EXPOSITION
SUPPLEMENTARY ORDINANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE PASSOVER. The position of these verses is curious. We should have expected them to have followed immediately on Exodus 12:20, or else to have been reserved for the further consideration of the subject in Exodus 23:1-2. It is suggested, in order to account for their place, that they formed the matter of a special revelation made to Moses at Succoth. They comprise three main points:—
1. The absolute exclusion of all uncircumcised persons from participation in the passover rite;
2. The extension of the rite (implied in Exodus 23:19) to all full proselytes; and,
3. The injunction that not a bone of the lamb should be broken. (This last is repeated in Numbers 9:12)
This is the ordinance of the passover—i.e; "This is the law, in respect of the persons who are to partake of it"—there shall no stranger eat thereof, or literally, "No son of a stranger shall eat thereof." By a "stranger" here is meant one of a foreign race who wishes to retain his foreign character and to remain uncircumcised. Compare Exodus 12:48.
Every man's servant that is bought for money. Or "every man's slave." The Mosaic Law found servitude existing, and left it existing, only guarding against its extreme abuses (Exodus 21:20-2). It put no check on the traffic in slaves. When thou hast circumcised him. The Jewish commentators say, that the desire of the slave to receive the rite and become a Jew is here implied. But it would seem rather, that opposition and refusal is not thought of as possible (see Genesis 17:13, Genesis 17:17). The case is like that of baptism among the barbarous nations, where no sooner was the king converted than a general order went forth for the baptism of his subjects, which no one thought of resisting. Then shall he eat thereof. It was a principle of the Jewish law that the slaves should be admitted to complete religious equality with the native Israelites. (compare Le Exodus 22:11).
A foreigner. Literally "a so-journer"—i.e; a foreigner who is merely passing through the land, or staying for a time, without intending to become a permanent resident. The Septuagint πάροικος well expresses the meaning. An hired servant. It is assumed that the "hired servant" will be a foreigner; and intended to guard against any compulsion being put upon him.
In one house shall it be eaten. Compare the directions in Exodus 12:3-2, which imply this, and see the comment on Exodus 12:10. Neither shall ye break a bone of it. Kalisch thinks that the lamb was a symbol of the unity of the nation, and was therefore not to have any of its bones broken. This view may be a true one, without being exhaustive. It may have been to mark the unity of the Church in Christ that his bones were not broken, and in view especially of that unity, that the type was made to correspond in this particular with the antitype. (See John 19:33-43.)
All the congregation … shall keep it. Rather "shall sacrifice it." (Compare Exodus 12:6.)
And when a stranger, etc. Here we have the positive ordinance corresponding to the implied permission in Exodus 12:19, and modifying in the most important and striking way the prohibitive enactment of Exodus 12:43. The "stranger," even if he only "sojourned" in the land, was to be put on exactly the same spiritual footing as the Israelite ("One law shall be," etc.) if only he and his would be circumcised, and so enter into covenant,
Thus did all the children of Israel—i.e; the Israelites, at their first passover, acted in accordance with these precepts, especially in admitting to the feast all circumcised persons, whether natives or foreigners, and rejecting all the uncircumcised.
This verse should be transferred to the commencement of the next chapter, which should run as follows:—"And it came to pass—on the self-same day that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies—that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying," etc. The word "armies," which at first sight may seem inappropriate, occurs also in Exodus 6:26. It is probably intended to mark that the people were thoroughly organised, and marshalled in divisions resembling those of an army.
HOMILETICS
Passover precepts realised in Christian practice.
The precepts were:—
I. THAT NO UNCIRCUMCISED STRANGER, NOT EVEN THOUGH A HIRED SERVANT IN A HEBREW FAMILY, SHOULD EAT OF IT. Formally, baptism corresponds to circumcision, both of them admitting into covenant with God; and thus the rule of Christian communities generally, that the reception of baptism must precede that of the Lord's Supper, is a carrying out of this precept. But it is also carried out in another way. Spiritually, the correspondent to the circumcision of the flesh is the circumcision of the spirit; and thus all Churches which warn the wicked from approaching the Lord's table, do their best to enforce the precept, "No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof." Hired servants of the Church, unless circumcised in heart, are as unfit to communicate as those who have no external connection with Divine things. Nay, may we not say more unfit?
