Herbert W Armstrong

   Of course, we all probably recognize that particular passage of scripture, but there are other days that are celebrated by the worldly or Satan's churches that many of their followers do in ignorance because it's the custom. Or because it's what they practice, they don't have any idea why they do them. They don't know what they're celebrating, they don't know the meaning of those days, they just observe them.

   The world is so attuned to it that we're forced to observe them many times in our work because, well, that is as holidays, we get days off of work because of them. And we've got one coming up very shortly, I think, and many, many people are going to get Good Friday off because Easter is just around the corner and that's one of the worldly holidays.

   And on Easter certain things are done by people in the worldly churches. Little children go out and hunt Easter eggs that are supposedly hidden by an Easter bunny. Or by whomever. And they have a good time doing that and they're caught up in it and they do it, and many people that you talk to in these churches don't understand what it's about. Some that do really believe and practice their religion know that Easter is supposed to be symbolic or celebrate the resurrected Christ or Christ rising from the dead.

   These little children go around picking up eggs as I've mentioned, and whoever heard of bunnies laying eggs? Of course, to us, those of us who have had our minds and hearts opened up to God's truth, these things seem strange or they seem vain or they seem silly, and we can't understand why they do them any longer, but we used to do them brethren, we used to be just as ignorant about those things as they are. And we were just as blinded to the truth as these people are, and we did things that we didn't understand. We never questioned them, we didn't know why we did them because everybody else did them, and they were taught.

   And so since we've had God's mind placed within us through the power of His Holy Spirit, we've had our eyes and our minds opened up to recognize and understand God's truth, we can of course see what God was talking about there in Jeremiah 10, that truly the customs of the people are vain. But God gave His people certain holy days and festivals. And we in God's church do certain things that for those outside in the world, I'm sure they look just as strange. They think we're just as crazy, quote unquote, that some of the things we do don't make a bit of sense and maybe even some new ones in the church or haven't been very long in the church and haven't had a chance to really comprehend and understand some of the things we do and the practices that we keep and the things that we try to believe and obey from God's word, they probably seem strange to them.

   But look on from the outside, brethren, some of the things we do look just as strange to those in the worldly churches as the things they now do look strange to us. But God has reasons for the things He does. And we ought to be learning that. But I wonder how many of us sitting here in God's church do the things that we do because, well, we just do them, you know, like in the old churches that we came out of. The people celebrated Easter, the people celebrated Christmas every day, every year we put up a Christmas tree, we did it, we didn't understand what it meant. It was just the custom. It was just the thing to do.

   Brethren, I hope that in God's church, we're not that way. I hope we've come to realize and understand that the things God gives us to do are for a purpose and a reason. And that for our benefit and for His adoration and His worship that we do those things, but in general they're to teach us lessons and they will help us and to remind us about certain things in His plan and in His way and those things that we do and those days that we keep all have meaning.

   We've been told time after time over the years that God's holy days are a picture or a representative of God's plan. His overall plan, you know, we get caught up in our daily lives and, and life is but a whisper and we're here for a short time, but God looks at an overall thing, and He's got an overall thing going on that He's doing. And it encompasses a great deal more time than many of us have opportunity to spend on this earth, and we see only a little tiny portion of it as it relates to us. And so to keep us mindful of His overall plan and to keep us ever mindful of our part in it and what's required of us as a result of the calling that we've been given and the responsibility that's been dumped upon our shoulders as it were, God gives us His holy days.

   As reminders so that we can relate to what God's plan is for this world and for us in particular and so that we can practice things that He wants us to practice for our own benefit and our own admonition and our own learning so that we don't forget God's ways. Because most of the history of Israel, as you read through the Kings and the Chronicles and the Old Testament books, they're replete with a sad story of Israel forgetting God's way, forsaking God's law, going their own way even after it was shown miraculous signs and wonders, and they said, "Oh, we will obey. Yeah, everything you say that we do," and it was demonstrated by power before them, that the things that they were told to do were certainly the things that God Himself wanted them to do and yet it didn't take very long, brethren, until Israel went its own way.

