The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 100

APPOINTED BEASON (vers. 10, 11). 1. The pemon disabled by uncleanness at the full moon of the first month might keep the feast at the full moon of the 11econd. This was not a perfect remedy. The passover was a national solemnity. It was a witness to the religious unity of the tribes. It was designed at once to express and to foster the communion of the whole people in the faith and worship of the God of Abraham. These very attractive aspects of the ordinance failed to come iuto view when the passover was observed only by a few individuals, and on another than the appointed day. However, there were other and more private aspects of the ordinance to which this did not apply, 80 that the permission to keep the passover in the second month was a valuable concession. 2. The concession was extended not only to persons defiled by the dead, but to all who might be defiled from any cause beyond their own control. For example, if a man happened unavoidably to be on a distant journey on the fourteenth dny of the first month, he might keep the passover at the next full moon. 3. The concession was expressly extended to the foreigner as well as to the born Iara.elite. It ought never to be forgotten that, although the passover was so emphatically a national feast, provision was carefully made from the first, for the admission of foreigners to it (Exod. xii. 48, 49). Let the foreigner accept circumcision, " he and all his," and he is entitled to sit down at the paschal table, as a communicant in the Hebrew Church, just e.s if he had been born in the land. The Old Testament Church was not a missionary Church. It was not enjoined to preach to the Gentiles and compel them to come in. But if a Gentile desired to come in, he was to be made welcome. The lnw before us, besides presupposing the right of the proselyte to be admitted, emphatically declares the parity of right which was to be accorded him on his admission. 4. Care was to be taken not to abuse the concession. Liberty is one thing ; license is another and very different thing; yet history and daily experience bear witness that the two are apt to be confounded. Many, when they hear liberty proclaimed, think that license is to reign. See how carefully this is guarded against in the present instance. In two ways :-(1) Wilful neglect to observe the passover in its appointed sen.son was still to be deemed presumptuous sin (ver. 13)-a warning which the habitual neglecters of the Lord's Supper would do well to lay to heart. We, a.s evangelical Protestants, believe that participation in the Lord's Supper is not the indispensable means of communion in the body and blood of the Lord ; never- theless, we hold that no man can habitually withdraw himself from the Lord's Supper without sin and loss. (2) The supplementary passover was not, because supple- mente.ry, to be a passover of maimed rites (vere. 11, 12). It was to be observed with all the rites ordained for the great festival of the first month. With this law compare the history of Hezek:iah's passover in 2 Chron. xxx. III. THE PRINCIPLE WHICH LIES AT TEIE ROOT OJl' THIS LAW is this, namely, that rigid exactness in points of external order ought to be waived when adherence to it would hinder the edification of souls. Thr, same principle was laid down by our Lord in reference to the observance of the day of rest when he said, "The snbbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." The principle must, of course, be used with discretion. It was dutiful and expedient th11t the passover should be observed, not by every man when he pleased, but on the anniversary of the exodus, and by the whole congregation at once. Nevertheless, this good rule was not to defraud of the passover those disabled from keeping it on the right day. If this principle was so carefully recognised under the comparatively servile dispensation, much more ought it to prevail under the dispensation of evangelical liberty. Points of external order are not to be despised, especially when they are such as have express warr~nt of Holy Scripture. The wilful contempt of them may amount to presumptuous. sm. Nevertheless, the edification of souls must ever be treated as the paramount consider- ation to which a.II else must yield.-B. Vera. 1-14.- -TM letter and tlte spirit of tM law of tM paesover. We learn from this narrative certain Jeeeons which may illustrate the relation of the letter to the spirit of Divine precepts on other subjects beside the passover. I. THE LETTER OF THE LAW WAS llTRlNGENT. The observance of the feast was binding, even under inconvenient circumstances (ver. o), at fixed times (ver. 3), and with preacribed rites {ver, 3). No trifling allowed (ver, 13). Neglect of any one CH. IX, 1-14.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 77