The Exodus story isn’t always chronological, and this is a good example. Exodus 12 tells us the Passover instructions were given first (12:1-28), then narrates the plague and Israel’s departure to Succoth (12:29-42) and only then comes back to add this second block of regulations. These aren’t new words spoken on the road; see v. 51. They are the last words given to Moses and Aaron, spoken before anyone flees Egypt, the final regulations for a meal that hadn’t been eaten yet.
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it. “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.” All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” Exodus 12:43-51
The Passover lamb’s blood on their door frames would save them. It would be the foundation for the important Passover meal that would be regularly shared together throughout history.
Before they even step over the border of Egypt, God gives them instructions on who and how to eat the Passover meal.
So, who may participate?
No foreigner unless all his household are circumcised.
No temporary resident, unless he is circumcised.
No hired worker, unless he belongs to the household.
A slave may eat it but only once he is circumcised.
In a nutshell, “The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
The exclusion line was never drawn around nationality or birth. Anyone could come to this table if they had been marked.
Then, almost as an aside, tucked into the regulations, *do not break any of the bones.*
Remember this? When the soldiers came to the crosses to break the legs of the crucified, they found Jesus had already died. So they didn’t break his. John looks at the Passover instructions and connects the dots. “So that the scripture would be fulfilled: not one of his bones will be broken.” (John 19:36) A regulation about a lamb, kept perfectly, in the body of a man.
So we have the gospel, and it really is good news!
The Passover asks this: who is marked enough to belong?
The cross answers the question for good, but it changes what the mark is. What Christ does is cut by no human hand at all. Paul calls it “a circumcision not performed by human hands” in Colossians 2 v 11-12.
The knife becomes the cross. You are found in Christ, or you are not.
Gentiles who were once “foreigners to the covenants of promise… far away” are now “brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2 v 12-13)
The very language that shut people out in Exodus becomes the language that lets them in at Calvary, again, by blood that isn’t their own.
The Passover meal still has a restriction. But it is not determined by birth but by whether you let yourself be marked.
Missions Paul 