The Origin of Unleavened Bread
In order to understand the context of this important feast we need to look at how it started.
Even the Marvel universe understands the need to share the origin story of its superhero characters.
We all want to know where we and others come from.
The Greatest Origin Story
The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins at the story of the Exodus from Egypt.
In Exodus 12:15, God instructs Israel that in the future they are to keep a Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, and everyone should remove leaven from their home. Anyone found eating leavened bread was to be cut off.
On the first day and again on the seventh day (12:16) there would be a holy convocation.
What is a Holy Convocation? - Often called a High Holy Day or High Sabbath, it is a day set aside for the people to gather and worship. It is treated like the weekly Sabbath, no work is to be done. There are several of these High Sabbath Days throughout the year around the Feast Days.
In this story, you can see God’s powerful hand at work and begin to understand why unleavened bread is the symbol and name of this feast.
Here is how it unfolds…(cue Star Wars intro music)
God says, TODAY you will observe this feast, because TODAY I will bring you up out of the land of Egypt. The LORD, through a command to keep a feast, has prepared them to join in His Story.
Look at the LORD’s, the TRUE SUPER HERO, timeline:
The Israelites remove any old dough with yeast from their homes.
They prepare new dough, no added yeast, to eat for the next 7 days.
Kill a Passover lamb for each home and place its blood on the doorpost.
Then eat a large meal of lamb (the Passover Lamb).
Pharaoh rises up in the middle of the night to find all the first born dead.
Pharaoh calls for Moses and Aaron and says, “Y’all got to go!!”.
Suddenly they’re free, so they grab their stuff, dough included, and go.
It happens so quick the bread had not fermented. (Unleavened Bread)
In God’s mercy, they have food in the wilderness for the next seven days!!!
That is great story line. And it sets up the climax that would happen at the Red Sea.
So now we know the origin story, we are prepared to live out the ongoing and endless sequels.
The command to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a memorial FOREVER.
Details For How To Observe The Feast
In Leviticus 23:6-8, the feast is to begin on the fifteenth of the month and to run consecutive for seven days. Yet Exodus 12:18 says to observe it on the evening of the 14th of the month.
The Passover lamb is killed on the 14th, between the evenings (or midday). So as the 14th ends they eat the Passover lamb along with unleavened bread as the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a High Holy Sabbath begins.
This is a key point and will have ramifications on one very specific future observance. (see link in paragraph above)
It is observed on the 15th, but remember the 15th would start at the Sundown or ending of the 14th. In order to understand how the Jewish people reckon time, you can read about the Hebrew Calendar.
This instruction for observance forever binds the 2 feasts together. And even to this day, the name Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread have become interchangeable.
So in what miraculous way God will preserve and provide for us through our obedience to keep the Feast? Or worse, what will we miss (be cut off) if we do not observe it?
Let me know in the comments how you “keep” or observe the Feast today.
