Exodus 13:3-8God devastated and overcame the power of the Egyptians with the plague of the firstborn (the Passover plague) and then led Israel out of Egypt on the day after Passover, which is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As a matter of fact, the first words that Moses and Aaron spoke to Pharaoh were about this Feast:
And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten... And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.’"
Exodus 5:1The Feast of Unleavened Bread clearly focuses on deliverance - so what point is God trying to make by asking us to not eat leaven during these days?
Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”
First, recall that Israel was commanded to leave Egypt in haste - they couldn't delay their leaving in order to give the bread time to rise, so God told them not to put any yeast in it. Yeast is a living organism that grows in bread and releases gas, which cases the bread to puff up over time as the yeast grows and spreads. They were supposed to be eager to get out of Egypt! The deliverance symbolism of the Feast is obviously made manifest because of God's act of deliverance, but the Israelites were to commemorate the event by eating unleavened bread in order to symbolize their willingness and readiness to receive that deliverance.
The Israelites had a problem with not trusting God to provide for them, and, as a result, they frequently wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt. In light of what the unleavened bread was supposed to mean for them, it's not surprising that the one of the fond memories that the Israelites had about Egypt was the bread that they ate there:
Exodus 16:3The Israelites were so unappreciative of God's deliverance that they were not satisfied with the unleavened bread which symbolized that deliverance - they wanted to return to Egypt, where they ate leavened bread in bondage!
And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!"
All of these things are written for our learning. Today, Christians are still commanded to eat only unleavened bread for 7 days. We observe the Days of Unleavened Bread to commemorate that God has Passed Over our sins and redeemed us from slavery in spiritual Egypt, which is the way that leads to death. The reason that we eat unleavened bread is to remind us of the urgency with which we are called to stop living under the control of sin. Just like the Israelites were not permitted to wait around in Egypt for the bread to rise, so also Christians are not permitted to continue in their sins. The New Testament teaches that sin is like yeast:
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Just like yeast lives in the bread, spreading and growing until the entire loaf is puffed up, so also sin lives in us, spreading and growing until we are thoroughly captive to it. If we delay in purging out our sins, they will spread like leaven in our lives until they completely control our us. Therefore, we must not compromise! When God reveals to you that you are doing something wrong, you must be READY and WILLING to change!
We are called to eat the "unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." If you are not ready to stop sinning, then you are not sincere. If you say that you are ready to stop sinning but you willingly going back for "one last fix," then you are a liar and have not abided in truth.
The primary message of the Days of Unleavened Bread of Christians is that God has brought us out of sin by His power, which is displayed in the Passover sacrifice. As a result of that deliverance, we must be totally ready to accept our salvation by willingly and eagerly following God out of sin, symbolized by eating unleavened bread - putting away sin before it has a chance to grow and corrupt us.
For more information on why Christians should celebrate these Holy Days, as well as how to celebrate them, see God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.
Excellent! I'm glad to hear that there are members out there who still believe/teach that eating unleavened bread is commanded! Thank you.
ReplyDeletedo you know if the 5 loaves that christ broke with the two fish had yeast in it ?
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. There's nothing in the actual accounts of miraculous food multiplication that indicates one way or the other, but Matthew 16:5-12 might shed some light:
ReplyDeleteNow when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.” But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
It appears that the disciples thought that Christ was telling them to literally beware of leaven. In response, Christ reminds them of how He fed of the crowds with bread. It seems that Christ is using those instances as an example of when they had literal leaven among them (by way of the 5 loaves and the 7 loaves) in order to drive home to them that He wasn't talking about physical leaven.
So, no, I don't think that those loaves were unleavened, and I don't see how Matthew 16:5-12 would make sense if they were.
Thank you. Very insightful.
ReplyDelete