   And forsake the things that they said they would do, they encompassed into their own keeping and embraced to their bosoms things contrary to what God wanted them to do: idolatry and the ways of the world. And so God knew that would happen and He gave us His holy days, and He gave us certain things to do in those holy days so that we would ever be mindful of His way and what He wants us to do so that we would not forget and we would not let those things slip, and we would not get carried away by the things around us in the world and embrace us foreign gods. Because we're constantly bombarded by Satan to embrace those things which seem good, and they seem nice and they're pleasant and, and everybody else does it. But they're not God's ways, brethren.

   Now we shouldn't condemn those that are blinded for their practices. God has a time for them. God's going to open their eyes someday, and they're going to see the things that they do and the vanity involved, and they're going to have a chance to repent of those things. They're going to have a chance to go God's way and be taught His laws.

   And so we're coming up upon a feast time. The Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread and the meaning of those things for us are really significant. I don't know how many of you might have seen it, but the Ten Commandments movie was on last Sunday night. It always thrills me to see that. The children of Israel being delivered out of Egypt and the real true significance of the very first Passover, what it was about. Mr. Pierce talked a little bit about that and how we are to prepare for that.

   But I would like to talk to you today about a little different thing concerning the Days of Unleavened Bread. It's pretty easy for us to relate to the Passover. I mean, we're dead, we're just dead, that's all there is to it unless we're passed over by that death angel, we're just as good as dead. And so it's pretty easy for us to relate to the Passover. But what is the symbolism of unleavened bread? Now that perhaps is just a little bit more difficult to relate to.

   In the eyes of the world, that seems like a stupid thing for us to do every year, eat unleavened bread for 7 days. As a matter of fact, I'm reminded of an incident that happened to my daughter when during those days, my wife made her a sandwich to take to school. I forget exactly. And it was a wiener rolled up and something I forget now maybe it was a tortilla anyway, and she had that as a sandwich because we couldn't make a very good sandwich unless we could use leavened bread, and we weren't eating leavened bread during that week and she took that sandwich out of a, out of a brown sack at school and the girl that she was eating with looked at her and said, "Boy, your mom sure makes weird sandwiches."

   Yes, so the people look at us as doing weird things, brethren, and probably many of us, if we don't understand why we do it, think we're doing weird things, and we ought not be in God's church and profess to believe God and practice what He says if we don't understand why we're doing it, brethren. I admonish you to prove things. To know why you do it, to understand wherein you stand, to have an answer for the hope that lies in you, because that's what Paul says that we ought to do. We ought not go along with things just because others do it. We ought to be able to prove to your own satisfaction why you do things.

   So today I'm going to try to help you understand the symbolism of unleavened bread. Well, I'm sure many of us understand what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is about. We've heard it, it's the putting out of sin. We've heard that, we put leaven out of our homes and we put sin away and it's symbolic of taking sin out of our life because we've equated with sin leaven or with leaven sin. And I'm going to show you that that's probably a very good equation. Sin and leaven certainly are typical. They are types. And they are similarities between leaven and sin.

   But just to establish that we are indeed to keep these days, let's back up and begin in Exodus 12th chapter and see that God really does command us to keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. He commands us to keep all of His feast days, but we're gonna home in on the Days of Unleavened Bread and the symbolism of unleavened bread today.

   Exodus 12 beginning in verse 18 (Exodus 12:18): "In the first month, on the 14th day of the month that evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 1 and 20th day of the month at even. 7 days shall there be no leaven found in your houses, for whosoever eateth that which is leaven, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel."

   So you know it's a pretty serious offense to eat leavened bread during that time, at least it was during Israel's day. "That soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened." Verse 20: "In all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread."

   So this is the very beginning one. This is where God established that festival or first revealed it to Israel. He probably had it in His mind many eons prior to this, but this is when He first revealed it to Israel because they had a need for it, you know, they were in bondage and captivity, and we all know the symbolism of that. We were too, to sins, slaves to sin.

   Turning over to Leviticus 23 where there's a summary of God's laws. We'll see what it says there concerning the Days of Unleavened Bread. Beginning in verse 6 (Leviticus 23:6): "And on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread under the Eternal. 7 days you must eat unleavened bread." It's not just a suggestion. It would be good for you to eat it. God doesn't say that. He says you're not to eat anything leavened over there in Exodus, and He says you must eat unleavened bread here in Leviticus.

