The Feast Of Unleavened Bread Series

Feast of Unleavend Bread

Exodus 12:14-20

March 6, 2022

When it comes to eating, I think we all have our downfalls. There are some foods we can eat every day. When I think about myself, I have a few different foods which bring me comfort. Usually, the go to is dessert, especially chocolate. One of the foods I really enjoy is fresh bread! I mean, sometimes going to Fazoli’s or Olive Garden is more about the breadsticks, or go to Texas Roadhouse for their rolls, or other places we can think of.

My mom loved Chinese food, but she never liked going out for Chinese food. Why? Because you never received rolls with your meal. Ever think about that one?

That leads us to the feast we’re going to talk about today. The 2nd of the Jewish feasts. It’s called the Feast of Unleavened bread.

Last week when we started looking at the 7 feasts of Israel. We started with the first one, which is Passover. It officially starts on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. As I said last week, the first 3 feasts all happen during the same period of time. Passover is on the 14th and the Feast of Unleavened Bread starts on the 15th and lasts for 7 days.

When I was growing up, I never heard it called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was always the 8 days of Passover. And that’s pretty common, because most people lump them together. But God doesn’t. God sees a huge difference between the 2 feasts. So, let’s look at what God says about this feast day, according to Exodus 12 - -

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone 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 everyone needs to eat, that alone 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 a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.” - Exodus 12:14-20

So, that’s what the feast of unleavened bread is about. After I talk about what it means for the Jews, we’re going to look and see where we find Jesus in the midst of this feast.

We get a number of helps on this feast from other OT books as well. In Deuteronomy 16, we read - - -

3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction —

for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste — that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. - Deuteronomy 16:3

In Exodus 13, Moses told the people - - -

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.

8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ - Exodus 13

In addition to this, Numbers 28 outlines the offerings the people were supposed to make during this feast. So, there’s really a lot of information for us.

With all that in mind, let’s look at what it means.

When you read through these passages one thing really stands out for me. The Jewish people were to get rid of all the leavened products in their homes. In 7 verses in Exodus 12, the people are told 4 times not to eat leavened bread and to get it out of their homes. If you’ve ever repeated yourself because something is important, understand that to God, this is really, really important.