Exodus 12:14–20

Israel was to keep this day in memory forever (v. 14) with a yearly feast. Various names show how important it is: (1) "the LORD's Passover" (v. 11); (2) "a memorial" (v. 14); (3) "a feast" (v. 14); (4) "an ordinance" (v. 24); (5) "a service" (v. 25); and (6) "the sacrifice" (v. 27).

The grace of the LORD provided for Israel's wonderful redemption. The same grace provided the memorial of it, on the very night the Lamb was slain (v. 14). The Lord did the same thing. On "the night when He was betrayed" He "took bread" (1 Cor. 11:23), and set up the memorial of His dying love in direct connection with eternal redemption.

The people of Israel were to keep that night in Egypt in perpetual remembrance. So that it might never be forgotten, they were to hold the Passover every year as a feast to the LORD throughout their generations, "as a statute forever" (Ex. 12:14). There is a dangerous tendency in the human heart to forget, especially in matters relating to God. In Deuteronomy — the book that gives us Moses' final addresses to the people — we often meet warnings like "Beware lest you forget," and "Take care that you remember." … Year by year the Passover feast was to be kept in Israel. In this way the people would keep alive in their minds the goodness of God, and the mighty fact that He redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and brought them into relationship with Himself on the ground of the blood of the lamb.

It was God's way of vividly reminding them of their earlier slavery, and of His most marvellous way of delivering them. It was also a picture of a far greater deliverance, so it was fitting that it should have a lasting memorial. The Red Sea had none, although it was there that God openly displayed His power. The nations heard of the striking judgment on Pharaoh and his army. But did they hear of blood sprinkled on the doorpost? Did they hear how a sin-judging God stepped in to save His people from judgment? The blood on the doorpost is the foundation of everything; the Passover is God's feast, and its memorial is for ever.

One more thing is brought in here, and it is of great practical importance to us: the feast of unleavened bread. This feast was commanded right after the sprinkling of blood (Ex. 12:14-20). This was to show that the two things — shelter by blood, and the obligation to walk in moral agreement with that death — can never be separated.

The sense of redemption by blood was not to pass away with the event in Egypt. There was to be a memorial feast, kept every year "as a statute forever."

Here the word "everlasting" cannot mean a never-ending state. That is beyond dispute. The whole Jewish system under the law, with all its memorials, statutes and ordinances, has found its end in Christ.

Leaven is always used, throughout Scripture, as a symbol of evil. Neither in the Old nor in the New Testament is it ever used to set forth anything pure, holy, or good. So in this chapter, "the feast of unleavened bread" pictures practical separation from evil. That separation is the proper result of being washed from our sins in the blood of the Lamb, and it goes together with communion with His sufferings. Nothing but perfectly unleavened bread could suit a roasted lamb. A single grain of that marked symbol of evil would have ruined the moral character of the whole ordinance.

In Scripture, leaven always stands for evil — above all for evil that defiles quietly rather than by force. Sin may act either by cunning or by force... Of the two, corruption is easier to hide at work than violence. So leaven pictures it well: leaven corrupts what would otherwise be good and wholesome. The believers at Corinth were taught that even a little evil spreads its pollution through the whole assembly.

Then immediately — and there is nothing morally more remarkable in these feasts — follows the feast of Unleavened Bread. Indeed, the two are so bound together that both are sometimes called the Passover. Not one day is allowed to separate them. God will not let the forgiveness of our sins, brought in by the blood of the Lamb, stand apart even a little from our responsibility to holiness. The moment the Israelite came under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb, God forbade him to eat leavened bread. He could not keep leaven in any form inside his house.

To eat unleavened bread therefore will mean separation from evil — practical holiness. Notice too that the feast was to last for seven days — that is, a complete period of time. The lesson, then, is that God requires holiness of all who shelter under the blood of the Passover Lamb. He requires it for the whole of their lives on earth... If we are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ, our wretched hearts might reason — we might indulge in sin so that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God, "as soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."

The Israelite did not put away leaven to be saved, but because he was saved. If he failed to put away leaven, it did not raise the question of his security through the blood. It raised the question of his fellowship with the assembly... Cutting an Israelite off from the congregation matches the suspending of a Christian's fellowship, if he is indulging in what is contrary to the holiness of God's presence. God cannot tolerate evil. A single unholy thought will interrupt the soul's communion.