   Now over in Exodus, it's said on the 14th day, and it encompasses the Passover time and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and for that total time you eat unleavened bread because the Passover was taken with unleavened bread, but we won't get into the technicality of why there's a difference here in these things. The fact is that the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th day of the first month. And it goes through and includes the 21st day of the first month in God's calendar, which is 7 days that we are to observe that feast. And it's a separate festival from the Passover.

   So the Old Testament commandments for us and Israel of course are to keep the Days of Unleavened Bread and, and the admonition is that we must eat unleavened bread. Now there's got to be a reason. We don't just eat unleavened bread because because there's no reason. So why do we eat it? Well, I hope we can discover that before I'm finished and to carry it on through and to establish that they kept it in the New Testament times in Acts 12:3. This recorded: "Then were the days of unleavened bread."

   Now there was certainly no reason to make a reference to the Days of Unleavened Bread in Acts if the Days of Unleavened Bread were done away. For Acts 12 verse 3, the parenthetical expression in my Bible says "then were the Days of Unleavened Bread."

   In I Corinthians 5:8, Mr. Pierce touched on that scripture. But I, you're probably going to get tired of hearing I Corinthians 5 before the day is over because I have a great deal to talk about there. But in I Corinthians 5:8, "Therefore let us keep the feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread." There's no question about what Paul's talking about there. This was during the Days of Unleavened Bread in the Corinth church that he wrote this letter. He said, "Let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

   So let us keep the feast, Paul says to the Corinthians. I don't think there's any problem with realizing that we need to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, why do we do it? What is leaven all about? We'll talk about that later and I'm going to come back to the 8th verse of I Corinthians 5 later on. But what does leaven typify first of all? What does leaven typify?

   Now leaven has fermenting qualities. It causes things to ferment or to rise, you know, and fermentation is incipient corruption. Fermentation is incipient corruption. So leaven is a type of corruption, and it's used that way by Christ Himself in the New Testament many times and in one particular example, turn to Matthew 16. This is what Christ was referring to when He talked about the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The corruption of their doctrines. The corruption of their mannerism and their teaching and the reason that they did things. He told His disciples to beware of the corruption of the Pharisees.

   Well, He didn't use that term. Let's not what He did use, but let's begin in verse one to see what the Sadducees and Pharisees at this particular time are up to. Verse 1, Matthew 16 (Matthew 16:1): "The Pharisees also came with the Sadducees, also with the Sadducees came and tempting, tempting now, desired Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. Oh you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times," and so on.

   And now down to verse 6, "And Jesus said unto them," that is to His disciples. Well, let's read it all. Verse 4 (Matthew 16:4-6), "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And He left them and departed." And now verse 5, "And when His disciples would come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread." Now this is just after He had fed 4000 with a couple of loaves or 7 loaves, but they had forgotten to take bread.

   And now notice in verse 6, "Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Beware of the leaven of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And now that that followed up His disciples, they didn't understand what He was talking about and they reason among themselves saying it is because we have taken no bread. They thought we forgot the bread and now He's chastising us about not having any bread, which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them, "O ye of little faith, why reason you among yourselves because you've brought no bread? Do you not yet understand neither remember the 5 loaves and the 5000 and how many baskets you took up? Neither the 7 loaves and the 4,000s and how many baskets you took up. How is it that you do not understand that I speak it not to you concerning bread?"

   I wasn't talking to you about leavened bread. I wasn't even worrying or thinking about bread at all, Christ is telling His disciples. I wasn't talking about bread, that you should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. His context wasn't bread at all, He says. And then He said in verse 12, "Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."

   Their doctrine was corrupt and Christ likened that doctrine to leaven. Corruptness. And He said beware of that corrupt doctrine. Beware of those things that the Sadducees and the Pharisees go about shouting about and spouting off about and trying to trap me and all that sort of thing. Beware of that corruption of that leaven that they have in their doctrine. And so that's what Christ was speaking with reference to corrupt doctrine when He used this term leaven with respect to Sadducees and the Pharisees.

