One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
One law stood for the homeborn Israelite and for the foreigner dwelling among Israel. In its setting that equality governed the Passover, so that a circumcised stranger joined to Israel as one born in the land kept the same ordinance and shared the same household company. The ordinance itself was the memorial of deliverance from Egypt kept on the night Israel went out of bondage, eaten at night and to be observed through generations as a shadow of good to come. That deliverance came with mighty judgments on Egypt and redemption of Israel with a mighty hand, after which Israel was to prove obedience to His law. The law so given was not for Israel alone but for the world, with Israel as priest and light to the nations, so that converted Gentiles came under the same law, and the Sabbath blessing is for mankind and not a Jewish institution only.
Exodus Context and History
Exodus 12 belongs with chapters 11 to 13, whose central topics are the last plague, the Passover, and the going out of Egypt. It stands in the first, mainly historical division of Exodus covering chapters 1 to 18, in the section on the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, and the hurried departure of Israel from Egypt. There the ordinance for the Passover is given in close connection with those events, and the firstborn are claimed as the Lord's. It stands in chapters 6 to 12, which give the account of the ten plagues upon Egypt and God's merciful deliverance to His children.
It is included in the account of the conflict between God's religious system and Egypt's religious system, a conflict in which both systems were supported by miracles. It belongs to the deliverance when God ended Israel's servile condition as serfs of the Egyptians. God allowed Israel to remain in that condition for a time, then instead of sanctioning even that modified form of slavery demanded their instant release, and on refusal struck their oppressors with terrible judgments, led Israel forth as an army of fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea. The deliverance surrounding it was accompanied by darkness, plague, and storm.
It stands in the record of God's wonderful deliverance of Israel from Egypt and at the Red Sea, which demonstrated His wisdom, love, and power and His ability and right to rule, with Israel's obligation to obey. After that deliverance they must be tested and tried to prove whether they would walk in His law or not. It stands in Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage where God redeemed them with a mighty hand after hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required. So God gave them a great multiple object-lesson by various forms and rites comprehending the plan of salvation in the sanctuary He commanded them to build that He might dwell among them.
It belongs to the personal experience by which Israel came to know the living God before Sinai, when the plagues humbled Egypt and its gods. Those who believed Him had their firstborn delivered, while in the homes of those who rejected His mercy not one escaped the destroyer. With the opening of the Red Sea, the sweetening of Marah, the bread from heaven, and water from the rock, this deliverance made the title of the Lord who brought them out of Egypt full and comprehensive. It belongs to the account that dates Israel's leaving Egypt to 1491 years before Christ. It belongs to an account of the exodus that Moses supervised directly, stated with no less certainty than the account of creation, so its historical truth stands alongside the truth of the creation narrative.
Passover Ordinance and Wording
Exodus 12:49 stands in the story of the first Passover told in Exodus 11 and Exodus 12. The word Passover means that when the angel saw the blood on the doorposts he passed over the house and did not slay the firstborn. The first Passover was kept at Rameses in Egypt on the night the children of Israel were led out of bondage to go into the land of Canaan, and it continued as a yearly feast kept at Jerusalem.
It gives the original instructions for the Passover as first instituted for the Israelites in Egypt and kept in the wilderness on the journey to Palestine and for some time after. Its form is distinct from the later temple form, which added injunctions hardly possible to carry out in the wilderness and used wine and the Hallel song of Psalms 113 to 118 that the original instructions did not enjoin. It belongs to the Mosaic requirements for preparing and keeping the Passover that Christ and His disciples obeyed as consistent Israelites at the last Supper. Those requirements mean absolutely nothing leavened or fermented was permitted at the seven-day sacred memorial feast, with the heaviest penalty incurred for using anything leavened. Eating implies drinking, and drink was a necessity through the seven days, with the particular drink left to circumstances and common sense except for the absolute that it could not be leavened, so the drink used at the institution of the Supper was unfermented.
It describes the Passover, which commemorated Israel's deliverance from Egypt and served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. The Passover was eaten at night, and that night was to be observed to the Lord through Israel's generations. It describes the Passover and its feast as perpetual and everlasting, but that language does not prove unending obligation, for its period has expired just as surely as the period of the things commanded to a thousand generations has expired. It contains the Hebrew word usually translated law, the same word used in Psalm 19:7, showing that Psalm 19:7 calls the law of the Lord perfect and declares it perfect.
It is cited as supporting, at most, a calendar arrangement for that one year; it does not prove that the weeks began with the year or that the Sabbath fell on a fixed date of every month. The feast days connected with Passover did not necessarily fall on the weekly Sabbath, and the weeks remained complete as month and year dates shifted.
