Be Blessed by Receiving Manifold Measures of Grace by Relating with God through the Lord's Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
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Sanctification
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Finding Significance by Relating with God through the Lord’s Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
Often misunderstood, sanctification is the process whereby the love and grace of God is activated by the power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and strengthen you to fulfill God’s purposes. Through the process we have an opportunity to find our greatest significance in life.
The appointed time of Unleavened Bread was established to begin the day after Passover, lasting seven days. Special care was taken to remove all leaven (yeast) from the house. God had a lot to say about the leaven: anyone eating any leaven would be cut off from the congregation of Israel (Exodus 12:15), whether a stranger or native; it shall not be seen among you (13:7); "You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven” (Exodus 34:25 NKJV). Even in the New Covenant, the LORD specifically exhorted the people several times to beware of the leaven of the religious leaders as well as Herod.
What's the issue with leaven? It's 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 and falsehood. As it spreads, it compromises and destroys what is true, good and otherwise pure. It prevents the love of God from flowing freely within us.
RELEVANCE
The LORD fulfilled this celebration, being sinless. He was pure, filled with a full measure of the Holy Spirit, and demonstrated a lifestyle free from sin. He has once and for all fulfilled the requirement of this law. All in the LORD are not only justified before God, but sanctified (cleansed from sin) in His name.
So, why was Unleavened Bread prescribed for seven days, whereas Passover is a single-day event? While redemption was accomplished by a single blood sacrifice, we appropriate that sacrifice and pursue a life-long process of being continuously sanctified and purified (washed in Christ's love!), growing into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)
This entails:
- Studying and meditating on God’s Word, allowing it to breathe life and change our attitudes and behaviors
- Engaging with God in prayer, receiving the Holy Spirit’s inward conviction, instruction and guidance
- Responding appropriately, turning from harmful influences, changing our mindsets and motivations
- Expressing God's love by serving others to keep focus off of self and onto God’s greater purposes
This was what the apostle, Paul, had in mind in teaching the disciples to, “keep working out your deliverance with fear and trembling for God is the one working among you both the willing and the working for what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:12-13 JNT)
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
How clean do you feel before God? How loved do you feel by God? Are there ways you find yourself justifying your righteousness, or standing before God? Do you ever feel condemned by others, and/or the need to defend your works or self-worth to others?
If so, there may be some areas God wants to cleanse in your life. You can’t vindicate yourself and have peace. Only God can give you true peace. Allow the Holy Spirit—God’s Comforter—to minister God’s love and cleansing work in you.
Are there known areas of sin in your life? Earnestly ask God to show them to you. He will be faithful to reveal to you—as your heart remains inclined toward Him, and is prepared to receive His truth in His love. For, with His love—which is unconditional—comes His mercy.
Embrace David’s prayer in Psalm 51:1-3.
Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
REFERENCES
Exodus 12:15-20; Leviticus 23:6-8; Psalm 24; 26:8-12; 119:1-40; Romans 3:21-5:20; Galatians 2:11-3:25; James 2:14-26; John 17:17-19; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 7:14; Hebrews 10:5-18; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Colossians 1:21-23
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Cleansing
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Discovering God’s Purposes by Relating with Him through the Lord’s Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
Being clean is a key principle of God. Beyond merely being clean on the outside, God looks for us to be clean on the inside. He, therefore, gives us opportunities to see areas within our heart and mind that need cleansing from sin; for sin impairs our relationship with a holy God. Unleavened Bread, therefore, serves to represent times of spiritual cleansing before God.
The scriptures prescribed that 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 and falsehood. As it spreads, it compromises and destroys what is true, good and otherwise pure. It prevents the love of God from flowing freely in us and through us.
RELEVANCE
The LORD’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 receiving His love and 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 the LORD 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)
God wants us to walk in integrity—values based on what is sound, true and right. That’s why Paul reasoned; “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:8) In other words, be doers of the word in deed and in love.
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.
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
In what ways do you endeavor to keep your heart clean before God?
In what ways do you hurt yourself by harboring wrong attitudes of the heart?
Are there any things you do on a regular basis that may cause harmful attitudes to persist?
What falsehoods might you be holding onto or trusting in that could be preventing you from receiving truth from God?
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
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Burial
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Receiving God’s Amazing Grace by Relating with Him through the Lord’s Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
The LORD was buried after being crucified, but something miraculous was going on during the three days His body lay in the tomb. Ephesians 4:7-11 discusses how He descended (into hell), then ascended to lead “captivity captive.”
