Why is circumcision required for a slave to eat the Passover meal? The Larger Story Behind the Rule • Exodus 12 describes a brand-new nation, freshly redeemed from Egypt, gathering around its first covenant meal. • God insists that no uncircumcised male may eat the lamb (Exodus 12:43). A purchased slave can join only “after you have circumcised him” (Exodus 12:44). • The requirement is not about social status but covenant identity. God is protecting the holiness of His family table. Circumcision: Sign of Covenant Belonging • Established with Abraham: “This is My covenant… every male among you must be circumcised” (Genesis 17:10). • It marks every Israelite household as set apart for the LORD. • Uncircumcised males are “cut off” (Genesis 17:14), so the sign cannot be ignored if one wishes to share covenant privileges. • Purchased slaves were now permanent members of an Israelite household; circumcision brought them under the same covenant covering as the family that owned them. Passover: Meal of Redemption for Covenant Members • Passover celebrated God’s saving act—the blood that shielded Israel from judgment (Exodus 12:13). • Only those under the covenant’s sign could claim that protection, so only those under the sign could eat the meal. • The table itself testified: “We belong to the redeemed people of God.” An uncircumcised eater would contradict that witness. How a Slave Moves from Outsider to Family Step-by-step picture: 1. Purchase brings the slave into an Israelite household. 2. Circumcision brings the slave under God’s covenant. 3. Covenant membership opens the door to the Passover table. 4. Shared meal seals a new identity: no longer outsider, now part of the redeemed community (compare Exodus 12:48). Echoes in Later Scripture • Joshua circumcises the second-generation Israelites before their first Passover in Canaan (Joshua 5:2–10). The pattern holds: sign first, meal second. • The prophets press for “circumcision of heart” (Jeremiah 4:4), hinting that the outward sign points to an inward reality. • In the New Covenant, “Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Believers experience a “circumcision made without hands” (Colossians 2:11), receiving heart-level belonging that fulfills the Abrahamic sign. Living Application Today • God still guards His table. Baptism—New-Covenant initiation—precedes communion, echoing circumcision before Passover. • The pattern reminds us that redemption creates family; no one slips in through ritual alone, but true belonging is confirmed by faith-filled obedience. • Every Lord’s Supper invites us to remember the cost of our inclusion and rejoice that, through Christ, former outsiders are now welcome at the feast. |
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