   And then Luke 12 chapter verse 1. It's similar, but notice that He added another term, I believe. Luke 12:1: "In the meantime, when they were gathered together in an innumerable multitude of people insomuch as they told one upon the other, He began to say to His disciples, First of all, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."

   They were hypocrites. They had corrupt doctrine. And He likened their hypocrisy and their corruption to leaven because leaven is a type of fermenting or has fermenting qualities, and fermentation is incipient corruption. And so leaven is a very good type of sin and corruption and corrupt doctrine.

   And then back to I Corinthians 5:1-7, Mr. Pierce touched on this. And he set the background. Here was this one practicing fornication right there in the midst of the Corinth church and a type of fornication that wasn't even named among the Gentiles, which Paul condemned. It is very, very corrupt. And to prove or establish that the fornication is sin because that's what Paul's trying to tell them here about leaven and equating to sin. Notice what it says in I Corinthians 6:18. "Flee fornication, every sin." Now that may not be particularly directed to fornication, but notice "every sin that a man does is without a body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body."

   Fornication is sin. Paul's talking about a particularly corrupt and vile type of fornication here in the 5th chapter and then he goes on down in verse 3, he says, "For I barely is absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that has done this deed. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such in one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord."

   Verse 6, "Your glory is not good." No, you're not that a little bit of sin left abide to remain in the church can permeate the whole group and corrupt the whole church. That's what he's saying. "Your growing is not good. Don't you know that just a little bit of leaven, a little bit of this incipient corruption, this fermentating qualities that leaven has, can corrupt the whole lump, can corrupt the whole body," and so here Paul is likening leaven very vividly to the sin of fornication. And he's chastising those Corinth for not having done something about it, getting that leaven out of their church and then applying it individually to their lives.

   Verse 7 is certainly a scripture that points out the leaven is a type of Christ. "Purge out therefore the old leaven," get rid of that sin. He could have said just as well "that you may be a new lump. As you are right now, I've been inserted unleavened." Probably in your homes because they were doing that, observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But there I Corinthians 5:7 is a verse that really shows the type of leaven as equating to sin. Leaven and sin are types. They are synonymous when used in the scriptures. Sin is corruption and leaven is a type of sin used in the bread in the Bible.

   And so one of the aspects of the Days of Unleavened Bread are to get rid of leaven in our homes as a demonstration to God that we're trying to root out of our lives sin. But is that all? Is that all there is to it? No, I'm told that we must eat unleavened bread also.

   Well, before I go into what it really is and what it really symbolizes, let's see if we can draw a few parallels just so I can get into your mind some reminders of what you might think about when you think of unleavened bread in the future. During these days, surely the unleavened bread ought to remind us of something. We ought to be able to associate something with our own lives perhaps that will keep us ever mindful of unleavened bread and what its need is and why God asked us to use it and to take of it.

   Now unleavened bread can remind us of our calling. Back in Exodus the 12th chapter. And Pharaoh had enough of God's plagues, you know, he'd hardened his heart till, you know, he could just not harden it no harder. He finally had enough of that, and he decided that, you know, maybe I'd better let these people go and so then he thrust them out of Egypt.

   In Exodus 12:34: "And the people took their dough before it was leavened." They were thrust out so fast that they didn't have time for the bread to rise. "Before it was leavened, and their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders, and the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses, and they borrowed or asked the Egyptian jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And the Eternal gave favor to the people on the side of the Egyptians so that they lent or that is they gave unto them such things as they required and they spoiled the Egyptians. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth." And so on.

   And in verse 39, "And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, what was not leavened because they were thrust out of Egypt. And they could not tarry neither had they prepared for themselves any." So they were thrust out. Pharaoh finally had enough of the plagues that he brought to his servant Moses and Aaron and he got enough of the children of Israel and he thrust them out of the land and so we can compare our calling to that brethren, when God opens our minds and hearts to understand the truth and we recognize that we're slaves to sin, and then we decide to do something about it, we are essentially thrust out of our former life. We just thrust out of the world as it were and God tells us to come out of that way that we were going in and even to the world, aspects, worldly aspects of the thing that we've been committed to and to live separate in Revelation 18:4 to come out of her and be separate.

