Exodus 12:46

12:43-51 In times to come, all the congregation of Israel must keep the passover. All that share in God's mercies should join in thankful praises for them. The New Testament passover, the Lord's supper, ought not to be neglected by any. Strangers, if circumcised, might eat of the passover. Here is an early indication of favour to the gentiles. This taught the Jews that their being a nation favoured by God, entitled them to their privileges, not their descent from Abraham. Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, 1Co 5:7; his blood is the only ransom for our souls; without the shedding of it there is no remission; without the sprinkling of it there can be no salvation. Have we, by faith in him, sheltered our souls from deserved vengeance under the protection of his atoning blood? Do we keep close to him, constantly depending upon him? Do we so profess our faith in the Redeemer, and our obligations to him, that all who pass by may know to whom we belong? Do we stand prepared for his service, ready to walk in his ways, and to separate ourselves from his enemies? These are questions of vast importance to the soul; may the Lord direct our consciences honestly to answer them.

In one house shall it be eaten,.... For though there might be more lambs than one eaten in a house, where there were a sufficient number to eat them; and there might be more societies than one in a house, provided they kept themselves distinct, and were large enough each of them to eat up a lamb; yet one lamb might not be eaten in different houses, a part of it in one house, and a part of it in another; which may denote the unity of the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and the distinct separate congregations of the saints, and the right that each have to a whole Christ, who is not to be divided from his ministers, word, and ordinances; See Gill on Matthew 26:18 , thou shall not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house: into another house; for where there was not a sufficient number in one house to eat a lamb, their neighbours in the next house were to join with them; but then they were not to part it, and one portion of it to be eaten in one house, and the other in another, but they were to meet together in one of their houses, and there partake of it; thus, though Christ may be fed upon by faith any where by particular believers, yet in an ordinance way only in the church of God: neither shall ye break a bone thereof; any of its tender bones to get out the marrow; and so the Targum of Jonathan adds,"that ye may eat that which is in the midst of it:''this was remarkably fulfilled in Christ the antitype, John 19:32.

(46) Neither shall ye break a bone thereof. —In the case of all other victims, the limbs were to be separated from the body. Here the victim was to be roasted whole, and to remain whole, as a symbol of unity, and a type of Him through whom men are brought into unity with each other and with God. (See John 19:33-36 .)

Partly, because they were all obliged not to go out of the house till the morning, Exodus 12:22 , and to leave none of it till that time, Exodus 12:10 ; partly, lest it should be either superstitiously or profanely abused; and partly, to signify that Christ and salvation are not to be had out of God’s house or church. To take out and eat the marrow of it. This was required, partly to mind them of their hasty departure out of Egypt, wherein they had no leisure to break and empty the bones; and principally, that it might be an evident type of the Lord Jesus, in whom this was literally fulfilled, John 19:36 . The bones were burnt with the other remainders of the lamb.

In one house - i. e. "in one company." Each lamb was to be entirely consumed by the members of one company, whether they belonged to the same household or not. Break a bone - The typical significance of this injunction is recognized by John, (see the margin reference.) It is not easy to assign any other satisfactory reason for it. This victim alone was exempt from the general law by which the limbs were ordered to be separated from the body.

Verse 46. - In one house shall it be eaten . Compare the directions in vers. 3-10, which imply this, and see the comment on ver. 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 19:33-36 .) Exodus 12:46

46 . Three regulations designed to emphasize the unity of the company partaking of each passover (cf. vv. 4, 9; 1 Corinthians 10:17 ): one lamb was always to be eaten in one house; no part of the flesh was to be carried out of the house; and (in dressing the Paschal lamb) no bone in it was to be broken (cf. Numbers 9:12 ; also John 19:36 , Psalm 34:20 ).

Regulations Concerning the Participants in the Passover. - These regulations, which were supplementary to the law of the Passover in Exodus 12:3-11 , were not communicated before the exodus; because it was only by the fact that a crowd of foreigners attached themselves to the Israelites, that Israel was brought into a connection with foreigners, which needed to be clearly defined, especially so far as the Passover was concerned, the festival of Israel's birth as the people of God. If the Passover was still to retain this signification, of course no foreigner could participate in it. This is the first regulation. But as it was by virtue of a divine call, and not through natural descent, that Israel had become the people of Jehovah, and as it was destined in that capacity to be a blessing to all nations, the attitude assumed towards foreigners was not to be an altogether repelling one. Hence the further directions in Exodus 12:44 : purchased servants, who had been politically incorporated as Israel's property, were to be entirely incorporated by circumcision, so as even to take part in the Passover. But settlers, and servants working for wages, were not to eat of it, for they stood in a purely external relation, which might be any day dissolved. בּ אכל, lit., to eat at anything, to take part in the eating ( Leviticus 22:11 ). The deeper ground fore this was, that in this meal Israel was to preserve and celebrate its unity and fellowship with Jehovah.

This was the meaning of the regulations, which were repeated in Exodus 12:46 and Exodus 12:47 from Exodus 12:4 , Exodus 12:9 , and Exodus 12:10 , where they had been already explained. If, therefore, a foreigner living among the Israelites wished to keep the Passover, he was first of all to be spiritually incorporated into the nation of Jehovah by circumcision ( Exodus 12:48 ). פס ועשׂה: "And he has made (i.e., made ready) a passover to Jehovah, let every male be circumcised to him (i.e., he himself, and the male members of his house), and then he may draw near (sc., to Jehovah) to keep it." The first עשׂה denotes the wish or intention to do it, the second, the actual execution of the wish. The words בּן־נכר, גּר, תּושׁב and שׂכיר, are all indicative of non-Israelites. בּן־נכר was applied quite generally to any foreigner springing from another nation; גּר was a foreigner living for a shorter or longer time in the midst of the Israelites; תּושׁב, lit., a dweller, settler, was one who settled permanently among the Israelites, without being received into their religious fellowship; שׂכיר was the non-Israelite, who worked for an Israelite for wages.