What a place for the stranger! What a lesson for Israel! What a standing testimony on the page of their favorite and boasted Moses! The stranger is placed on the very same platform with Israel! “_As_ ye are, _so_ shall the stranger be;” and this, too, “before the Lord.” In Exodus xii. 48, we read, “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.” But in Numbers xv. there is no allusion to circumcision at all. And why? Is it that such a point could ever be waived? No; but we believe the omission here is full of meaning. Israel had forfeited every thing. The rebellious generation was to be set aside and cut off; but God’s eternal purpose of grace must stand, and all His promises be fulfilled. All Israel shall be saved; they shall possess the land; they shall offer pure offerings, pay their vows, and taste the joy of the kingdom. On what ground? On the ground of sovereign mercy. Well, it is on the self-same ground that “the stranger” shall be brought in; and not only brought in, but “_as_ ye are, _so_ shall the stranger be before the Lord.” Will the Jew quarrel with this? Let him go and study Numbers xiii. and xiv. And when he has drunk into his inmost soul the wholesome lesson, then let him meditate on chapter xv, and we feel assured he will not seek to push “the stranger” off the platform, for he will be ready to confess himself a debtor to mercy alone, and to acknowledge that the same mercy which has reached him can reach the stranger, and he will rejoice to go in company with that stranger to drink of the wells of salvation thrown open by the sovereign grace of the God of Jacob. Are we not forcibly reminded, by the teaching of this part of our book, of that profound section of dispensational truth presented in Romans ix.-xi, particularly of its magnificent close? “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye [strangers] in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed in your mercy [_i. e._, mercy shown to the Gentiles—_see Greek_], that they also may obtain mercy [_i. e._, come in on the ground of mercy like the stranger]. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all [Jews and Gentiles—Israel and the stranger]. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (Rom. xi. 29-36.)