Equal Law for Stranger
One law stood for the homeborn and for the stranger sojourning among them, so that the same requirement bound the native Israelite and the foreigner living in Israel. That equality governed the Passover itself, and the resident stranger came under the same Passover rule as the native. A circumcised foreigner could join the household company in eating the Passover.
The stranger who joined Israel by becoming as one born in the land was required to keep the Passover, and the same law then applied to the homeborn Israelite and to the naturalized stranger. An unnaturalized stranger was not brought under that obligation. A Gentile could thus become part of Israel through the lawful process of the Mosaic law rather than by descent from Abraham, with circumcision opening the way for the stranger to share in Israel's blessings.
Foreign indentured servants bought with money had to be circumcised in obedience to the Abrahamic covenant, which made them part of the household during their period of service. By that act they became naturalized citizens of the state and members of the congregation, sharing all the rites and privileges common to the people. The rule established a law of equality between the homeborn and the sojourning stranger, serving to increase the numbers of the commonwealth. It secured to foreign servants the same standing under the laws and the same protection from the laws as Hebrew servants. Foreign birth therefore did not exclude a sojourner from the religious privileges available among Israel.
The same law that was for Israel was for every other person of whatever race or nationality. Israel was the chosen people through whom the knowledge of God was to extend throughout the earth, to be as a light to the surrounding nations, and the course they pursued was to reveal to all other people what it meant to be a member of God's government and people. The Ten Commandments given on Sinai were the constitution of Israel's government, the basis of their national as well as individual life, while the added laws, rites, services, and ceremonies were by-laws explaining the real meaning of that law, how to be kept from transgressing it, and what to do when it was violated. The law given to Israel was not for Israel alone but for the world, with Israel serving as God's priest to the nations. Israel was to live the law so that other nations would be won, and to declare God's glory among the Gentiles so that they would be converted. When people of the nations gave themselves to God, one law applied equally to Israelite and stranger, so that converted Gentiles came under the same law as Israel.
Sabbath, Prophecy and Types
Exodus 12 identifies the Passover as the memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and sets forth its commemorative purpose, while the Sabbath is not that memorial. The Passover was instituted to commemorate that deliverance, and that deliverance memorial belongs to the Passover and not to the Sabbath, for Moses in Deuteronomy 5 does not present Sabbath observance as a memorial of that event. The Sabbath rests instead on the creation of heaven and earth and on God's rest and sanctification of the Sabbath at the end of the first week of time.
The surrounding chapters give two memorials of deliverance from Egypt, both yearly and distinct from the weekly Sabbath rest. The Passover preserves remembrance of how God brought judgment nigh and Egypt's firstborn sons were doomed to die while the destroying angel passed over Israelite dwellings, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread declares how the Egyptians hurried Israel away. When sons ask what this service means the answer is that with a mighty hand Jehovah brought Israel up from Egypt's land. Israel in Egypt still knew God and kept His ordinances, including circumcision as required to eat the Passover, for they were ready to observe it. This obedience proves they had not forgotten God's past dealings, so the Sabbath afterward made known at Sinai was an original giving and not the recalling of a forgotten institution.
The same law for the homeborn Israelite and the foreigner living among Israel shows that Gentiles as well as Israelites were included in the Sabbath blessing promised in Isaiah. The son of the stranger is the Gentile, and the same law standing for homeborn and stranger without respect to nationality proves the Sabbath is not a Jewish institution but made for mankind, with blessing and a peculiar promise to every man and especially to the Gentile who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it. The verse belongs to the law of the paschal lamb slain on the fourteenth day of the first month, which met its antitype in the death of the Lamb of God on that same day.
The going out of Egypt into Canaan is a type of the deliverance of God's people from the dark Egypt of earth, and its plagues are a type of the last plagues recorded in Revelation 16 and were literal events that Egypt knew and Philistia did not doubt. The account of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 7 to 12 foreshadows the seven last plagues which are the wrath of God threatened by the third angel. The seven last plagues will be as real and literal as the plagues of Egypt were, and as the plagues of Egypt came just prior to the deliverance of Israel so the seven last plagues will be poured out just before the final deliverance of the saints. As the deceptive power of Satan was manifested by the magicians that withstood Moses just before and in connection with the plagues of Egypt, so the worshippers of the beast will be deceived by wonders and miracles prior to and in connection with the last plagues.
