Lenten Reflections: the Feast of Unleavened Bread
The spring feasts, though separate moedim (appointed times to meet with God) were inextricably tied together. They formed a three-part whole in the revelation of God’s Kingdom workings. Passover began at twilight on the 14th of Abib, but as it faded into darkness the same sunset announced the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days, no leaven was to be found in an Israelite home.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was, in part, a remembrance of Israel’s hasty retreat from Egypt. No time to wait for bread to rise, they carried their yeastless bread dough in bowls strapped to their backs. The fact that this feast lasts a full week indicates their hurried departure lasted more than a day. When would they taste yeast again? I’m guessing the fast from leaven lasted all forty years while they were in the desert.
There’s no indication they ever acquired grain to pound into flour. Scripture indicates a multitude of places they camped along the way. Could they ever have settled long enough in one place to plant and harvest barley or wheat? And why would God continue to provide manna for forty years except that it was all they had to make bread with as they wandered?
Consider this note from Joshua 5:11 as Israel finally crossed the Jordan into the promised land. “They ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day.” That very day, the manna ceased. Until then, unleavened bread was their sustenance.
Was God actually proving to them that “man shall not live by bread alone” but by every Word–the miraculous manna from the mouth of God? I wonder.
Take a moment to reread my previous post on Unleavened Bread and consider the message in this feast.
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