It is also of immense importance to see that the unleavened state of the houses of Israel secured the unleavened state of the nation. If the houses of the Lord's people are kept free from leavening influences, the unleavened state of the whole company is largely secured. Perhaps the two most subtle agents in leavening households today are the literature of the day, and the company invited into Christian houses.

It is a feast and not a fast. We must not be saying to ourselves all the time, "now I must not do this," and "don't do that." Our fellowship is not one long "don't" — that would be a fast. But this is a feast, the feast of unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Where do we find sincerity and truth? In Christ... and as we feed upon Christ in that character, you may be sure of this, we shall not need the "don'ts" and the "you mustn'ts."

It is worth noting here that this feast springs out of and is connected with the feast of the Passover. The usual introduction to a new subject — "the LORD spoke to Moses saying" — does not appear here. This feast, then, is the direct result of the Passover. It is the putting away of all evil because Christ has died to sin once. Romans 6:10. It is the answer inside us to the work Christ did outside us on the cross.

Some apply 1 Corinthians 5:8 to the question of having bread without yeast, or unfermented wine, at the Lord's Supper. That would be a strange and miserable use of it. We believe, dear friend, the feast refers to the whole of our Christian life in this world. From first to last it should be a feast of unleavened bread, resting on the great fact that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." It is a life of personal holiness that flows out of finished redemption, known and applied by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Leaven is a picture of evil — evil that spreads and makes the whole mass it spreads through like itself. So to eat unleavened bread means separation from evil — practical holiness. Note too that the feast was to last seven days — that is, a complete period of time… If we are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ, our wretched hearts might reason — we might indulge in sin that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God, "but as soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."

"Holy convocations" were to mark the first day and the last day, with the people gathered together to give glory to the God of Israel. They must do no work except what was needed to prepare the feast (v. 16).

No work and no leaven were the divine rules for the Passover week. No work, because this pictured the great Calvary work of Christ, and no human effort must stand beside it. Christ is not a mere helper of sinners, making up for their deficiencies; He is Saviour, doing all that is necessary to save us from eternal ruin.

There must be rest of heart for communion to exist… So let us look at the place "rest" was to have in the ordinances God set up for His redeemed people. Let us gather the teaching held in these days of "holy convocation," when all the people were to present themselves before God, and when every work of service was completely forbidden.

These negative things, important as they undoubtedly are, will not feed our souls. There is not only a putting off in Christianity, there is also a putting on… They were to eat unleavened bread. If we are to produce a feast to Jehovah of unleavened bread, we must take Christ daily as food for the soul. Only as we feed upon Him will we grow to be like Him.

That second claim is completely made up. Not a word suggests that the feast was set up at Succoth. Three important verses (17-19) separate the mention of Succoth from the end of everything that refers to the feast. Exodus 13 clearly adds something important to what Jehovah had commanded in Exodus 12, but it names no date and no place. It may well have been, and probably was, after the sons of Israel left Egypt, since all through it assumes the feast had already been set up.

God gave full instructions about this Feast of Unleavened Bread on the very day the Passover lamb was to be killed. That is significant. If this were only man's celebration, he would set it up after the event had already happened. From that day on, the Passover feast stood as a witness that Israel's deliverance from Egypt was real (v. 17).

To eat unleavened bread will therefore mean separation from evil — practical holiness. Note too that the feast was to last seven days — a complete period of time. So the lesson is that holiness is the duty of everyone sheltered by the blood of the Passover Lamb, right through their whole life on earth… If we are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ, our wretched hearts might reason: we may indulge in sin so that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God. "As soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."

Leaven always pictures evil throughout Scripture. Neither in the Old nor in the New Testament does it ever stand for anything pure, holy, or good… Even a single crumb of the thing that pictured evil would have destroyed the moral character of the whole ordinance. How could we connect any kind of evil with our fellowship with a suffering Christ? Impossible… "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 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" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).

Keeping the feast of "unleavened bread" pictures feeding on Christ, on Him in His spotless purity. Israel ate the bitter herbs with the lamb's body on the Passover night. Self-judgment went together with faith in God's mercy through the Lamb. But the unleavened bread was their food through all seven days. This involved and demanded keeping up personal holiness.

