Why the Fuss about Bread?
Opening Prayer
We’ll read today about God’s provision. Ask God to feed your mind and heart as you open his Word today.
Read Exodus 12:14-30
[14] “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD-a lasting ordinance. [15] For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. [16] On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do. [17] “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. [18] In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. [19] For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. [20] Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” [21] Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. [22] Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. [23] When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. [24] “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. [25] When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. [26] And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ [27] then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. [28] The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. [29] At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. [30] Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What was the purpose of celebrating this "lasting ordinance"?Once again God reminds the Israelites that Passover is a day to remember God’s miraculous deliverance (14,17). But why remember it by eating unleavened or yeast-free bread? Yes, there is the symbolic significance of yeast appearing to have a life of its own and hence being, symbolically, another source of life rivaling God, but the ramifications of eating yeast bread seem a bit drastic (15,19)! Have you ever wondered why God asks you to do certain things on your journey with him? Do God’s commands sometimes seem a bit arbitrary or strange? I think quite a few Israelites might have been scratching their heads trying to work out why God had such strict commands about bread. At least he had explained the reasons why they had to daub blood around their doorways. Who would want God’s destructive hand to pass through your family rather than pass over it (12,13)? The Israelites didn’t know yet, but the yeast-free bread they were making for the seven days after Passover night is what would keep them going on their forced march out of Egypt with an army on their tail, not in their homes in Egypt!
Apply
What is God asking you to do? Pray that he’ll strengthen your trust in him and make you willing to respond.
Closing prayer
Good Lord, even when I don’t understand Your ways, I want to always follow them. Please help me.
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