43 And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof:

44 But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.

45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.

46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.

47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

God instructed how the Passover feast was to be conducted in relation to those who were not natively part of Israel. This would include both foreigners and servants, and servants were further divided between owned servants and hired servants. Only the owned servant were eligible to participate in the Passover, and only if the servant had been circumcised, thus making him an official part of the Israelite household. He would then live under the umbrella of the lord of the house and would observe the same rituals that his master did.

Hired servants and other foreigners would still be free men under their own jurisdiction. As such, they were not to be included in the feast, and were, in fact, forbidden from participating.

Meanwhile, of the native Israelites God instructed that “all the congregation shall keep it.” There were to be no exceptions, regardless of age, gender, position, or status. Each family was responsible to host the meal in their own house (or in the house of a neighbor if both families were small), but not to pass food from one abode to another.

In all of this I see the Passover as being symbolic of receiving the testimony of the gospel. The foreigner and the hired servants represent the outside unbelievers, who the true disciple may otherwise associate with, but which are still distinct and do not hold the same convictions and responsibilities. The owned servant is the new convert, temporarily borrowing from the testimony of other believers, relying upon the nurturing of the experienced faithful. The native Israelites are the disciples who have fully come into their own testimony, no longer relying on the faith of another to be imparted to them. The Israelite household is the sphere of faithfulness that the true disciple maintains, capable of nurturing and sheltering all who dwell within its borders. We are all meant to progress from the foreigner, to the servant, to the native as we receive our first testimony, increase it from the strength of others, and finally come to a fulness of our own.