Numbers 9:14
If a foreigner dwelling among you wants to observe the Passover to the LORD, he is to do so according to the Passover statute and its ordinances. You are to apply the same statute to both the foreigner and the native of the land.'"
Sermons
The Beneficent Aspect of the Law of Moses Towards ForeignersE.S. Prout Numbers 9:14
The Letter and the Spirit of the Law of the PassoverE.S. Prout Numbers 9:1-14
A Communicant in Israel, Disabled by Some Mischance from Eating the PassoverW. Binnie Numbers 9:6-14














Judaism, according to the "law given by Moses," was not the exclusive and repulsive system that many have imagined. The gate into Judaism, through circumcision, etc., may seem strait to us; but a thorough separation from the corrupt heathen world was a necessity and a blessing, just as the utter renunciation of Hinduism by breaking caste is now. Laws relating to strangers occupy no inconsiderable place in the legislation of Moses. These laws have a most beneficent aspect, which may suggest lessons regarding our duties as Christians towards aliens, whether of blood or creed. We find precepts recognizing for the strangers -

I. EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. This is taught in our text and in several other passages (Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:15, 16, 29). This is especially noticeable in regard to the laws of the sabbath (Exodus 20:10; Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14), and of the cities of refuge (Numbers 35:15). Hence the Israelites were repeatedly warned against oppressing the stranger (Exodus 22:21; Exodus 23:9), though he might be a hired servant, at the mercy of his employer (Deuteronomy 24:14, 15), or an Egyptian (Deuteronomy 23:7). In administering these laws strict impartiality is demanded of the judges (Deuteronomy 1:16; Deuteronomy 24:17). Such equality is recognized under the laws of Christian England, but needs to be most carefully guarded. E.g., in our treatment of coolies or other coloured people in our colonies, foreign sailors in our ports, etc. Oppression of strangers one great crime before the fail of the Jewish monarchy (Ezekiel 22:7, 29). Ill-treatment of non-Christian races outside its borders one of England's national crimes (Chinese opium traffic; some of our colonial wars, etc.).

II. A CLAIM ON BENEVOLENCE. Strangers were not only guarded from oppression, but commended to the love of the Israelites. -See precepts in Leviticus 19:33, 34; Deuteronomy 10:18, 19; Leviticus 25:35, blossoming into the beautiful flower, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," which our Lord plucks from its hiding-place in Leviticus and exhibits and enforces on the whole world. Hence follow the precepts requiring that gleanings be left for the strangers (Leviticus 19:10; Leviticus 23:22), and that they should be allowed to share "in every good thing" God bestowed on Israel (Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 16:11, 14; Deuteronomy 26:11). God be praised for all the philanthropic agencies of England on behalf of foreigners. Let us see that our personal beneficence is not limited by race or creed (Isaiah 58:6-11, etc.).

III. INVITATIONS TO NATIONAL AND PERSONAL BLESSINGS, Gentiles were welcomed to all privileges of Judaism through conformity to its laws. They could enter into the covenant (Deuteronomy 29:10-13), offer sacrifices (Leviticus 22:18), and keep the passover (Exodus 12:43-49; Numbers 9:14). And it was required that they be instructed in the law of God (Deuteronomy 31:10-13, read in the light of Joshua 8:33-35). Having all these privileges, they were liable to the same punishments as the Israelites (Leviticus 17:8, 12, 15; Leviticus 24:16, etc.). We need not wonder that the adhesion and conversion of strangers was anticipated (1 Kings 8:41-43; Isaiah 56:3, etc.). Apply to the missionary work of the Church, which can speak to strangers of "a better covenant," "Christ our passover," "grace and truth by Jesus Christ." - P.

Keep the Passover.
The design of God in instituting this remarkable ordinance, the Passover, was to explain to us, as well as to prefigure to the Jews, the method of salvation through the blood of Christ. He is the one great Sacrifice for sin; and here the application to Him in His mediatorial work is most comprehensive. Behold the analogy. It holds —

I. WITH REGARD TO THE VICTIM WHICH WAS CHOSEN. Was it a lamb? Christ is often so called on account of His innocence, meekness, and resignation (Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6). Was it chosen from the flock? Christ was taken from among His brethren (Acts 3:22). Was it a male of the first year? Christ suffered in the prime of His days. Was it without blemish? Christ was altogether perfect (Hebrews 7:26; 1 Peter 1:19).

II. WITH REGARD TO THE OBLATION WHICH WAS MADE. AS the lamb was slain, so was Jesus (Revelation 5:9). As the lamb was slain before the whole assembly (Exodus 12:6), so Jesus was publicly put to death. As the lamb was slain between the two evenings, so Jesus was offered between three o'clock and six (Matthew 27:45). As the lamb was set apart four days before it was slain (Exodus 12:3, 6), so Christ entered the city four days before His crucifixion (Matthew 21:1, &c.).

III. WITH REGARD TO THE BLOOD WHICH WAS SPRINKLED. The blood was sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop (Exodus 12:22), dipped into the bason; so the blood of Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant, the deposit of privileges, which all become ours by the exercise of faith. The blood was sprinkled upon the door-posts of their dwellings. So the blood of Christ is to be applied to the hearts and consciences of believers (Hebrews 9:13, 14; Hebrews 10:22). The blood was sprinkled upon the lintel and the side-posts; but not behind nor below the door. So the blood of Christ is not to be trodden under foot (Hebrews 10:29). The blood secured every family where it was sprinkled, it being within the limits of the Divine protection, so that the destroying angel was forbidden to hurt them. So the blood of Jesus is the only refuge for the guilty.

