For Seven Days...
03/04/10 18:44
The seven Days of Unleavened Bread are an annual reminder to the people of God. These seven days coincide with the Passover and the Passover itself was to be eaten with unleavened bread. Not only are we to not eat anything leavened, but all leaven must be removed from our houses.
Exodus 12:18-20
18 In the first month, on 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 shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.
We are required to eat unleavened bread each of the seven days. What is the significance of the seven days? The number seven is important in God’s Word. It is representative of perfection and completion. The number seven pictures a complete cycle. God completed creation in seven days and then He rested. The seven Days of Unleavened Bread picture a cycle that we are to complete in our lives.
Things which contain leaven are puffed up and they rise up higher then they normally would. Things that are unleavened are flat and remain at the same height. The analogy is clear, we are to become like the flat bread that is unleavened...free from things that puff us up and make us to rise up. The seven Days of Unleavened Bread pictures the process of removing things that puff us up from within ourselves. We must examine ourselves and purge out things that leaven our lives. Paul warned the Corinthians of this very thing.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul made it clear...the leaven was to be removed since even a little bit of it would cause them to become leavened again. Christ also used leaven as a warning.
Matthew 16:6
6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
At all times we have to be aware and on guard to not allow ourselves to become leavened by this world and the things that are in it. Every year as we observe Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread we repeat the cycle of the seven days. As we remove the leaven from our homes we are reminded in a real physical way, that we also need to remove the leaven from our lives and replace it with the bread of life, that bread that came down from God’s dwelling place above.
Until next time...
Exodus 12:18-20
18 In the first month, on 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 shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.
We are required to eat unleavened bread each of the seven days. What is the significance of the seven days? The number seven is important in God’s Word. It is representative of perfection and completion. The number seven pictures a complete cycle. God completed creation in seven days and then He rested. The seven Days of Unleavened Bread picture a cycle that we are to complete in our lives.
Things which contain leaven are puffed up and they rise up higher then they normally would. Things that are unleavened are flat and remain at the same height. The analogy is clear, we are to become like the flat bread that is unleavened...free from things that puff us up and make us to rise up. The seven Days of Unleavened Bread pictures the process of removing things that puff us up from within ourselves. We must examine ourselves and purge out things that leaven our lives. Paul warned the Corinthians of this very thing.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul made it clear...the leaven was to be removed since even a little bit of it would cause them to become leavened again. Christ also used leaven as a warning.
Matthew 16:6
6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
At all times we have to be aware and on guard to not allow ourselves to become leavened by this world and the things that are in it. Every year as we observe Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread we repeat the cycle of the seven days. As we remove the leaven from our homes we are reminded in a real physical way, that we also need to remove the leaven from our lives and replace it with the bread of life, that bread that came down from God’s dwelling place above.
Until next time...