II. THAT ALL THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL, FREEMEN AND SLAVES ALIKE, SHOULD EAT OF IT. The frequent exhortation of all Christian Churches to all their members to receive the Communion, especially at Easter-time, and the general allowance of the duty by those who have any real sense of religion constitute a realisation, to a considerable extent, of this precept in Christian practice. It is to be wished that the realisation were complete. The joint participation of freemen with slaves has always charactcrised the Christian Church; and though there have been Christian communities which have acted differently, the cases are too exceptional to deserve much notice, and are disappearing as slavery disappears.
III. THAT IT SHOULD BE EATEN IN ONE PLACE, AND NONE OF IT CARRIED FORTH. Churches which allow not only reservation, but the carrying forth of the holy elements to the bedsides of the sick, break at any rate the letter of this precept. But the Reformed Churches, which disallow even reservation, keep close to it.
IV. THAT NOT A BONE OF IT SHOULD BE BROKEN. This precept can only be spiritually observed, for in the Christian passover, the "flesh" to be eaten has no "bones." But it is spiritually kept wherever communicants are warned against dividing Christ in their thoughts, against separating his humanity from his Divinity, or against practising special devotion to any separate portion of his person, as to his "Sacred Heart" or his "Five wounds." It was the essence of one of the early forms of heresy to "divide Christ;" and on this account the Church of England protests in her second article of religion, that in him "two whole and perfect natures are joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is One Christ."
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
The spirit of the Passover ordinance.
The features to be specified reappear in the Lord's Supper. The ordinance was—
I. EXCLUSIVE. (Exodus 12:43, Exodus 12:45, Exodus 12:48.) A stranger, an uncircumcised person, and a hired servant, were not to be permitted to oat of it. Their relation to Israel was wholly external. In like manner, the Lord's Supper is exclusive. It excludes the stranger to the death of Christ, the uncircumcised in heart, and those who sustain a merely legal and hireling relation to the Church. These have "neither part nor lot" in the matter.
II. YET CATHOLIC. (Exodus 12:48, Exodus 12:49.) The sojourning stranger who wished to keep the passover had only to be circumcised—he and his males—to be admitted to the ordinance. He was then to be as one born in the land. This catholicity of spirit, and kindliness to foreigners, blending with a stern exclusiveness in religion, is characteristic of the whole Mosaic code. Cf. Vinet on the tolerance and intolerance of the Christian religion ("Vital Christianity"). The Lord's Supper is the most catholic of ordinances. It overleaps all barriers of race, nationality, clime, and religion. At the Lord's table there is neither Greek, nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.
III. EQUALISING. (Exodus 12:44.) The master and slave sat down at the same board. See last homily. Christianity is the great social equaliser.
IV. UNIFYING. (Exodus 12:46, Exodus 12:47.)It taught the congregation to feel its unity.
1. The lamb was to be eaten in one house.
2. Not a bone of it was to be broken. "Through the unity and integrity of the lamb given them to eat, the participants were to be joined into an undivided unity and fellowship with the Lord, who had provided them with the meal" (Keil).
3. All the congregation were to eat it. The Lord's Supper, in like manner, is a social meal, in which the Church, eating "one bread," and drinking "one cup," declares itself to be "one body" (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:16, 1 Corinthians 10:17). "The preservation of Christ, so that not a bone was broken, had the same signification; and God ordained this that he might appear as the true Paschal Lamb, that was slain for the sins of the world."—J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
The Law of the Passover.
I. WHAT GOD REQUIRES IN ITS OBSERVANCE.
1. God demands purity of communion. No stranger is to cat of it.
(1) Our holy things are not to be profaned. The life of Christ is lowered and endangered by indiscriminate admission to the Lord's table.
(2) They are not to be degraded into superstitious rites. When they are given as if salvation resided in them, we are substituting idols for the unseen Saviour. The only safeguard for purity of worship is purity of communion.
2. It is not to be carried out from the midst of the household of faith. The peace and fellowship of the Gospel are only for the circumcised in heart.
3. Communion with Christ to be characterised by reverence and holy awe: not a bone of him is to be broken.
4. Every wall of partition is removed. All who believe have a right to join in the feast (Exodus 12:41-2); but they must come with the mark of God's people,—a circumcised heart.
II. THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH IS BLESSED NOT ONLY WITH SAFETY BUT ALSO WITH DELIVERANCE. "Thus did all the children of Israel … and on the self-same day" they passed out of Egypt (Exodus 12:50, Exodus 12:51). Fellowship with Christ is deliverance from the bondage of evil.—U.