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Egyptians, and partly natives of other countries, who had been prevailed upon by the miracles wrought in behalf of the Israelites, and from other motives, to embark with them in the present enterprise of leaving Egypt. Thus Zech. 8. 23, ‘In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.' It can hardly be supposed, however, that the major part of them were prompted by considerations so creditable to their piety. Self-interest was, no doubt, the moving spring with the great mass. Some of them were probably Egyptians of the poorer class, who were in hopes to better their condition in some way, or had other good reasons, for leaving Egypt. Others were perhaps foreign slaves belonging both to the Hebrews and Egyptians, who were glad to take the opportunity of escaping with the Israelites. Others again were a mere rude restless mob, a company of hangers-on, that followed the crowd they scarcely knew why, perhaps made up of such vagabonds, adventurers, and debtors, as could no longer stay safely in Egypt. Whoever or whatever they were, the Israelites were no better for their presence, and like thousands in all ages that turn their faces towards Zion, and run well for a time, when

41 And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all d the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is e a night to be much observed unto the LORD, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

d ch. 7. 4. & ver. 51. e See Deut. 16. 6.

they came to experience a little of the hardships of the way, they quitted the people of God and returned to Egypt.

40. Now the sojourning, &c. The following is a more accurate version of the original; 'Now the sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt was four hundred and twenty years.' The date of this event is to be reckoned probably from the time that Abraham received the promise, Gen. 15. 13, which makes just 430 years, as detailed in the Note' in loc. From the time that Jacob and his sons came into Egypt to that of the deliverance, was only 215 years. The phrase, 'children of Israel,' is to be taken therefore in a somewhat larger sense than usual, as equivalent to 'Hebrews,' and of them it might properly be said, that they were sojourners in a land that was not theirs, either Canaan or Egypt, for the space of time here mentioned. Unless we consider the words as comprehending their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Ja cob, we cannot include in them Israel himself, who was the person that brought them into Egypt, and lived there with his family for the space of seventeen years.

41. Even the self-same day. Imply. ing probably that the time corresponded to a day with the period predicted.

42. A night to be much observed. Heb.

33 lël shimmurim, a night of observations. That is, a night to be

43 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no stranger eat thereof:

44 But every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou hast g circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.

45 h A foreigner, and a hired servant, shall not eat thereof.

46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house: i neither shall ye break a bone thereof.

47 k All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

f Numb. 9. 14. g Gen. 17. 12, 13. h Lev, 22. 10. i Numb. 9. 12. John 19. 33, 36. k ver. 6. Numb. 9. 13.

48 And, when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.

49 m One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

50 Thus did all the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. 51 "And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

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1 Numb. 9, 14. m Numb. 9. 14. & 15. 15, 16. Gal. 3. 28. n ver. 41. • ch. 6. 26.

accounted peculiarly memorable, bring-were excluded on account of its preemiing with it the recollection of an event nent sanctity. never to be forgotten, and awakening sentiments of unfeigned gratitude to their Almighty Deliverer.

43. The Lord said. Rather, 'the Lord had said,' probably on the same occasion as that on which he instituted the Passover; at any rate, at some time previous to the departure from Egypt.

¶ There shall no stranger eat there of. That is, while he continues a stranger or alien, unproselyted and uncircumcised. By parity of reasoning it is to be supposed that all who had proved themselves apostate from their religion were in like manner to be interdicted.

45. A foreigner. Heb. toshab, a dweller, an inhabitant. This was a term applied to those pious gentiles who, without embracing the Jewish religion, renounced idolatry and took up their abode with the chosen people a privilege which was not allowed to foreigners who still continued idolaters. Maimonides observes of such persons, that they might dwell in any part of Judea except Jerusalem, from which they

46. In one house shall it be eaten. That is, each paschal lamb was to be eaten by the requisite company or number, and consequently not divided into two or more parts to be eaten in different houses, but all that ate of it were to eat together in one house. This was for the sake of fellowship, that they might rejoice together, and edify one another while eating of it. Chal. 'In one society shall ye eat it.'- -T Neither shall ye break a bone thereof. There is something, in this precept which doubtless has a prospective reference to Christ our Passover, of whom the Evangelist tells us, John, 19. 33-36, that his legs were providentially prevented from being broken, in order 'that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.' So the Psalmist, Ps. 34. 20. 'He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.'