RELEVANCE
His spirit, therefore, descended into hell where he battled with the devil, and led the forces of darkness which had held mankind into captivity into their own captivity. In addition, as Revelation 1:18 records, He took the keys of hell and death—Satan’s authority, away from him; therefore absolving him from his authority over mankind. As Scripture says, “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” (Colossians 2:14-15 NLT)
Satan had won a position of spiritual authority over mankind when Adam and Eve believed the lie of the serpent (the devil personified) and disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His forces of darkness were given authority to keep people in bondage and spiritually dead in sin. The LORD won back that authority, granting freedom to those who receive His love and victory over the penalties of sin. We therefore have opportunity to bury the mistakes of the past and walk in the new life of the Spirit He has promised by walking in His light by faith.
Believers, therefore, benefit from His authority over the power of sin and death. Those who have not put their faith in the LORD have not appropriated His authority over the devil, leaving them under the jurisdiction of the powers of darkness.
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
Do you understand how the LORD defeated the devil, and made a way of escape from the bondage of hell for you?
Have you fully received His exchange for your sins and attempts to justify yourself?
Are there things in your life—attitudes, ways, habits, values, material possessions—you may need to “bury” and put behind you so you can receive God’s grace and advance forward?
REFERENCES
Colossians 2:8-23; Romans 8:2
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Immersion
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Responding in Faith to God’s Invitation of Life and Peace by Relating with Him through the Lord’s Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
The appointed time of Unleavened Bread was prescribed to serve as a reminder of the old life of bondage, and value of leaving it behind. The family was to engage in a process of thoroughly removing all the leaven from the home, and cleansing it. What is the issue with 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. As it spreads, it compromises and destroys what is true, good and otherwise pure. It therefore is used as a metaphor for sin and falsehood. There are many ways we can benefit from this truth today!
RELEVANCE
Unleavened Bread points forward to the LORD’s ongoing process of cleansing by the Holy Spirit; from the effects of sin and the corrupting and contaminating influences of the world, and establishing in us a pure heart and cleansed life before God.
In another sense, it is a reflection of the outward practice of water immersion, or baptism, which expresses what God has already done in the heart by burying the “old nature of the flesh.”
Messiah Jesus fulfilled all righteousness by allowing John the Immerser, or Baptist, to baptize Him in the Jordan. As He came up from the water, a dove descended upon Him.
This marked Him as the bearer of the Holy Spirit, and identified Him as the Servant Isaiah prophesied of. “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him...” (Isaiah 42:1 NKJV) John declared the LORD would thereafter baptize believers, “with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
Paul, therefore, affirmed that once immersed, or baptized, the believer should walk in the LORD’s grace, expressing this new nature.
Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:4-5 JNT)
The Lord would have us live the new life fully immersed in His love and identified in Him, experiencing the strength of His love, peace and joy! It is what He meant by “abiding in Him.” As He shared with His disciples…
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. (John 15:7-10)
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
Have you participated in an outward immersion, or baptism?
How does your life reflect the inward change of your “new nature” in the LORD?
What other areas of the Lord’s character and nature might He be working in you this season?
REFERENCES
Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 3:11; John 1:26-34; Romans 6; Matthew 5:3-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; Galatians 5:22-26
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Refreshment
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Walking in Spiritual Reality by Relating with God through the Lord’s Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
Life throws us curve balls daily! People will always say things that will defile us. What’s important to God is that we keep clean on the inside. Things like bitterness, unforgiveness or wrong attitudes will defile us on the inside. So He gives us a visual aid representing a way to keep cleansed on the inside.
During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the home was cleared from all traces of leaven. What’s the issue with leaven? It’s 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. As it spreads, it compromises and destroys what is true, good and otherwise pure. It therefore, is used as a metaphor for sin and falsehood. We can learn many things from this visual aid.
RELEVANCE
As we walk in this life, we are continuously bombarded with messages of this world that may seem good. The majority of them, however, are rooted in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They look good on the outside—but are not rooted in God’s truth or life of His Spirit—and therefore, cannot bear the life, wisdom or fruit of His Spirit, and produce God’s real peace and joy.
God wants us to eat of the tree of life! He wants us to discern between what is of Him and what is of the world. He wants to bring us from confusion to clarity. That is accomplished by seeking God’s wisdom and peace through His Word and Spirit; and comes from receiving the true light of the world—the LORD, Messiah Jesus.
The LORD’s sacrifice, therefore, not only released you from the burdens of the effects of sin, but accomplished what the Law of Moses could never permanently do: legally clear you of all possible charges of sin, removing all possible effects of guilt, condemnation and confusion found under the law of sin and death!
His last words proclaimed on the cross were, "It is finished!" (John 19:30) Paul, therefore, endeavored to clear the disciples’ conscience from all traces of guilt proclaiming:
And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-5 NLT)
Free from guilt and condemnation, the believer can receive the LORD’s mercy and truth. By receiving His mercy and truth, you walk with a refreshed mindset and perspective on life—God’s perspective! Such a mindset sets things clear to you so you see with God’s kind of open vision. Truly, His open vision enables you to walk in the light of His wisdom and truth.
