The redemption of Christ is mysterious, beyond our understanding. I believe that this is the reason the Passover in the Old Testament portrays all the elements, factors, and aspects of the redemption of Christ revealed in the New Testament. If we had the plain words of the New Testament without the picture in the Old Testament, it would be difficult for us to see all the details of the wonderful and mysterious redemption of Christ. How we thank the Lord for the portrait of redemption presented in the book of Exodus!
In the foregoing messages, we have covered a number of details regarding the Passover. We have seen that Christ is not only the Passover lamb, but also the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, and the house. The blood of the lamb was put on the lintel and the doorposts of the houses; and all the lamb, including the head, legs, and inwards, was eaten. As the children of Israel ate the lamb, it was necessary for them to have their loins girded, to have their feet shod, and to have a staff in their hands. Furthermore, they had to eat the lamb in haste. The lamb was not to be eaten either raw or boiled; it had to be roasted in fire. Moreover, hyssop, signifying faith, was used to put the blood of the Passover lamb on the lintel and on the doorposts. All these details had to be observed by the children of Israel as they were sharing in the Passover. In this message we shall go on to consider some further details concerning the way to apply the Passover lamb.
The Passover itself lasted just one day. It was held on the fourteenth day of the first month, the month Abib. Continuing from the feast of the Passover, there was another feast, the feast of unleavened bread, which lasted seven days. In the Bible seven days indicate a complete course of time, a whole period of time. Hence these seven days signify the course of our life on earth. In the eyes of God, the full course of our life is just seven days.
The feast of unleavened bread began and ended with days of feasting. Both on the first day and on the last day, no work was permitted. The children of Israel were only allowed to eat.
The details we shall cover in this message are especially crucial. What we have covered thus far is related to the feast of the Passover, which lasted for one day. But what we shall cover in this message is related to a feast that lasted for seven days, a period of time that signifies the course of human life.
Concerning the Passover, the emphasis in the Bible is mainly on the eating of the Passover, not on the keeping of the Passover. For example, Luke 22 speaks of the Lord eating the Passover with His disciples (vv. 11, 15). There, the Passover is a feast for us to eat. Exodus 12 speaks of eating the flesh, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. The significance of eating rests in the fact that we live by what we eat. In human life nothing is more important than eating.
The children of Israel were not to eat leavened bread for a period of seven days. Exodus 12:15 says, “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses.” According to 12:19, no leaven was to be found in the houses, and according to 13:7, no leaven was to be seen with the children of Israel. During the days of the feast of unleavened bread, the children of Israel were not to eat leavened bread, leaven was not to be found in their houses, and leavened bread was not to be seen with them.
Eating unleavened bread indicates that God’s people should not live in sin, that is, should not live a sinful life. In the Bible leaven signifies what is sinful, evil, corrupt, and unclean in the eyes of God. In 1 Corinthians 5:8 Paul speaks of the “leaven of malice and evil.”
The function of leaven is to make something easier to eat. Suppose bread is made without yeast or any other type of leaven. This kind of bread would be heavy and hard to chew. But if leaven is put into bread dough, the bread will be soft and easy to eat. The function of sin is similar to the function of yeast; it softens things that are hard and makes them easier for us to take in. The principle of leaven, therefore, is to add an element that causes something hard to become soft. For example, joking may be a kind of leaven that makes a difficult situation easier to take.