   And we do that so we can compare unleavened bread as being one of the attributes of Israel being thrust out of Egypt. They were thrust out with such speed that they didn't have time to let the bread rise or the dough rise and unleavened bread is what they ate as a result. And so when we think of unleavened bread, perhaps we can relate it to our calling. It really is a fast thing, brethren, once God, you know, clicks the light switch, as it were, and we begin to comprehend and understand the truth. It's almost like turning on a light, at least it was for me. And then we try to do something about it and it's a thrusting out of a former way of life. And of a world that no longer holds charm for us and going into a way that God's leading us into. So we can compare unleavened bread as a reminder or associated with our calling.

   And then another thing that unleavened bread might be associated with as a reminder for us is that we're to be sacrifices. Now in the 2nd chapter of Leviticus all through there and I'm not going to read that. Unleavened bread is mentioned when meat offerings are given. And for those offerings which were sacrifices given to God, leaven was not allowed to be used. I believe verse 11 says that in Leviticus 2 chapter, verse 11 says no leaven could be used with those offerings, those meat offerings. Unleavened bread was used, so you can remember unleavened bread with respect to offerings and sacrifices to God. Meat offerings in particular mentioned in Leviticus 2 chapter, and we are to be sacrifices also, brethren, in Romans 12:1-2, Paul said that we should present ourselves as living sacrifices. Let's turn to it so we don't go from memory here, misquote.

   Romans 12:1, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And that you do not conform to this world. But that you be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

   So brethren, unleavened bread can be used to remind us that we're sacrifices and we can associate a sacrificial life that we've been called to, to unleavened bread if we want to use it as a remembering device and we ought to use things that remind us of God's way. We ought to do that. We won't forget it. We won't go awry, and we won't go the ways of the world like Israel did if we're kept ever mindful of God's way for some reason, and unleavened bread can be used to remind us of that. It can be used to associate a life of sacrifice that we've been called unto now to the old sacrifices in Israel under the Levitical priesthood when they were using unleavened bread with those offerings, and never was leaven used.

   In addition to that, unleavened bread can remind us that we have a total commitment to God. Now unleavened bread was used after the fulfillment of the Nazarite vow, and you can find that in Numbers 6 chapters. Turn with me there. Now a man who undertook a Nazarite vow committed himself to a really dedicated life to God for a time. When that vow was fulfilled, then the ceremony involved with the fulfillment of that vow was accompanied by the use of unleavened bread.

   Number 6:13: "And this is the law of the Nazarite. When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and he shall offer his offering unto the Eternal one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil and with meat offering and with drink offering, and the priest shall bring them before the Eternal and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Eternal with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering."

   And so when a man was separated apart because of a Nazarite vow and the fulfillment of that vow came to pass in the ceremony consecrating that or the fulfillment of that vow was accompanied by the use of unleavened bread. And so we can use that as a reminder or as an associating device that we have a total commitment to God because the Nazarite vow was certainly a total commitment. Some of the things that they had to go through. If you read Numbers 6, you'll read all about the Nazarite vow. I won't dwell on it, but it was certainly a commitment to God.

   And you know, brethren, back in Luke 9, we have a similar commitment. God's not interested in someone who's going to start out and then change his mind and start vacillating and wonder whether he made a mistake. We're supposed to count the cost, as it says in Luke 14, and once we've counted that cost and made a commitment, it's got to be total brethren. It's got to be total. You can't have one foot in the world and one foot in God's way. You can't just decide, well, I'll go God's way if it looks like it's gonna be OK, but if things get a little tough, maybe I'd like to change my mind. No, that just doesn't work. We've got to have a total commitment to God.

   And Christ talked about that here, beginning in verse 57 of Luke the 9th chapter (Luke 9:57): "And it came to pass as they went their way, or as they went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, Lord, I will follow you whithersoever you go. And Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay his head, and He said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father."

   I've got some other business to take care of first. I don't know whether I'm ready yet to follow you. I don't really have that full commitment, you know. I've got to go bury my father first, "And Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead. But go you and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my house." Let me go tell my mom and dad goodbye. Then I'll follow. Let me do something else. Let me have another thought first. Let me just, you know, not an instantaneous, complete, full commitment that Christ wanted them to do when He bid them follow Him. No, they didn't have that.