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
Have you allowed the LORD to clear all the charges of guilt and condemnation from your conscience? Are there areas where you still come under guilt and condemnation?
Have you received the full mercy of God?
Do you extend mercy to others—even those with whom you have difficulty? How about those who scorn, use, or mock you?
Do you judge anybody? Do you hold anybody in low esteem? Are you quick to condemn those who do you wrong?" This is a more crucial issue than most of us like to believe. As Scripture says, “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will not forgive yours.” (Matthew 6:14-15 JNT)
REFERENCES
Romans 8:1-3; Colossians 2:13-15; Matthew 6:14-15;
Mark 11:25; Luke 17:3-4; 23:34; 1 John 1:9
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Communion
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Be Blessed by Embracing God's Values and Relating with Him through the Lord's Appointed Times of Unleavened Bread
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
God created mankind with relationships in mind: relationships with Him and with one another. His hope is that we get to know Him and value the relationship; as it is one intended to be experienced in the earth and for eternity in heaven. This relationship, or union, is expressed through a way of engagement called communion.
RELEVANCE
God's idea for a relationship with Him is a dynamic union flowing in the substance of His love and life—His Spirit. He desires quality relationships that will testify of His presence and active involvement in human affairs. In fact, through Daniel, He made this very clear before the king of Babylon, the leader of the world’s greatest power of the day, “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4:32 NKJV).
More than expressing His dominion over the earth, God desires the devotion of the hearts of His children. It’s how He reigns through us. As He does, we get to participate in His awesome works! That’s why He seeks strong unions; and why He prayed before His closest disciples at the end of His earthly ministry the prayer recorded in John 17. Hear His heart in this snippet.
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." (John 17:20-23)
Paul understood that God intended for us to have a relationship with Him that would bless us with a sense of fulfillment, peace and joy. Such qualities bear the very fruit of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you... The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:11-14)
David, the man after God's own heart, experienced such a relationship with God. He understood that maintaining a practice of self-examination to stay right with God was a key element of the relationship. "Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart." (Psalm 26:2) For this same reason, Paul admonishes us to examine ourselves before participating in the LORD's communion. "So let a person examine himself first, and then he may eat of the bread and drink from the cup; for a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself." (1 Corinthians 11:28-29 JNT)
As we engage with God through the Holy Spirit, we invoke His grace and activate His power, His sanctifying work in us. Truly, our relationship with God is intended to bring us bountiful blessings in life. May you drink of the cup of communion and be blessed as you engage in rich relationship with the LORD!
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread (1 Corinthians 10:14-17).
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
How do you examine your standing—or health of your relationship with God?
Are there crevices in your heart that the Holy Spirit may be shedding light upon to bring your heart into a greater degree of sanctification, and unity with God? What falsehoods might you be believing, holding onto, or trusting in that could be impacting your relationship with God?
REFERENCES
2 Thessalonians 2:13; 4:1-3; James 4; Ephesians 1:15-21
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I AM
THE LIGHT OF
THE WORLD
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Living Life in its Fullness by Relating with the Lord
Who is the Light of the World
TRUTH AND PURPOSE
The LORD was teaching in the temple. A group of religious leaders brought to Him a woman caught in adultery, a sin worthy of death. They tested Him by asking what He thought. He replied to her accusers, “The one of you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7 JNT) Her accusers, convicted by their own conscience, left. He said He did not condemn her, and that she should sin no more. He then shared something that brought peace and strength to her as well as others hearing. "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life."
RELEVANCE
The light of the LORD reveals His truth and love. Receiving His Words breathed by His Spirit bears the life of God’s truth. For, His words cut through the darkness of lies that condemn. His words and Spirit bear His love and truth that sets people free. The LORD revealed this later in His conversation.
If you obey what I say, then you are really my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Light, separating truth from lies, in essence is what Unleavened Bread is about. Why does Scripture prescribe removing leaven from the home?
Leaven 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 is what sin and bad influences do to our life. It prevents us from receiving the fullness of God's love.
As we actively receive and embrace the love of Messiah Jesus and the light of God’s truth by His Word, His Spirit cleanses and sanctifies us. This is what the apostle Paul related as, “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13 NKJV)
In the LORD, we have a living revelation of El Emet—The God of Truth. (Psalm 31:5) He is Jehovah-tsidkenu—the Lord our righteousness! (Judges 23:6)
He is Jehova-m’kedishkem—the Lord who sanctifies you! (Exodus 31:13)
REFLECTION, REALITY AND RESPONSE
Colossians 2:8 says, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” The “philosophy” and “empty deceit” of the world is so pervasive, we confront it daily. How do you discern and separate truth from such impressions daily?
How do you resist the pressures of absorbing and adopting the world’s philosophies and empty deceit?
How do you receive the Lord’s light to deal with the world’s darkness?
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