 The Practice of The Feast of Unleavened Bread
Summary
In celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all leaven was to be removed from the home. Why leaven? It is a fermenting substance; a turbulent form of bacterium that is permeating and pervasive in nature. It spreads like a cancer or virus, contaminating, polluting and corrupting what it touches. It therefore, is used as a metaphor for sin. As it spreads, it compromises and destroys what is good and otherwise pure.
Messiah’s blood erased our slate from the handwriting of God’s judgment, “cleaning” our account from the debt of sin. We celebrate His cleaning of our “spiritual house,” our bodies, by keeping our hearts and minds clean, meditating on His words and noble and righteous thoughts, and resisting the temptations of the world—vain desires, pride and pulls of the world.
Beyond the external things that can destroy our physical bodies, we can allow our spiritual condition to deteriorate from the inside—by harboring destructive attitudes, like bitterness and judgment; and maintaining selfish motivations and pursuing self-centered interests and agendas. That’s why Messiah declared, “There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!”
(Mark 7:15 JNT)
Paul taught how our body is the temple of God’s Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19) It, therefore, behooves us to keep ourselves clean on the inside by reading, meditating, and digesting God’s Word, communing with Him by the Holy Spirit, and confessing and turning (or repenting) from revealed sins.
Life Application Questions
In what ways do you endeavor to keep your heart clean before God? In what ways may you fight against Messiah’s sanctifying work by harboring wrong attitudes of the heart? Are there any things you do on a regular basis that may cause harmful attitudes to persist?
Scripture References
Psalm 19:7-14; 24; 51; 119: 1-40; Matthew 5:8; 21-29; 12:33-37; 13:18-23; Mark 7:17-23; Ephesians 4:17-32
Book References
Faith and Fables: p. 18-21; 82-83; 88-94; 115-132
Sons and Servants: p. 11-12; 24-26; 99-104; 151-155 |
