Numbers 9:1-14 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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Keeping the Passover

Numbers 9:1-14

The Passover was celebrated in Egypt, Exodus 12:1-51; in the Wilderness, Leviticus 1:14; and in the land of Canaan, Joshua 5:1-15. The thought of our redemption must underpin all the great movements of individuals and the Church, This one was specially memorable, because it led to the institution of “the little Passover,” Numbers 9:6-7. Moses did not hasten to give an answer of his own, but waited upon God. The divine nature makes allowance for disabilities, over which we have no control. See 2 Chronicles 30:13-20.

In the welcome given to strangers, we discover the wideness of God's mercy. We, too, were strangers and foreigners, Ephesians 2:19-21. My soul, never forget how thou wast once a stranger to the covenant of promise! Thine were the crumbs of the feast! But God has made thee sit with the children and included thee in the gracious provisions of His covenant!

Related Commentaries of Numbers 9:1

Numbers 9:1-14

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

2 Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season.

3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even,a ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

4 And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.

5 And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

6 And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:

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?

8 And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you.

9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the LORD.

11 The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep it.

13 But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto the LORD; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger, and for him that was born in the land.