- This is the first mention of unleavened bread
- It set in contrast to the first destruction of a city since the flood
- Sin was not just sexual, but also greed and narcissism
- Unleavened bread is used in a number of feasts, cereomonies, and offerings (Lev 2:4-5; Lev 6:16; Lev 7:12)
- This is the first mention of the Feast of Unleavened Bread
- I may have misspoke last week if I said Passover was given prior to Mt Sinai
- Passover and unleavened bread were both described by God during the Exodus
- What would be the purpose or reasoning for unleavened bread as it relates to the Exodus?
- It was the day they started moving out of Egypt (out of slavery)
- The people were on the move, no time for bread to rise
- The trip to Mt Sinai took 44 days Exodus Route Map , but the probably slowed down once they were 7 days out of Egypt
- Most scholars directly link leaven with sin. The NT is much more pronounced with many suggestive passages symbolically equating leaven with sin
- Here are some additional details
- Eat unleavened bread for seven days
- A holy convocation on the first day and the seventh day (no work to be done)
- There is an offering by fire
- Not said and practiced
- You could eat anything allowable under Mosaic law, just no leaven in it
- Six other passages reference the feast
- What is added in the first passage?
- Offering by fire
- 2 young bulls
- 1 ram
- 7 male lambs one year old
- 3/10 of an ephah for a bull
- 2/10 of an ephah for a ram
- 1/10 of an ephah for each lamb
- 1 male goat for a sin offering
- Entire list each of the seven days, the food of an offering by fire
- Why? What is the purpose of all these sacrifices?
- The feasts and even the futility of them should point people to Jesus
- If we believe we need the feasts then we don't understand what Jesus did for us
- Clearly, it was still celebrated in Jesus' day
- Messianic Significance:
- We have read part of Heb 9:11-10:18
- The passage clearly states that death of Jesus fulfilled Passover
- His sinless life and our redemption from slavery fulfills Unleavened bread
- Why can Paul say "you really are unleavened?"
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (RSV) 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- In the great exchange, we receive Jesus' sinlessness (in God's eyes) while Jesus receives our sin to be paid for on the cross
- In God's eyes we are righteous or unleavened
- Two additional points:
- As Romans made clear we still fight against the old flesh, and that is a worthy battle
- In God's eyes we are righteous -- we can't do any better than that
- We can earn spiritual rewards for our future life by how we live on earth
- Those rewards are measured by our CHARACTER, not our performance of rituals
- Our work is not rituals
- The legal demands (of the law) have been nailed to the cross
- Festival, new moons, or sabbaths SHOULD NEVER be an issue of judgment between people
- Submitting to rules and regulations DOES have an appearance of wisdom, BUT usually is INEFFECTIVE in changing our lives
- Secondly, it is possible that Jewish believers (and Gentiles) were celebrating the fasts -- depending how you read 1 Cor 5:6-8
- Paul did celebrate many of the festivals
- But when you read his reasoning, it was primarily done so that he would not be a stumbling block to his own brothers
- It is the same argument regarding meat sacrificed to idols. The only good argument is so that you don't hurt someone else
- APPLICATION:
- Jesus has clearly fulfilled the feast of unleavened bread for us
- He made us righteous in God's eyes by his death
- He set us free from slavery to sin
- Having said that, we still need to remove leaven from our earthly bodies. Why?
- Because it ruins our witness
- It does not affect our salvation but could affect our ability to share the gospel with others
Genesis
19:2–4 (RSV)
2 and
said, “My lords, turn aside, I pray you, to your servant’s house and spend the
night, and wash your feet; then you may rise up early and go on your way.”
They said, “No; we will spend the night in the street.” 3 But he urged
them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he made
them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 But before they
lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the
people to the last man, surrounded the house;
Exodus
12:14–18 (RSV)
14 “This
day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the
Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for
ever. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you
shall put away leaven out of your houses, for if any one eats what is
leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut
off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and
on the seventh day a holy assembly; no work shall be done on those days; but
what every one must eat, that only may be prepared by you. 17 And you
shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought
your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day,
throughout your generations, as an ordinance for ever. 18 In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened
bread, and so until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
1
Corinthians 5:6–8 (RSV)
6 Your
boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole
lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you
really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.
8 Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the
leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth.
Matthew
16:5–6 (RSV)
5 When
the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
6 Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Leviticus
23:6–8 (RSV)
6 And
on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the
Lord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you
shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. 8 But you
shall present an offering by fire to the Lord seven days; on the seventh day
is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.”
First Passage:
Numbers
28:16–25 (RSV) 16 “On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s
passover. 17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast; seven
days shall unleavened bread be eaten. 18 On the first day there shall be
a holy convocation: you shall do no laborious work, 19 but offer an
offering by fire, a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and
seven male lambs a year old; see that they are without blemish; 20 also
their cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil; three tenths of an ephah
shall you offer for a bull, and two tenths for a ram; 21 a tenth shall
you offer for each of the seven lambs; 22 also one male goat for a sin
offering, to make atonement for you. 23 You shall offer these besides the
burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering.
24 In the same way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of an
offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord; it shall be offered besides the
continual burnt offering and its drink offering. 25 And on the seventh
day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work.
Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:3–4, 8-11,
(RSV)
9:24 For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made
with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in
the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself
repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his
own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the
foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end
of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it
is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so
Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a
second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting
for him.
…
10:3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin
year after year. 4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sins.
…
8 When he said above, “Thou hast neither desired nor taken
pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings”
(these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Lo, I have
come to do thy will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering
repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But
when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down
at the right hand of God, 13 then to wait until his enemies should be
made a stool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected
for all time those who are sanctified.
Second Passage:
Deut 16:3-8 emphasizes the necessity of NO leaven
Third Passage: 2
Chron 29:23-27 records how the feast was restored by Hezekiah
Fourth Passage:
Ezra 6:21-22 records how Ezra restores the feast after the dedication of the
temp
Fifth Passage: Ezek
45;21-24 describes Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Feast of
Tabernacles as feasts used as memorials of God's work in the millennial
kingdom
Sixth Passage:
Mark
14:1–2 (RSV)
1 It
was now two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread. And
the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth,
and kill him; 2 for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be a
tumult of the people.”
1
Corinthians 5:6–8 (RSV)
6 Your
boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole
lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you
really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.
8 Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the
leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth.
1 Corinthians 3:10–15 (RSV) 10 According to the grace of
God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and
another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it.
11 For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each man’s work will become
manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire,
and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the
work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a
reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he
himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Colossians 2:13–23 (RSV) 13 And you, who were dead in
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with
him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 having canceled the bond
which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it
to the cross. 15 He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a
public example of them, triumphing over them in him.
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions
of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath.
17 These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs
to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and
worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by
his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the
whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments,
grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the
universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you
submit to regulations, 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
22 (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to
human precepts and doctrines? 23 These have indeed an appearance of
wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the
body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.
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