YEA Lesson Library

The Lesson

Throughout the history of mankind people have been held captive as slaves in foreign countries. They’ve been held against their will, mistreated, and abused. God’s chosen people – the Israelites were no exception – they experienced slavery as others have down through the years.

After 430 years of living in Egypt, eventually being enslaved, 600,000 freed men with their wives and children left Egypt at night on foot. All sorts of other people went with them. With a full moon shining brightly above, flocks, herds, and a vast exodus of cattle started on their way out of Egypt.

Can you imagine the excitement? There would be no more mean task masters. They had made their last bricks, at least for a while. Free at last, but they didn’t know where they were going. They were following Moses, the man who had gone before Pharaoh many times and asked him to let these people go have a feast to God and worship Him. What a sight this must have been!

These people had nothing they could call their own. They were slaves – the poorest of the poor. Before leaving Egypt, God instructed these poor slaves to ask the Egyptians for gold, silver and clothes. And the Egyptians gave these things to them. The sons of Jacob and their descendants left with a high hand, happy hearts, and their kneading troughs bound with spare clothing over their shoulders.

They left in such a hurry, there was no time to allow for bread to rise and to bake it. The dough that was in their kneading troughs had no yeast. When they stopped to eat, they baked bread from the yeastless dough and ate unleavened bread.

God selected the very last night of the 430 years of slavery to free His people from Egyptian bondage. Because He delivered our ancestors from slavery on that same night, God selected this time for us to celebrate every year. We call it The Night To Be Much Observed.

Beginning with this night and continuing for seven days, God commands us to eat unleavened bread. Before this Feast begins, we’re to clean our homes and get rid of any leavening – baking powder, baking soda and yeast, and any product such as baked goods that contain leavening. “There must be no yeast in your homes, or anywhere within the borders of your land!” (Exodus 13:7 TLB).

“The Festival of Unleavened Bread: This is to be celebrated beginning the day following the Passover. On the first day of this festival, you shall gather the people for worship, and all ordinary work shall cease. You shall do the same on the seventh day of the festival” (Leviticus 23:6-8a TLB).

There is a lot of symbolism connected with this Feast. So what does it all mean to you? Why should a Christian celebrate the Days of Unleavened Bread? I Corinthians 5:6b-8 says “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened (physically). For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Leavening is a type of sin for these seven days in a year. At other times, it’s not wrong to eat leavening or to have leavening in our homes. The NIV Study Bible says about 1 Corinthians 6:5-6 “Paul alludes to the prohibition against the use of leaven (or yeast) in the bread eaten in the Pass- over Feast (see Ex. 12:15). Leaven in Scripture usually symbolizes evil or sin (see note on Mk. 8:15), and the church here is called on to get rid of the yeast of sin (v.8) because they are an unleavened batch of dough – new creations in Christ” (1 Co. 5:6-7).

This tells us quite a bit. First, leavening symbolizes sin in the Bible. It also tells us that the church in Corinth had put leavening out of their homes (because they are an unleavened batch of dough) because these were the Days of Unleavened Bread. On the Passover we eat and drink the symbols of Christ’s broken body and shed blood (unleavened bread and wine) sacrificed for us so that we can have forgiveness of sin. When a person accepts this sacrifice and is converted, they should not want to continue living a life filled with sin. We should work at getting rid of every sin in our lives. So, putting leavening out of our home, symbolizes putting sin out of our lives. Since no leavening is to be seen in our homes during the Days of Unleavened Bread, leavening is put out before those days begin.

There is also another command. It is that we must eat unleavened bread for seven days – yes some every day. But why? Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life. Eating this flat bread for seven days symbolizes filling ourselves with the pure Bread of Life which is Christ. How do we do this? Just eating unleavened bread for seven days is a very physical act. God expects more of us than that. We fill our minds and hearts with the Bread of Life when we study the Bible, meditate, and pray. We should spend extra time each day during the Days of Unleavened bread drinking in God’s Word. This is certainly a recipe for sin to diminish in our lives as we feast on God’s Word. The Days of Unleavened Bread is a time to free our lives from the bondage of sin and grow in His love.