Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is virtually identical to the passover. No work was to be done for the entire week during the seven days of the feast. The unleavened bread commemorated the exodus from Egypt, and the passover the deliverance from the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. These verses, and much more in this chapter of Exodus 13, have been called by some scholars, repetitive. This is only superficially true. Things required previously in the emergency state in Egypt during the plagues are now set forth as a part of the cycle of life. Gratitude, thanksgiving, and joy must be basic to the life of godly man, given the fact, of course that he lives, moves, and has his being in God’s government, grace, and mercy. Therefore, thanksgiving should be a ritual.

There are two important requirements here: commemoration and rest. God requires us to commemorate and celebrate days important in our lives under Him and as heirs of the grace of life. Never in the history of Christendom have they been fewer perhaps than they are now. Those holidays which remain, or holy days, are largely secularized, they are holidays. The Christian calendar once governed society, and the holy days were central to the calendar year in and year out. They also provided a great many days of rest. Productivity has not been enhanced by taking joy out of the calendar, and joy has left as men have abandoned Christ. The productivity of man as secularization increases in the western world decreases.

The unleavened bread is called the bread of affliction in Deuteronomy 16:3, because it recalls the affliction or bondage in Egypt, and celebrates deliverance from affliction. It is therefore a joyful celebration. Israel had been delivered from bondage into service to the Lord. As a result, the sanctification of the firstborn, which is described in the first two verses of this chapter, precedes the law of unleavened bread, because having been under Egypt before they are now under the Lord. This celebration was to take place in the month Abib, which means green ears of corn or wheat, because it was then that they came into ear, and things turned green all around them. The central biblical reference to passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is in Exodus 12:1-13, uh Exodus 13:16. The emphasis throughout is on deliverance and joy.

Now, to understand this feast of unleavened bread, it is important to understand the biblical meaning of leaven. What is leaven? Well, it’s yeast. But few words in scripture are more consistently misinterpreted. It is said by many to typify evil or sin, and this interpretation has been especially entrenched as a result of the work of Scofield. However, this is a misunderstanding of the text. There are two words used for leaven, or yeast in the Hebrew, and the first means yeast cake and the second, yeast, so they’re interchangeable. Now, if leaven in either usage means sin, why does God, in Leviticus 7:13 and 23:17 require leavened bread with a sacrifice of thanksgiving of peace offering? Is sin an acceptable offering to God? If these people like Scofield are right, God requires us to offer sin. Now it is true that at times, leaven has a negative usage as in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Matthew 16:6, but it is used in these texts to typify a permeating influence and power. In Matthew 13:33, it is used in the same sense of a permeating power to describe the kingdom of God. It is a very radical dishonesty of interpretation to insist, as Scofieldians and others do, that in Matthew 13:33 it means evil.

We read, “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” That tells us that the kingdom of heaven grows silently, and before people are aware of it, it has affected the whole body, the whole of society. Scofield has a long comment on this verse, and it rests on his presupposition that, and I quote, “Leaven is invariably used in a bad sense. Interpreting the parable by these familiar symbols, it constitutes a warning, that the true doctrine given for the nourishment of the children of the kingdom would be mingled with corrupt and corrupting false doctrine and that, officially, by the apostate church itself.” Well, if you start interpreting the Bible that way, it can be made to mean anything you choose to want it to mean. If, when our Lord says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, you take it to mean that somehow, the kingdom of heaven, or God in that sense, is used to mean evil, then no meaning is possible in anything you read.

Now, if Scofield is right, then Leviticus 7:13 and other verses which require leavened offerings mean that God requires false doctrines of us. That’s the conclusion from what he says. Scofield said of Leviticus 7:13 that, “Here,” and I quote, “leaven fitly signifies that though having peace with God through the work of another, there is still evil in him.” Well, in this statement he is slightly close to the truth. Leaven or yeast produces bread which can mold. A loaf of leavened bread is not an evil loaf, but it is a loaf which can get moldy. Our offerings to God, our works are subject to mortality and decay. We are creatures. We live in time. Nothing we do is infinite. So, the passing of time dims, or erases, the works of men. But this does not make our works in the Lord evil. Our human labor for God’s kingdom is required by the Lord. It can at times be tainted by our vanity or our sin, but our works can also be truly holy in a preacherly sense. In either case, they do fade or pass away with the years, or endure for some generations to be improved on by others, but God requires a leavened offering from us which means that all man’s works this side of heaven, and this side of the fullness of the new creation, while they are indeed mutable and limited, are required by God, and our sanctification, although a faulty process here on earth, is still a necessary process. So, God says, “Give thanks unto me with your work, your efforts, as well as in ritual. I recognize that your work does not save you, but your work is what I require of you by way of thanksgiving.”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is called in Deuteronomy 16:3, the bread of affliction, and yet the feast is a joyful one. It is at this point that the meaning of the festival comes into focus. The Scottish Presbyterian divine, Thomas Boston, whose dates are 1676-1732, wrote “Human Nature and Its Fourfold Estate.” It’s somewhat antique in its literary style, but Thomas Boston was robust and a delightful writer. He ridiculed the belief of Armenians that men could go easily from a state of depravity into a state of grace without a shattering of their lives, and he wrote in what I think is a particularly delightful passage, and I quote,” How is it that those who magnify the power of freewill do not confirm their opinion before the world by an ocular demonstration in a practice as far above others in holiness as the opinion of their natural ability is above that of others, or is it maintained only for the protection of lusts which men may hold fast as long as they please, and when they have no more use for them, throw them off in a moment and leap out of Delilah’s lap into Abraham’s bosom.”