   And He said this little lesson here for our admonition and in verse 62 is the one I want to emphasize and Jesus said unto him (Luke 9:62), "No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God." There's no turning back brethren. When we put our hands to the plow and make our commitment, then let's go on with it. And Christ gives us ample help to make it. We don't ever have to look back, we don't ever have to turn back. It's a total commitment.

   And so unleavened bread as the Nazarite vow is associated with that after the fulfillment of it, maybe we can use that to associate a total commitment to God, a commitment that we can't look back on that once we make it, we've made it. And we've set ourselves, and we've set our will and we've set our minds and hearts to follow God. Totally committed to a way of life. Maybe you can use that as an association, as a reminder. I'm just trying to give you some things that you might think about when you think of unleavened bread or when the Days of Unleavened Bread come around every year. Some of the things that you might think about.

   Maybe we can be reminded that unleavened bread reminds us that we're sanctified or set apart to do a work for God. Leviticus the 9th chapter. Aaron and his sons were sanctified in the service of God and during that sanctification ceremony, unleavened bread was used. No leaven was used. Unleavened bread was used. No corruption. You see, and they were sanctified and set apart to do a service for God, Aaron and his sons. I'm not going to turn to there, but you can write down perhaps Leviticus 9 verse 2, verse 26 (Leviticus 9:2-26). It talks about unleavened bread they used in that setting apart or sanctification ceremony where those two sons of Aaron and Aaron were set apart to be consecrated to God's service.

   Well, brethren, we're called into service and we've got a job to do, and we can remind ourselves about that by thinking of unleavened bread and Aaron and his sons being consecrated to the service of God. Unleavened bread can be used as a reminder for that.

   Well, these are just sort of parallels or associations that I thought of that you might want to put down and remember in your own mind when unleavened bread comes to your mind. Some of the things you might think of with respect to your own life now as a Christian. But what is unleavened bread really symbolic of? Why is it God says you must eat unleavened bread? We know why we take the leaven out. We know why we try to get it out of our lives. Leaven is typical of sin, and we don't want that to dwell with us. We don't want to be a part of that. We don't want to have any sin. We don't want to embrace sin at all. But He tells us that we must eat unleavened bread, so it's got to be for some reason.

   What does unleavened bread really talk about? Let's notice the comparison that Paul makes back to that good scripture, I Corinthians 5:8. Maybe we overlook some of the things that are written there and just gloss over them or read over them so fast. Paul makes a comparison here with unleavened bread. I Corinthians the 5th chapter verse 8: "Therefore let us keep or continue keeping, it's the progressive sense I think, the feast, not with old leaven. Neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness," and there he compares leaven to wickedness, to malice, the inordinate thoughts of the flesh and the pulls of our human nature. But notice what he says. "But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And now here Paul makes a direct comparison with unleavened bread equating it to sincerity and the truth. And what is true? John 17:17 says, "Thy word is truth." So Paul's making a direct comparison here with God's word and unleavened bread. Leaven is sin is certainly contrary to God's word and His laws and His ways, but here he's saying unleavened bread is compared to truth and sincerity, but truth, God's word, God's way of life is compared to unleavened bread. Paul made that comparison, and I think we can amplify it a little further or really emphasize it more completely by turning back to Exodus 13.

   Notice how God explained it even to ancient Israel back in the days when they first came out of the land. The very first as far as man's reckoning and observing it's concerned, Days of Unleavened Bread. The very first ones. Notice what He said. In Exodus 13, beginning in verse 6 (Exodus 13:6): "7 days, you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the 7th day shall be a feast to the Eternal. Unleavened bread shall be eaten 7 days, and there shall no leavened bread be seen with you. Neither shall there be leaven seen with you in your quarters."

   Now there's two aspects there. One is no leaven and the other is unleavened bread. We generally overlook the second, and we only think about the leaven, getting the leaven out, but God's telling them there, you will eat unleavened bread. Notice verse 8, "And you shall show your son in that day saying, This is done because of that which the Eternal did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt, and it shall be for a sign onto you upon your hand and for a memorial, something to remember. Between your eyes or in your mind that the Eternal's law may be in your mouth."