49. One law shall be to him, &c. The enlarged and liberal spirit of the Hebrew system appears very strikingly in these regulations. Any stranger might be incorporated into the nation by con

forming to the rites of their religion, and thereby become entitled to all the privileges of the native-born Jew. In order to this, it was proper that they should make themselves debtors to the law in its burthens, for in God's economy privileges and duties always go together. The provision was calculated at the same time to afford hope to the Gentile and to moderate the self-complacency of the Israelite.

REMARKS.-A positive institution so directly from heaven, and one so closely connected by typical relations with an event of infinitely greater importance, as the Passover, may well be supposed to be fraught with a richness of moral import demanding the most serious at

tention.

1. The ordinance may be viewed in reference to the discriminating circumstances in which it was established. God was now about to make a terrible display of his righteous indignation. The destroying angel had, as it were, received his commission, and stood prepared to pass through Egypt. But a people in covenant with the Lord, and to whom his mercy was promised; who had avouched him for their God, and cried to him for deliverance, were mingled with the multitude of Egypt; and amid the terrors of the approaching desolation, how could they escape? Some mode must be devised by which the angel, as he went his midnight round of death, might know that the Lord had put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel; so that while one was smitten, the other might be left in safety. A lamb therefore was to be slain; its blood to be sprinkled upon the lintels and side-posts of their doors; and the Lord promised that when he saw the blood, he would stay the plague from destroying them. In like manner the sentence of death has gone forth against an ungodly world. But in the midst of its condemned transgressors there is a covenant people whom he has

engaged to spare. How then shall the distinction be made between them and the careless, godless world, who mock at and neglect the warnings and denun ciations of heaven? The Israel of God is composed of fallen, guilty creatures, who are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. In themselves considered they do not deserve exemption, and are placed in the pathway of the divine anger, as the dwellers in Goshen would have been, if they had remained unmarked for safety. But lo! the Paschal Lamb is slain! The Lord Christ by his one oblation of himself once offered, makes a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. He lays down his life for the sheep. They are sprinkled by his blood, sealed by his spirit, and interested by faith in the blessings of his covenant. When the Lord therefore proceeds to execute judgment upon impenitent transgressors, he views them as they are in Christ Jesus, looks in mercy towards them, and saves them from eternal death. Would we avoid the doom?-let us have recourse to the remedy. The blood of the lamb did not save the Israelites by being shed, but by being sprinkled. In the same manner, it is not the blood of Christ as shed on Calvary, but as sprinkled on the soul, that saves us from the wrath to come. We must, as it were, dip the hyssop in the blood, and by faith apply it to our own hearts and consciences, or we can have no benefit from it, no interest in it.

2. We may consider the essential qualities of the victim, and the manner in which it was to be treated. (1.) It was to be a lamb, the most innocent and gentle of all animals-in the idea and language of all nations, but another name for gentleness, harmlessness, and simplicity. This meek and unresisting creature was to be early removed from its fond mother's side, deprived of liberty, and destined to bleed by the sacri

ficing knife. Who can think of its plaintive bleating during the days of separation, without emotion? What Israelitish heart so insensible as not to be melted at the thought, that his own life, and the comfort of his family, were to cost the life of that inoffensive little creature whom he had shut up for the slaughter, and which, in unsuspecting confidence, licked the hand lifted to shed its blood? (2.) It was to be a lamb of the first year, and without blemish. If it bore the mark of any deformity, or even of any defect, it would have been a forbidden sacrifice, as well as a victim unfit to represent the Lamb slain for sinners from the foundation of the world. How beautiful is the harmony between the type and the antitype! 'We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.' (3.) It was to be set apart four days before it was slain; not only to mark the previous designation of Christ, to be a sacrifice, but perhaps also, as has been suggested, to foreshow that he should, during the four last days of his life, be examined at different tribunals to ascertain whether there was the smallest flaw in his character, that so his bitterest enemies might all be constrained to attest his innocence, and thereby unwittingly to declare, that he was fit to be a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. (4.) When slain and prepared, the lamb was to be eaten by all the Israelites at the same time, and by each party in one house. The victim was slain for all, because all were partners in the same danger, and all were to be indebted to the same mode of deliverance. And it was not to be divided and carried to different houses, when two households joined in one lamb, in order to keep up the idea of unity in the general observance of the ceremony. The nation appears, therefore, in the paschal solemnity as a beautiful and instructive representation of the great, united, harmonious family

of God, who are 'one body, one spirit, and are called in one hope of their call. ing;' 'who have one Lord, one faith, one baptism.'