One law stood for the homeborn Israelite and for the foreigner dwelling among Israel. In its setting that equality governed the Passover, so that a circumcised stranger joined to Israel as one born in the land kept the same ordinance and shared the same household company. The ordinance itself was the memorial of deliverance from Egypt kept on the night Israel went out of bondage, eaten at night and to be observed through generations as a shadow of good to come. That deliverance came with mighty judgments on Egypt and redemption of Israel with a mighty hand, after which Israel was to prove obedience to His law. The law so given was not for Israel alone but for the world, with Israel as priest and light to the nations, so that converted Gentiles came under the same law, and the Sabbath blessing is for mankind and not a Jewish institution only.
Exodus Context and History
Exodus 12 belongs with chapters 11 to 13, whose central topics are the last plague, the Passover, and the going out of Egypt. It stands in the first, mainly historical division of Exodus covering chapters 1 to 18, in the section on the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, and the hurried departure of Israel from Egypt. There the ordinance for the Passover is given in close connection with those events, and the firstborn are claimed as the Lord's. It stands in chapters 6 to 12, which give the account of the ten plagues upon Egypt and God's merciful deliverance to His children.
It is included in the account of the conflict between God's religious system and Egypt's religious system, a conflict in which both systems were supported by miracles. It belongs to the deliverance when God ended Israel's servile condition as serfs of the Egyptians. God allowed Israel to remain in that condition for a time, then instead of sanctioning even that modified form of slavery demanded their instant release, and on refusal struck their oppressors with terrible judgments, led Israel forth as an army of fugitive slaves, and drowned their pursuers in the Red Sea. The deliverance surrounding it was accompanied by darkness, plague, and storm.
It stands in the record of God's wonderful deliverance of Israel from Egypt and at the Red Sea, which demonstrated His wisdom, love, and power and His ability and right to rule, with Israel's obligation to obey. After that deliverance they must be tested and tried to prove whether they would walk in His law or not. It stands in Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage where God redeemed them with a mighty hand after hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required. So God gave them a great multiple object-lesson by various forms and rites comprehending the plan of salvation in the sanctuary He commanded them to build that He might dwell among them.
It belongs to the personal experience by which Israel came to know the living God before Sinai, when the plagues humbled Egypt and its gods. Those who believed Him had their firstborn delivered, while in the homes of those who rejected His mercy not one escaped the destroyer. With the opening of the Red Sea, the sweetening of Marah, the bread from heaven, and water from the rock, this deliverance made the title of the Lord who brought them out of Egypt full and comprehensive. It belongs to the account that dates Israel's leaving Egypt to 1491 years before Christ. It belongs to an account of the exodus that Moses supervised directly, stated with no less certainty than the account of creation, so its historical truth stands alongside the truth of the creation narrative.
Passover Ordinance and Wording
Exodus 12:49 stands in the story of the first Passover told in Exodus 11 and Exodus 12. The word Passover means that when the angel saw the blood on the doorposts he passed over the house and did not slay the firstborn. The first Passover was kept at Rameses in Egypt on the night the children of Israel were led out of bondage to go into the land of Canaan, and it continued as a yearly feast kept at Jerusalem.
It gives the original instructions for the Passover as first instituted for the Israelites in Egypt and kept in the wilderness on the journey to Palestine and for some time after. Its form is distinct from the later temple form, which added injunctions hardly possible to carry out in the wilderness and used wine and the Hallel song of Psalms 113 to 118 that the original instructions did not enjoin. It belongs to the Mosaic requirements for preparing and keeping the Passover that Christ and His disciples obeyed as consistent Israelites at the last Supper. Those requirements mean absolutely nothing leavened or fermented was permitted at the seven-day sacred memorial feast, with the heaviest penalty incurred for using anything leavened. Eating implies drinking, and drink was a necessity through the seven days, with the particular drink left to circumstances and common sense except for the absolute that it could not be leavened, so the drink used at the institution of the Supper was unfermented.
It describes the Passover, which commemorated Israel's deliverance from Egypt and served as a shadow of something good to be done for the human race. The Passover was eaten at night, and that night was to be observed to the Lord through Israel's generations. It describes the Passover and its feast as perpetual and everlasting, but that language does not prove unending obligation, for its period has expired just as surely as the period of the things commanded to a thousand generations has expired. It contains the Hebrew word usually translated law, the same word used in Psalm 19:7, showing that Psalm 19:7 calls the law of the Lord perfect and declares it perfect.