The charge was "to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt" (Ex. 6:13). And how did God bring these slaves out? As runaways? No — "by their hosts" (Ex. 6:26), with all the dignity of the Lord's army.

Here the word "everlasting" plainly cannot mean a never-ending condition. The whole Jewish system under the law, with all its memorials, statutes and ordinances, has found its end in Christ. We grant this fully. But we still deny the right to draw conclusions from these passages that could produce mistaken ideas about condemnation.

"All the congregation of Israel shall keep it" (v. 47). Put that with verse 24, "You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever." Together they teach us that every redeemed person who knows peace is called to the memorial feast, without exception. They also teach that this observance goes on until the moment comes when memorials are no longer needed. Forgetfulness and indifference to redeeming grace can never enter the Father's house, though we know all too well how they creep in here.

Notice that the time here is "at even," not "between the evenings," which is what verse 6 says. The lamb was slain between the evenings of the fourteenth. But the eating of unleavened bread was to begin "at even." That means sunset, when the fifteenth of Nisan was beginning. That this must be the meaning, a look at Leviticus 23:6 will show. Unleavened bread was to be eaten for seven days, ending with the twenty-first at evening. So the eating of unleavened bread must have begun with the start of the fifteenth of Nisan. Otherwise they would have eaten it for eight days, not seven.

It is remarkable that the unleavened bread was to begin at evening, that is, at 6 o'clock on our Thursday, their Friday, but the Passover lamb was to be killed between the two evenings.

It is significant that God gave full instructions about this Feast of Unleavened Bread on the very day when the Passover was to be killed. If this were merely man's celebration, he would set it up after the occasion for celebrating had already happened. From that day onwards the Passover feast remained a testimony to the reality of Israel's deliverance from Egypt (v. 17). Verse 18 gives the precise time: the 14th day to the 21st day of the first month.

Eating unleavened bread means separation from evil — practical holiness. Note too that the feast was to last for seven days — that is, a complete period of time. The lesson, then, is that God requires holiness from all who are sheltered by the blood of the Passover Lamb. It runs through the whole period of their lives on earth. This is the meaning of the feast's connection with the Passover. We are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ. So our wretched hearts might reason that we may indulge in sin so that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God. "As soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."

Leaven is always used throughout Scripture as a symbol of evil. Neither in the Old nor in the New Testament is it ever used to picture anything pure, holy, or good... Nothing but completely unleavened bread could match a roasted lamb. A single particle of what plainly stood for evil would have destroyed the moral character of the whole ordinance. How could we connect any kind of evil with our fellowship with a suffering Christ?

The Israelite did not put away leaven to be saved. He put it away because he was saved. And if he failed to put away leaven, it did not raise the question of his safety through the blood. It raised only the question of his fellowship with the assembly... Cutting an Israelite off from the congregation answers exactly to the suspension of a Christian's fellowship. That happens when he indulges in what is contrary to the holiness of God's presence.

Those who lead Christian households are responsible to keep evil out — pictured here by shutting out leaven — from the first moment they come under the shelter of the blood. Our God wants the homes of His redeemed people to be shelters on earth. They are to keep out the corrupting influence of everything that leavens outside. It also matters greatly that the unleavened state of Israel's houses secured the unleavened state of the whole nation... Perhaps two things leaven homes today more subtly than anything else: what people read, and the company they welcome into Christian houses.

There is no shadow of doubt about the symbolic force of leaven. It stands for corruption that spreads and contaminates, unless the context changes its meaning. This force is plain in the first and standing type of the Old Testament. Leaven was strictly excluded from the Passover and from the feast of unleavened bread that goes with it. In 1 Corinthians 5 the reference is direct, and the meaning of the type is certain. As leaven, even a little, taints the whole lump, so does known sin, if tolerated, taint the Christian assembly. Leaven here means evil in itself and wickedness in its effect. In Galatians 5:9 it stands for corrupt teaching: the demand for a ritual observance, which overturned grace in justifying by faith in Christ. God hates both, and neither fits our calling. If either gets in, we are bound to clear ourselves at any cost.

