2nd feast of the Lord : the feast of unleavened bread (3)

Tuesday 15 June 2021

2nd feast of the Lord : the feast of unleavened bread (3)

The fifteenth day of this month will be the Feast of Unleavened Bread in honor of the Lord. You will eat unleavened bread for 7 days. On the first day you will have a holy assembly ; you will not do any heavy work. For 7 days you shall offer sacrifices made by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day there will be a holy assembly, you will not do any hard work. Leviticus 23:6-8

Passover, celebrated on the 14th day of the first month of the Jewish year, was immediately followed, from the 15th to the 21st day, by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Israelites had a general convocation on the first and seventh days, did not eat leavened bread, and each day sacrificed an animal on the holocaust altar.

This seven-day period tells us about the entire length of our life as a child of God, a life characterized by these three prescriptions :

The Israelites devoted the first and seventh days entirely to the Lord. We too have regular appointments with the Lord for praise, prayer or edification. In addition, the New Testament teaches us that the motivation for our whole life is to live for Christ. We work, of course, to earn a living and to rescue the weak (Acts 20:35), but not to satisfy our lusts, nor to settle into the comfort of a fulfilled material life.

The Israelites were to eat only unleavened bread. The sourdough swells the dough and makes the bread look much better. The New Testament teaches us that leaven is the symbol of evil and, in particular, of anything that exaggeratesly emphasizes our outward appearance, for example hypocrisy, boasting, the pursuit of power (Matthew 16:6 ; 1 Corinthians 5:8). All our life, therefore, let us be careful to judge any tendency of this kind that germinates in our thoughts. Let us cultivate the spirit of humility and service that characterized Jesus Christ throughout his life.

Source (Pleasing the Lord)