COMMUNION MEDITATION

It follows that anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of desecrating the body and blood of the Lord.  A man must test himself before eating his sare of the bread and drinking from the cup.  For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgement on himself if he does not discern the Body.  That is why many of you are feeble and sick, and a number have died (I Corinthians 11:27-31).

This morning I was reading I Samuel 6 about the return of the Ark of the Covenant from the possession of the Philistines.  When the Philistines took the Ark as a prize of war it brought plagues and calamities on them so after a few months they decided the return it to the Israelites.  They put the Ark in an ox cart drawn by two cows with unweaned calves.  The calves were penned up.  The Philistines reasoned that if the cows were released on their own and they found their way back to Israel then it must truly be Divine providence, but if the cows only wanted to stay with their calves they were simply the victims of bad luck.  The cows did leave their calves and found their way back to Israel.  When the people of Beth-shemesh saw the ark they rejoiced at the sight of it.  It is important to note that verse 19 says this: But the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the rest of the men of Beth-shemesh when they welcomed the Ark of the Lord, and he struck down seventy of  them (I Samuel 6:19 NEB).

It is my belief that the entire Old Testament is a type, or forshadowing of the New Testament, so every story is significant.  The Ark of the Covenant was symbolic of God's redemptive work on behalf of his people.  To not rejoice in its return--to not care whether it came back or not--was a slap in God's face; an insult to him.  Could it be that our take-it-or-leave-it attitudes about the celebration of the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the feast of thanksgiving is an insult to God?  Like the Ark, it speaks of God's work of love and redemption on our behalf.  Could it be that some of our illnesses and deaths have come as a result?  Without a word from the Lord on specific cases it is impossible to know, but the principle is established in his word.  Each observance of communion, no matter how often, should be with joy, gratitude and wonder that he should love one such as I.

Our Father's Blessings,
Tom