For 2014, that will be the evening of April 15 through the evening of April 22nd. It is a time for remembering how the Children of God fled from Egypt and the slavery of Pharaoh. This is a shadow of how a Christian learns to leave sin behind and follow God. It is a time of knowing how Jesus Christ has removed the leaven of sin from us and made us clean before God.
Exodus 12: 30-31 and 34 speaks of the time of Pharaoh:
And Pharoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians and there was a great cry in Egypt. And he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said: "Rise up and get you forth from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go serve the LORD as you have said. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
When The Passover happened and the first born of all the Egyptians were killed, Pharaoh finally decided to listen to Moses and let the people go from their Egyptian slavery out of Egypt and into the wilderness to worship God. It took the death of his first-born son for Pharaoh to finally cooperate.
In those days people kept dough made the night before that would rise and be ready for baking the next day. They had to leave Egypt in a hurry. Because of their haste, their dough did not have time to rise. Since the only dough they had available to eat was "unleavened" they baked matzoh instead of bread.
On Passover at our house we share the story of how God brought the people out of Egypt and how they came to eat the "unleavened" bread on their journey through the wilderness. As a remembrance in our own home, we eat unleavened bread too. We remove all the leaven from our house and eat unleavened bread for the seven days of the Passover season.
The observance of The Seven Days of Unleavened Bread is symbolic in two ways. It reminds us of slavery, and it speaks to us of redemption.
HOW UNLEAVENED BREAD SPEAKS OF SLAVERY:
Slavery is evil. To put someone under the bondage of slavery is sinful. During the seven days of Unleavened Bread it is customary not to eat anything that contains yeast. Yeast is a leavening agent. To remove the yeast makes the bread become "unleavened." It will not rise and it will not become puffed up when it is baked. It will lay in the pan all straight and flat. The faithful remove all yeast products from their houses before the Passover. They abstain from eating anything with leaven in it for seven days because the leaven (yeast) is symbolic of sin and evil and it is a time of remembering how sin and evil can exist all around us and we must all do out part to come out of it. It is a type of slavery.
The Children of God separated themselves from the evil, sinful rule of Pharaoh who was not holy and did not walk with God. They left a sinful, slave driven land in order to become holy and walk with God in the way that He had commanded them in the Holy Scriptures of Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. They were willing to blindly follow God and let Him lead them into a new and better land. This week became a High Sabbath to them, or an EXTRA Sabbath besides the regular weekly Sabbath, a special appointed day set aside from other days. They did not work on the first day and the seventh day of this week. This year as they left the bondage of slavery they saw how the meaning of the observance was being fulfilled for their own generation. Every generation is still going through a Passover, a time of leaving the sin and bondage of slavery behind and coming into freedom. Freedom comes forth because of faith and obedience. Sometimes we cannot see where we are going - but still we must follow.
God declared this "remembering how they left slavery" to become a memorial among His people to be kept forever. (Exodus 12:17)
This observance was noted by God in the Holy Scriptures as something to be carried out through all generations over all time. We are living in a disobedient generation though. Most people today have never even heard of The Seven Days of Unleavened Bread, and those who have heard of it do not consider it commanded by God anymore. Nevertheless, it is written down in the book that God gave us in black and white for any who want to read and understand and obey. This remembrance clearly speaks of the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
The Jewish people DO still keep this observance. They call the seven days following the Passover Chag ha‐Matzah. The Jewish people, keeping these days through out history are where most of us got our traditional act of "spring cleaning." It all started from the ancient people observing Unleavened Bread and ridding their homes of any products that contained leavening agents. The Jewish people have a ritual where the woman of the house hides 10 pieces of leaven in each room of the house after the spring cleaning. The father or husband goes through the house looking for it. He takes a feather and sweeps all the pieces of leavened bread into a paper bag. When these last 10 pieces of leaven are found he takes the bag outside where it is burned. This search for leaven in the house is symbolic for believers in Messiah. The search is conducted in silence using only the light from an oil lamp or candle. Once the search is completed a prayer renouncing any unseen leaven is given. Before 10 a.m. the next morning the parcel of leaven in the bag is burned outdoors and another prayer is recited asking for mercy for any unseen leaven that has been left in the house.
HOW UNLEAVENED BREAD SPEAKS OF OUR REDEMPTION:
It becomes very apparent to Christians as they go through the process that the ceremony represents Messiah. How ironic that people who have not yet believed that the Messiah has come are the ones most likely to be carrying out this symbolic tradition each year. Christians need to change this. Christians need to become aware and observe the Days of Unleavened Bread in honor of Jesus Christ. In the traditional Jewish ceremony of the removal of the leaven from the house, the candle represents the Word of God being The Light of The World. It is the Word and the Light of The World that reveals all our sin to us. The feather represents the Holy Spirit sweeping us toward the cross of Christ. Helping us to get to the right place to be with Him. Many use a wooden spoon with the feather to help remove the leavened bread (sin) from the house. The wooden spoon represents the cross. The bread being inside the paper bag represents the grave and the burial of Christ. In death He took on all our sins. When the bag is burned just before Passover arrives, the fire represents how our sins have been dealt with, taken away and how they will never be remembered again, as they are no more. This is so symbolic of The Holy Spirit. It is symbolic of God sending down divine fire to receive the acceptable sacrifices of the saints of old. Because of Jesus, our sacrifices of our selves as living offerings have been received by the divine fire of our Most Holy God. The Days of Unleavened Bread bring this to mind and help us remember to be thankful and grateful to God for his acceptance of us through his Son, Jesus Christ, Our Messiah.
Most people, even with careful cleaning and all the ceremony overlook some leaven that isn't in plain sight in their house. At some point during the seven days they will probably find that leaven lurking in a corner they had forgotten or overlooked. This is a clear picture of how sin dwells often unnoticed and forgotten. God uses these days to make us aware of this fact so that we can repent and be rid of ALL of it by the time Passover comes each year. As you physically clean your house, you will also be mentally and spiritually housecleaning in your soul. God will lead you and revel the hidden things if you just allow Him to. He wants you to stand holy before Him.
As well as ridding our houses of leavened products, it is just as important to put the unleavened products to use in our homes. Eating the matzoh is symbolic of putting the good clean things of God inside of us so that we can live the way He intended for us to live. Taking the matzoh into our bodies is taking Jesus into our hearts. This is how the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread show us redemption. The Matzoh reminds us of Jesus. We can see the stripes and the piercing in the Matzoh. It reminds us that Jesus was beaten for us. By His stripes we are healed. It reminds us that He was pierced for us. It reminds us that He lived a sinless life for us. By eating this bread we are reminded of how we need to be allowing His Holy Spirit to fill us. We need to be putting more of Jesus into our lives and less of sin into our lives. After seven days of eating unleavened bread we begin to remember in a million little ways how "man shall not live by bread alone."
I pray that the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread be revealing and significant to you in your own house this year.