   Paul said that unleavened bread was like God's word. And God told him here through Moses that God's law may be in your mouth. When you eat unleavened bread, it's like having God's law in your mouth. It's like taking in God's law, "For with a strong hand hath the Eternal brought you out of Egypt." So unleavened bread is akin to keeping God's law. Unleavened bread is symbolic of keeping God's law.

   Every feast day during the Days of Unleavened Bread, we’re admonished to take the leaven out of our hearts and lives in a spiritual sense and to remove it out of our dwellings and our homes in a physical way, demonstrating that we're trying to get sin completely out of our lives. But also we do during the Days of Unleavened Bread, we eat unleavened bread for 7 days and so we take in God's law by eating the unleavened bread. The symbolism is God's law is equated to unleavened bread.

   We do two things. We stop sinning, which is pictured by removing leaven from our homes. And we start doing something else. We start keeping God's law by eating unleavened bread. So the symbolism of unleavened bread is having God's law in our mouth. We're on our lips. We're able to speak it all the time. We take a little unleavened bread into our mouth every day during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it ought to remind us that we're trying to take God's law in now that we've removed anti-God's law out being leaven.

   After we've removed sin from our lives, we need to embrace God's law. Or put another way, if we start keeping God's commandments, we automatically stop sinning. So if we put leaven out of our house, or out of our lives and we take in unleavened bread, the one shows getting sin out of our lives, the other one shows bringing God's law in and bringing God's law in keeps us from having sin there.

   Yes, brethren, unleavened bread is typical of God's law in our mouth, and God's law in our mouth is just one step toward having God's law in our hearts, and that's what the new covenant is and in Hebrews 8, yes, we're gonna have it written in our hearts and minds one of these days. And so we symbolize every year during the Days of Unleavened Bread, at least taking it into our mouth, at least having it on our lips, at least being able to speak it, at least practicing it and exercising it in our mouth and our lips.

   Yes, unleavened bread is meaningful. It's not just the leaven and removing it that ought to remind us of something during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The unleavened bread and the eating of that ought to remind us too that we want God's law in us, and we want it in our mouth, that we want it to be a part of us. And so it's a positive approach to obedience to start keeping God's law symbolized by the eating of unleavened bread. It's a positive aspect of obedience towards God. We need to have God's law in our mouth, and we need to have it more there. It ought to come forth out of our lips, not just in symbology of that we've eaten a little bit of unleavened bread, but it ought to be on our lips, it ought to be part of us, it ought to be our way of life.

   And we symbolize taking it in during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and it reminds us of the need and the necessity to have God's law and His way of life in our hearts and in our lives, and we do that by eating unleavened bread during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

   So there's a twofold aspect to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And we often just think about the removing of the leaven, the purging out of the sin, brethren, if we don't replace it by obedience to God's law, by keeping that law and dedicating ourselves and striving with everything that we have within us, plus the power of God's Holy Spirit to keep His law symbolic of eating that unleavened bread, then what good is it going to do it just to get the sin out? We'll go right back into the same old ways, and we won't have anything to replace that that we removed. And we ought to have God's law there.

   So my admonition to all of us is that we ought to examine ourselves as Mr. Pierce talked about. We ought to really look at ourselves and look at the subtle ways that the world has just sort of permeated us and that we embrace maybe some little idol here and there and I'm not suggesting any. We all do it, brethren we're part and parcel of this world more than we than we want to be just because we live here. And if it weren't for God's holy days to come around every year during the season, to remind us that it's so easy to slip away and it's so easy to let God's way slip and it's so easy to go the way of the world and to encompass those things that look pleasing and that everybody else does and the things that God hates.

   It's so easy, brethren, unless we have constant reminders to let God's law just slip away. That He brought and gave to His people, His holy days, and the Days of Unleavened Bread with that twofold meaning of the necessity for us to get sin out of our life, plus the necessity for us to eat or take in God's law by eating unleavened bread.