3. We may consider the attendant circumstances of the institution. (1.) The passover was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The herbs were meant primarily to awaken the remembrance of the bitter bondage to which they had been subject in Egypt; but besides this they were intended to show the necessity of penitence for sin, and to shadow forth the hardships and trials which await along the chequered path of the Lord's pilgrims in their journey to the Canaan of rest. And it is as impossible spiritually to partake of Jesus Christ, the Paschal Lamb of our salvation, without abiding godly sorrow for sin, and a sacred resolve to take up our cross and bear it cheerfully in the trials of life, as it is to bring light and darkness, east and west together. Equally impossible is it to partake of the mercies of the Son of God, while the leaven of any iniquity is indulged and cherished within our hearts. Let not Demas imagine that he may embrace the world, and hold the Savior. Let not Ananias and Sapphira suppose that they may keep back any part of that which they have sol emnly dedicated to God, and yet be his true friends and servants. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, as the refuge of his soul, depart from iniquity. As the scrupulous Israelites searched with lighted candles every hidden corner and dark recess of their houses for any latent particle of leaven, so let our language be, 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' (2.) It was to be eaten in a standing posture with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands, ready to depart at a moment's warning. These

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2 a Sanctify unto me all the first

a ver. 12. 13, 15. ch. 22. 29, 30. & 34. 19. Lev. 27. 26. Numb. 3. 13. & 8. 16, 17. & 18. 15. Deut. 15. 19. Luke 2. 23.

brance of that remarkable event, and in token of their gratitude for it, their firstborn, in all ages, were to be consecrated to God as his peculiar portion, and if re-appropriated to themselves, it could only be done on the ground of certain redemptions prescribed in v. 13.

2. Sanctify unto me all the first-born, &c. Let them be set apart, consecrated, hallowed to me. See the import of the

were to them memorial circumstances, connected with the haste and sudden ness of their exit. But to us they speak an emphatic language; 'Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest.' 'Here we have no abiding city, but look for one to come.' 'Now we desire a better country, even an heavenly.' 'Arise, and let us go hence.' (3.) Not a bone of the paschal lamb was to be broken. The primary moral drift of the injunc-term more fully explained in the Note tion seems to be, that what has once on Gen. 2. 3. God, as the universal been offered to God is not to be unne- Creator, is of course the universal Processarily disfigured or mangled. The prietor of all his creatures, and might blood must be shed, for that was the justly lay claim to the most absolute seal of the covenant; the flesh might and unreserved dedication of all the pro be eaten for it was given for the sus- geny of men and brutes to himself. But tenance of man's life; but the bones in the present case he was pleased to forming no part either of food or sacri- restrict this more peculiar sanctification fice, were to be left in their original to the first-born, as being especially his state till consumed by fire with the re- on the ground of their protection and mainder of the flesh, if any remained, exemption from the destroying judg in the morning. At the same time we ment which had swept off the first-born cannot doubt that there was an ulterior of the Egyptians. As he had in this fact allusion in this commanded circum- shown to them a distinguishing mercy, stance of the paschal rite. 'But when he was pleased to make it the occasion the soldiers came to Jesus, and saw that of a standing acknowledgment to that he was dead already, they broke not his effect on the part of his people. As he legs.' It is clear from what follows, had spared their first-born, who were that the Evangelist regarded the pre- the joy, the hope, and the stay of their cept of the law as a prophecy of Christ; families, so it was fitting, as an evidence 'For these things are done that the of their grateful love to their heavenly Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of benefactor, that they should recognise him shall not be broken ;' as if a special as paramount his title to what he had Providence had watched over the cruci- graciously spared them, and should fixion of the Savior to secure his sacred cheerfully resign to him who is First person from maiming, and thus bring and Best, what was dearest and most about the fulfilment of the prediction. valuable to themselves. And it is by this test that we are to determine the measure of our love to God. Does he stand so high in our affections that we are willing for his sake to part with what we love best in this world? It is only by losing sight of all the claims of infinite beneficence, and becoming deaf to the dictates of every tender and gen

CHAPTER XIII.

1. And the Lord spake unto Moses. From v. 15, it would appear that this precept was founded upon the fact of the preservation of Israel's first-born when the first-born of the Egyptians were slain. To perpetuate the remem,

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