Leaven is a type of sin in its fermenting activity. So it was shut out completely from their bread for seven days. Here we have something that is applied to ourselves in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. We are not of Israel, yet we know that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. The seven days of unleavened bread picture the whole period in which we now live. In it we are bound to have done with the sin for which, and to which, Christ has died.

We must bear in mind that association with evil is leavening. No leaven was to be found in any of the houses of the Israelites. That tells us how far the feast reaches. All the surroundings and associations of the one who keeps it must line up with the truth and will of God. This principle is searching and far-reaching. Remember the warning the Spirit of God gave these same Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15: "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company ruins good morals.'"

Leaven was to be banished from the house as well as from the individual. You may often find people who watch their own walk with care, yet take no notice of impurity in the church. The Lord calls us to beware of allowing leaven anywhere. But corporate purity is a worthless pretension without proper regard for personal holiness.

The Israelite did not put away leaven to be saved, but because he was saved. If he failed to put away leaven, it did not raise the question of security through the blood. It raised the question of fellowship with the assembly… The cutting off of an Israelite from the congregation matches the suspension of a Christian's fellowship, if he is indulging in what is contrary to the holiness of the divine presence. God cannot tolerate evil. A single sinful thought will interrupt the soul's communion. Confession, resting on the advocacy of Christ, must deal with the stain it leaves. Until then, communion cannot be restored.

This is just as true in the assembly of God today: there are to be no double standards. Anyone who is unwilling to submit to the order of the assembly is thereby disqualifying himself from fellowship with it.

Literal leaven is easy to look for, find, and throw away. To deal with what it stands for, you need an eye of spiritual discernment, an honest heart for God, and holy zeal that puts His great Name first at any cost. Anyone can search cupboards and corners for leaven, or clean the outside. But few are willing to examine themselves and search their own hearts in the light of God's word.

Leaven is always used throughout Scripture as a picture of evil. Neither in the Old nor in the New Testament is it ever used to set out anything pure, holy, or good. So in this chapter, "the feast of unleavened bread" pictures a practical separation from evil. That separation is the proper result of having our sins washed away in the blood of the Lamb. It is also what should go together with communion with His sufferings. Nothing but perfectly unleavened bread could go with a roasted lamb. Leaven was the marked picture of evil. A single particle of it would have destroyed the moral character of the whole ordinance. How could we connect any kind of evil with our fellowship with a suffering Christ? Impossible. All who enter into the meaning of the cross by the power of the Holy Spirit will certainly, by that same power, put away leaven from every part of their lives.

Leaven works like this. Add a small particle of it to a mass of pure dough, and it always passes its own character to the whole lump. This spreading action of leaven is automatic, and needs no human help. The subtle influence works silently and unnoticed. The hidden spreading and blending goes on until it is finished, and then the result shows.

Three things stand out here — the individual, the house, and the congregation of Israel. Every house had to be cleared of leaven. Anyone who ate leaven was to be cut off, and the removal was from the congregation. So, along with redemption by blood, three things are held together. First, the holiness of their Saviour-God. Second, individual responsibility, and with it the responsibility of the household. Third, the unity of Israel as one people. The congregation was responsible for the conduct of the people who made it up.

To eat unleavened bread will therefore mean separation from evil — practical holiness. Note, too, that the feast was to last for seven days — that is, a complete period of time. The lesson, then, is that God requires holiness of all who are sheltered by the blood of the Passover Lamb, right through the whole period of their lives on earth… If we are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ, our wretched hearts might reason like this. We might indulge in sin so that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God, "as soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."

It is quite impossible for me to enjoy the blood on my doorway while I keep leaven inside my house. This is a basic rule in the divine life. May it be written on our hearts! Practical holiness is not the basis of our salvation, but it is tied closely to our enjoyment of salvation. An Israelite was not saved by unleavened bread. He was saved by the blood. Yet leaven would have cut him off from communion.

To put away leaven is one side of this truth; to eat unleavened bread is the other side of this truth… "Sincerity" means letting the clear sunshine of God's light in His Word shine on our walk and ways. Then I judge whatever I find that is contrary to it. But who lets this clear sunshine of God's light shine into his ways and finds nothing but what is pure? Only One, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ… He is "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."