Freed From Bondage

Why do we commemorate the Days of Unleavened Bread

(Exo 12:17-20 NIV) "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. {18} In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. {19} For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. {20} Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

(Exo 13:7-9 NIV) Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. {8} On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' {9} This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.

(Exo 23:15 NIV) "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

(Exo 34:18 NIV) "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

(Lev 23:6-8 NIV) On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. {7} On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. {8} For seven days present an offering made to the LORD by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.'"

(Deu 16:3 NIV) Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.

What’s the Deal with Leaven?

(Mat 16:11-12 RSV) How is it that you fail to perceive that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." {12} Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

(Luke 12:1 RSV) In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

(1 Cor 5:6-8 RSV) 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.

If leaven is so bad why only a week of unleavened bread? It’s not about leaven but about God’s love for us and His expectations.

An Interesting Curiosity

(Mat 13:33 RSV) He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

(Luke 13:20-21 RSV) And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? {21} It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

Bad leavening

Hypocrisy

False teaching

Vain pride

Good leavening

Sermon by example

Loving your neighbor

Sharing the good news of Christ

The Seven Commandments (Starts with #4 of 10)

(Exo 20:1-17 NIV) And God spoke all these words:

1. {2} "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (bondage). {3} "You shall have no other gods before me. Recalls the significance of the “Days of Unleavened Bread.”

2. {4} "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. {5} You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, {6} but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. God and God alone is our strength and our refuge. There is no other.

3. {7} "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. A perpetual reminder that we are His people and should behave appropriately. We may call on Him and do wonderful things in His name. But, be careful lest you be found guilty of claiming to be His but not acting as if though you are dedicated to loving and obeying.

4. {8} "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. {9} Six days you shall labor and do all your work, {10} but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. {11} For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Pushing limits, dreading the beginning or the end, failure to congregate, thinking about work. Consider how to improve the Sabbath experience.

5. {12} "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. In thought and in deed, on earth and in heaven, How do I honor when I disagree?

6. {13} "You shall not murder. In thought or in deed. Consider other types of murder, such as killing joy, hope, compassion, etc.

7. {14} "You shall not commit adultery. In thought or in deed. Whether with the opposite sex or through unfaithfulness to God and others.

8. {15} "You shall not steal. In thought or in deed. Property, good name, direction in life.

9. {16} "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. In thought or in deed. Whether through an obvious lie or a clever deception. Does my pretending to be more than actually I am bear false witness against my neighbor?

10. {17} "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." In thought or in deed. See something desirable that belongs to your neighbor? Be happy for your neighbor and perhaps determine to work to gain the same or similar thing for yourself. Do my lingering thoughts about things my neighbor has constitute coveting?

Summary

Commemorates leaving Egypt in a hurry.

Begins the day after God passed over the first-born children of Israel while killing those of Egypt.

Clearly a remembrance of God saving the lives of His people and taking them out of bondage

Seven days can be related to seven commandments for man’s relation to man

Starts and stops with a Sabbath. The Alpha and the Omega. Our rest is in Him.

There’s a need to leave bondage and slavery whether because of the Egyptians or because of sin. Either way Jesus saves.

Get rid of leavening before the days of unleavened bread, physically and spiritually.

Don’t let it sneak back in during the days of unleavened bread.

A commandment per day.

Seven is a number that signifies completion or completeness.

Seven days completes a week and so is indicative of an everlasting lesson.

Holy Days are memory joggers just like any other yearly memorial, except more important.

The physical is important but the spiritual is even more important.

However, don’t let either aspect, the physical or the spiritual, be neglected.

When these days of unleavened bread are over then let the days of leavening begin.

(Luke 13:18-21 RSV) He said therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? {19} It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches." {20} And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? {21} It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."