It is cited as supporting, at most, a calendar arrangement for that one year; it does not prove that the weeks began with the year or that the Sabbath fell on a fixed date of every month. The feast days connected with Passover did not necessarily fall on the weekly Sabbath, and the weeks remained complete as month and year dates shifted.
Equal Law for Stranger
One law stood for the homeborn and for the stranger sojourning among them, so that the same requirement bound the native Israelite and the foreigner living in Israel. That equality governed the Passover itself, and the resident stranger came under the same Passover rule as the native. A circumcised foreigner could join the household company in eating the Passover.
The stranger who joined Israel by becoming as one born in the land was required to keep the Passover, and the same law then applied to the homeborn Israelite and to the naturalized stranger. An unnaturalized stranger was not brought under that obligation. A Gentile could thus become part of Israel through the lawful process of the Mosaic law rather than by descent from Abraham, with circumcision opening the way for the stranger to share in Israel's blessings.
Foreign indentured servants bought with money had to be circumcised in obedience to the Abrahamic covenant, which made them part of the household during their period of service. By that act they became naturalized citizens of the state and members of the congregation, sharing all the rites and privileges common to the people. The rule established a law of equality between the homeborn and the sojourning stranger, serving to increase the numbers of the commonwealth. It secured to foreign servants the same standing under the laws and the same protection from the laws as Hebrew servants. Foreign birth therefore did not exclude a sojourner from the religious privileges available among Israel.
The same law that was for Israel was for every other person of whatever race or nationality. Israel was the chosen people through whom the knowledge of God was to extend throughout the earth, to be as a light to the surrounding nations, and the course they pursued was to reveal to all other people what it meant to be a member of God's government and people. The Ten Commandments given on Sinai were the constitution of Israel's government, the basis of their national as well as individual life, while the added laws, rites, services, and ceremonies were by-laws explaining the real meaning of that law, how to be kept from transgressing it, and what to do when it was violated. The law given to Israel was not for Israel alone but for the world, with Israel serving as God's priest to the nations. Israel was to live the law so that other nations would be won, and to declare God's glory among the Gentiles so that they would be converted. When people of the nations gave themselves to God, one law applied equally to Israelite and stranger, so that converted Gentiles came under the same law as Israel.
Sabbath, Prophecy and Types
Exodus 12 identifies the Passover as the memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and sets forth its commemorative purpose, while the Sabbath is not that memorial. The Passover was instituted to commemorate that deliverance, and that deliverance memorial belongs to the Passover and not to the Sabbath, for Moses in Deuteronomy 5 does not present Sabbath observance as a memorial of that event. The Sabbath rests instead on the creation of heaven and earth and on God's rest and sanctification of the Sabbath at the end of the first week of time.
The surrounding chapters give two memorials of deliverance from Egypt, both yearly and distinct from the weekly Sabbath rest. The Passover preserves remembrance of how God brought judgment nigh and Egypt's firstborn sons were doomed to die while the destroying angel passed over Israelite dwellings, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread declares how the Egyptians hurried Israel away. When sons ask what this service means the answer is that with a mighty hand Jehovah brought Israel up from Egypt's land. Israel in Egypt still knew God and kept His ordinances, including circumcision as required to eat the Passover, for they were ready to observe it. This obedience proves they had not forgotten God's past dealings, so the Sabbath afterward made known at Sinai was an original giving and not the recalling of a forgotten institution.
The same law for the homeborn Israelite and the foreigner living among Israel shows that Gentiles as well as Israelites were included in the Sabbath blessing promised in Isaiah. The son of the stranger is the Gentile, and the same law standing for homeborn and stranger without respect to nationality proves the Sabbath is not a Jewish institution but made for mankind, with blessing and a peculiar promise to every man and especially to the Gentile who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it. The verse belongs to the law of the paschal lamb slain on the fourteenth day of the first month, which met its antitype in the death of the Lamb of God on that same day.
The going out of Egypt into Canaan is a type of the deliverance of God's people from the dark Egypt of earth, and its plagues are a type of the last plagues recorded in Revelation 16 and were literal events that Egypt knew and Philistia did not doubt. The account of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 7 to 12 foreshadows the seven last plagues which are the wrath of God threatened by the third angel. The seven last plagues will be as real and literal as the plagues of Egypt were, and as the plagues of Egypt came just prior to the deliverance of Israel so the seven last plagues will be poured out just before the final deliverance of the saints. As the deceptive power of Satan was manifested by the magicians that withstood Moses just before and in connection with the plagues of Egypt, so the worshippers of the beast will be deceived by wonders and miracles prior to and in connection with the last plagues.