passover remembers their deliverance from bondage in Egypt, the Lord’s Supper is given in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice for us which deliver us from the bondage of sin (1 Corinthians 11:23-25).

Note that those men complained that they were kept back from offering to the Lord. They did not complain of the law as unjust, but lamented their unhappiness that they fell under the restraint of it at this time, and desired some expedient might be found out for their relief. They wanted earnestly to keep the Passover. Yet, today, for whatever reason only known to them, some Christians would forsake the Lord’s Supper by staying away from worship with the saints (Hebrews 10:25). How different is their attitude from those men in Numbers 9:6.

Those men wanted very much to observe the Passover but were prevented, but these Christians today have every opportunity to observe the Lord’s Supper but choose to miss it. The message they are sending across is they do not think the sacrifice of the Lamb of God was a big deal. The writer of Hebrews wrote: “They crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6).

To “put him to an open shame,” literally means, “make a public example of” Christ, as if He was guilty of the crime as charged by His accusers and therefore, was worthy of the punishment. The innocent Lamb of God becomes a guilty lamb that deserves to be slain.

One of the reasons given for Christians to congregate together on Sundays was “to break bread” (Acts 20:7). It denotes an action that is purposeful, deliberate, necessary, and obligatory. Christ is our Passover Lamb that has been sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7; John 1:29); do you desire to remember His sacrifice?

Let us have that kind of desire and earnestness to desire the Lamb of God on the first day of the week: “This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). Do you desire to remember the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus?

I close with the lyrics of this wonderful hymn, Lamb of God. May we always desire the Lamb of God!

Your only Son, no sin to hide

But You have sent Him from Your side

To walk upon this guilty sod

And to become the Lamb of God

Your gift of love, they crucified

They laughed and scorned Him as He died

The humble King, they named a fraud

And sacrificed the Lamb of God

I was so lost, I should have died

But You have brought me to Your side

To be led by Your staff and rod

And to be called a lamb of God

Chorus:

Oh, Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God

I love the holy Lamb of God

Oh, wash me in His precious blood

My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.