IV. WITH REGARD TO THE FLESH WHICH WAS EATEN. The flesh of the lamb was eaten roasted with fire, strikingly exhibiting the severity of our Saviour's sufferings (Isaiah 50:6; Isaiah 52:14, 15; Psalm 22:14, 15). It was eaten whole, and not a bone broken, which was amazing]y fulfilled in reference to Christ (John 19:31-36). It was eaten in haste, with the staff in their hands, to intimate that Christ is to be received immediately without delay. It was eaten with bitter herbs, importing our looking to Christ with sorrow of heart, in remembrance of sin, as expressed in Zechariah 12:10. It was eaten with the loins girded, implying that we must be prepared for His coming (Ephesians 6:14). It was eaten with the feet shod, to remind us of the freedom and happiness which Christ imparts to the believing Israelites (compare Isaiah 20:2-4 with Romans 5:11). It was eaten with unleavened bread, because we are to receive and profess Christ with unfeigned sincerity (1 Corinthians 5:7, 8; John 1:47). Upon the whole, we learn from the subject the happy state of believers, who, though once afar off, are now made nigh by the blood of Christ; and likewise the unhappy state of unbelievers, who, rejecting the atonement, must inevitably perish.

(William Sleigh.)

There is this connection between the passover and the Lord's Supper, that the former was the type, the latter the memorial, of the death of Christ. Thus we read in 1 Corinthians 5., "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." This sentence establishes the connection. The passover was the memorial of Israel's redemption from the bondage of Egypt; and the Lord's Supper is the memorial of the Church's redemption from the heavier bondage of sin and Satan. Hence, as every faithful Israelite would surely be found keeping the passover, in the appointed season, according to all the rites and ceremonies thereof, so will every true and faithful Christian be found celebrating the Lord's Supper in its appointed season, and according to all the principles laid down in the New Testament respecting it. If an Israelite had neglected the passover, even on one single occasion, he would have been cut off from the congregation. And may we not ask in the face of this solemn fact, Is it a matter of no moment for Christians to neglect, from week to week, and month to month, the supper of their Lord? Are we to suppose that the One who, in Numbers 9., declared that the neglecter of the passover should be cut off, takes no account of the neglecter of the Lord's table? We cannot believe it for a moment. To a pious Israelite there was nothing like the passover, because it was the memorial of his redemption. And to a pious Christian there is nothing like the Lord's Supper, because it is the memorial of his redemption and of the death of his Lord. How is it, then, that any of God's people should be found neglecting the Lord's table? If the Lord Christ instituted the supper; if God the Holy Ghost led the early Church to celebrate it, and if He has also expounded it unto us, who are we that we should set up our ideas in opposition to God? No doubt, the Lord's Supper should be an inward spiritual mystery to all who partake of it; but it is also an outward, literal, tangible thing. There is literal bread, and literal wine — literal eating, and literal drinking. If any deny this, they may, with equal force, deny that there are literal people gathered together. We have no right to explain away scripture after such a fashion. Nor is it merely a question of subjection to the authority of scripture. There is such a thing as the response of love in the heart of the Christian, answering to the love of the heart of Christ. If our blessed and adorable Lord has in very deed appointed the bread and the wine in the supper as memorials of His broken body and shed blood; if He has ordained that we should eat of that bread and drink of that cup in remembrance of Him, ought we not, in the power of responsive affection, to meet the desire of His loving heart?

(C. H. Mackintosh.)

People
Aaron, Israelites, Moses
Places
Egypt, Sinai
Topics
Accordance, Alien, Birth, Born, Celebrate, Desire, Desires, Foreigner, Hold, Law, Lord's, Manner, Nation, Native, Native-born, Observes, Ordered, Ordinance, Passover, Prepared, Regulations, Rite, Rule, Rules, Sojourn, Sojourner, Sojourneth, Sojourns, Statute, Stranger, Thereof, Wants
Outline
1. The Passover is again commanded
6. A second Passover for the unclean or absent
15. The cloud directs the removals and encampments of the Israelites

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Numbers 9:14

     7404   ordinances
     7511   Gentiles, in OT
     7530   foreigners

Numbers 9:1-14

     7406   Passover

Library
The Guiding Pillar
'So it was alway: the cloud covered [the tabernacle] by day, and the appearance of fire by night.'--Num. ix. 16. The children of Israel in the wilderness, surrounded by miracle, had nothing which we do not possess. They had some things in an inferior form; their sustenance came by manna, ours comes by God's blessing on our daily work, which is better. Their guidance came by this supernatural pillar; ours comes by the reality of which that pillar was nothing but a picture. And so, instead of fancying
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Holy Spirit Sending Men Forth to Definite Lines of Work.
We read in Acts xiii. 2-4, "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed into Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus." It is evident from this passage that the Holy Spirit calls men into definite lines of work and sends them forth into the work. He not
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Of Preparation.
That a Christian ought necessarily to prepare himself before he presume to be a partaker of the holy communion, may evidently appear by five reasons:-- First, Because it is God's commandment; for if he commanded, under the pain of death, that none uncircumcised should eat the paschal lamb (Exod. xii. 48), nor any circumcised under four days preparation, how much greater preparation does he require of him that comes to receive the sacrament of his body and blood? which, as it succeeds, so doth it
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Numbers
Like the last part of Exodus, and the whole of Leviticus, the first part of Numbers, i.-x. 28--so called,[1] rather inappropriately, from the census in i., iii., (iv.), xxvi.--is unmistakably priestly in its interests and language. Beginning with a census of the men of war (i.) and the order of the camp (ii.), it devotes specific attention to the Levites, their numbers and duties (iii., iv.). Then follow laws for the exclusion of the unclean, v. 1-4, for determining the manner and amount of restitution
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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