What the Feast of Unleavened Bread tells us is that we eat the bread of affliction before we enter into the joy and the power of our life in the Lord. It means that growth in life exacts a price, and therefore, the Feast of Unleavened Bread has what is called the bread of affliction but is also is a time of joy so that it is the troubles we go through, the griefs, the chastenings that are the prelude to our growth, blessing, and joy.

There is another aspect to this festival. Almost all the biblical holy days are food-related. As creatures, we require food to live. Modern man often forgets how basic food is because he takes it for granted. Some years ago, Thorold Rogers said of food, and I quote, “Even in the highest stages of civilization, all wealth can ultimately be resolved into the elementary form of food. The provision of food is the primitive form of labor, its accumulation is the primitive form of wealth.” Our problem is we are no longer in touch with reality because we’ve come to take too many things for granted. Food, for example. It’s there at the store. But an increasing part of the world is no longer able to take food for granted, and they are reminded of how creaturely they are, how dependent they are.

Also, we’re not familiar with the meaning of bread, because bread for us is no longer the staff of life. I recently purchased a loaf of brachebrot{?}, it was not more than just about a few inches long, but it weighed a pound. It was old fashioned black rye bread, and even then it wasn’t equal to what I used to get back in the 30’s. That was bread that you could depend on. That was the staff of life. With a couple slices of bread and some cheese, a man could make a meal that could hold them for the better part of the day. This is in the background of the religious meaning of bread, and it’s a very rich meaning. Our Lord declares, “I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” The unleavened bread of the Feast of Unleavened Bread points to Jesus Christ, the bread from heaven. The bread of life. Incorruptible. In much of Christendom, unleavened bread is used as one of the elements in communion. Thus, in the Christian passover, the place of unleavened bread still remains. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thy word speaks to our condition, reminds us that we are creatures and points us to thee. Make us strong in thy word and by thy spirit, that we may go forth to do thy will, to serve thee in all our ways in every area of life and thought. Bless us day by day to this purpose. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] The absence of joy is an interesting topic, because we have more leisure, more games, more jumping up and down than ever before. Less joy.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s a very important point. Especially when you realize those who seem to be enjoying themselves most as people, let us say at a hard rock concert, are most earnestly seeking to escape life with activities such as taking drugs, so that it is precisely on the ways that modern man most claims to be enjoying himself that he is most suicidal. It was, I think around 1819, that Thomas G. Masaryk, who later became the first president of Czechoslovakia, wrote a book about what was happening and it was a profoundly religious book although he was not a religious man, because it showed what the de-Christianization of western civilization was doing. It was turning men suicidal. And Durkheim also wrote along the same lines. The suicidal impulse in modern man has vastly accelerated since then. Yes?

[Audience] There was some comment about the poems of Thomas Hardy, before World War 1.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] In the period from 19, about 1900-1912, 1914, there was a whole avalanche of melancholia.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Both on the continent and in Russia, and in England. Thomas Hardy’s poems are highly regarded by some, but I find them unreadable. There’s not much poetry to them and there’s nothing but darkness and despair. I have in my book, library, a little book somewhere, a devotional book, Christian devotional book which came out of the library of Thomas Hardy, and it had been purchased by his wife, and he wrote a note in it before he shelved it to indicate that it was not his purchase, but his wife’s [laughs].

[Audience] His and hers, library style.

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee for the joy of salvation. We thank thee that thou hast separated us from the world of death to the world of life, and has given us a joyful work to do, to serve thee with all our heart, mind, and being. Our God, we thank thee. Bless and prosper us in thy service. Feed us the bread of life that we may be strengthened to do thy will. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.