Print This ArticleGod has very specific rules about just who may and may not eat the passover. Men are free to make up any thing they want to invent, based on emotion, and fuzzy feelings, but God has concrete rules that govern His holy days, and those are all that matters.
Exodus 12:48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
No one can argue the fact that SOME people were absolutely BARRED from the passover service – even in the Old Testament. And that the tool God uses to make that dividing line is circumcision. Circumcised people can – must – eat it, and uncircumcised can’t. Simple as that.
And children were not strangers to that covenant; they were drafted into it on the 8th day of their lives, at circumcision. So they were not strangers from that passover, and they were free to eat of it. But that passover was different from the New Testament passover. Because the people who ate that passover, and ate that Manna, all died…
John 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
However, the people who eat the NEW bread of life, the flesh of Christ, will never die.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
And the people who covered their houses with the blood of that lamb died anyway.
Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
But the people who drink the blood of Christ, and cover their earthly house – their body – with His blood, won’t die.
John 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
So there is a difference drawn between the two passovers, the two lambs, and the two covenants. The old covenant only required obedience in the letter – the new required obedience in the spirit. (Matthew 5, etc). The old offered only offered physical blessings (Leviticus 26, etc) the new offers spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). The old only offered physical life (Galatians 3:12), the new offers eternal, spiritual life (Genesis 1-Revelation 22).
More to the point, the old testament only required physical circumcision to receive the blessings, but the new requires SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION! And this is the answer to the question at hand.
Romans 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; AND CIRCUMCISION IS THAT OF THE HEART, IN THE SPIRIT, AND NOT IN THE LETTER; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
To allow you be a part of the old covenant and receive physical life, your parents would have circumcised you on the eight day, symbolizing your acceptance of the terms of the covenant, which was required for you to be a part of the physical nation of Israel. Your parents made a decision for you that bound you under the physical, outward terms of the law, such as “thou shalt not kill”. This can be enforced by the nation, and your parents, and is the flat minimum God requires of you to let you live.
But to before you become part of the new covenant, and receive spiritual life, and be a part of the spiritual nation of Israel, YOU must personally make the decision to allow God access to your heart. You cannot make it for your wife, or your children, but only for yourself. This decision will circumcise, not your flesh, but your heart, and obligate you to obey deeper laws such as “thou shalt not hate your brother in your heart”. This decision cannot be enforced, or even observed, by your parents or the nation. It is between you and God. And until that happens, you are a “stranger of the covenant of promise” – the new, spiritual covenant – just as an Egyptian was a stranger to the old, physical covenant. And a stranger must not eat of the passover. (Exodus 12:48).
Before anyone was allowed to partake of the old passover, the passover that only purified the flesh (Hebrews 9:13), they had to circumcise that flesh. And before anyone may take of the new passover, the passover that purifies the spirit, they must circumcise their heart – the symbol of which is baptism.
Like it or not, your children are not born with circumcised hearts, and until that changes they would be eating and drinking the passover unworthily, and bring the judgment of God upon themselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). And what loving parent would put their child in that position?