   Yes, I think we ought to look at ourselves now. We ought to really understand when these days come here in a couple of weeks, during those 7 days when we eat unleavened bread, we ought to think deeply about taking in God's law, having God's law in our mouth and in our lips. And hopefully, taking it and inviting it into our hearts because that's what the new covenant is all about. The day is coming, says God, when I'm gonna write my law on their hearts. Well, we demonstrate that we can at least get it into our mouth during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and we ought to think about brethren, that law being in our mouths and part of our minds.

   Well, you know, Judah did that one day back in the Old Testament times during the days of Josiah. Yes, Judah had departed from God's ways. They had forgotten about God's laws. They had forgotten about the holy days, and they had let them slip. And they've gone the ways of the world, and they'd set up idols and they'd set up groves. But turn with me now to the II Chronicles and let's take a look at what happened during the days of Josiah because I wish we could do that now, brethren this year. I wish we could practice what Josiah did. That we could come to see the need for us to have our unleavened bread in our mouth. To practice those laws because of the things that it teaches us and reminds us of so that we don't slip the way that Judah did.

   Back in II Chronicles, the 34th chapter. Now you can also write down if you're taking notes, II Kings 23, because there is a real detailed account of what Josiah did. Josiah, King in Judah. He purged the land of the idols. He purged the land of the heathenism, of the corrupt doctrine of the ways of the world that had had sort of just been embraced by Judah over the years. Oh, it's a slow and an incipient thing, brethren, just like leaven is a incipient corruption, slow, it creeps up on him before you know it, you're all leavened and Judah had gone that way and they've forgotten God.

   Notice in II Chronicles, the 34th chapter, we'll begin in verse one (II Chronicles 34:1), but you might write down II Kings 23. It's a parallel account, more detailed perhaps than this: "Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem 1 and 30 days, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Eternal and walked in the ways of David, his father and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left." He was God fearing, and he walked after God's way.

   "For in the 8th year of his reign," now, he's 16 years old now. "In the 8th year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David, his father, and in the 12th year," now he's 20 years old, "he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and the molten images."

   In verse 6, "And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even under Naphtali with their mattocks round about." Verse 7, "And when he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images into the powder," you can read on down through there of all the things that he did and then II Kings 23 in particular, he goes into specific details about how he cleaned the land up and to read of all of those things that he broke down and all the idols that he destroyed and all the groves that he burned and all the things that he did, the land was full of heathen idols. And idle worship and heathen ways, and God was nowhere evident in all of the land.

   But Josiah decided to follow after his father David, and it's recorded that he was like no other king before him, no other king after him about following after God's law and God's way. So let's skip over to verse 16. You can read the rest of this. I don't have time. Verse 15: "And Hilkiah answered and said to she and the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Eternal." God's law, God's word had been lost, quote unquote. He found the book of the law. They had completely forsaken God's way. Apparently they weren't even reading the scriptures of the Bible anymore. But Hilkiah found the book of the law. Strange that he found the book of the law.

   "And Hilkiah delivered the book on Shafin, and Shafin carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again saying, all that was committed to your servant, they do it. And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Eternal and delivered it into the hand of the overseers, into the hand of the workmen, and Shafin, the scribe told the king, saying, saying, Hilkiah, the priest hath given me a book. And Shafin read it before the king."

   Sounds like it's a book that wasn't even known about. That's how bad Judah had become. Didn't even recognize hardly God's word. Maybe not at all. It seems to imply that to me. "And Shaphan read it before the king, and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes." Now you would think that King Hilkiah had heard God's word before since he was a king in Judah, but not so. Apparently not so. The land had become so devoid of God and so encompassed with the idolatrous worship of the heathen nations around him that God was just out, you know, He was apparently completely gone in the eyes of all the people.

   "And the king commanded," verse 20, "And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan described and Asaiah, the servant of the king saying, go inquire of the Eternal for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is found, for great is the wrath of the Eternal that is poured out upon us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Eternal to do after all that is written in this book."

   So here Josiah was enraged that he had discovered that Israel and Judah had completely forsaken God. And he recognized that God was filled with wrath as a result. Verse 22, "And Hilkiah and they that the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe," and on it goes, and let's go back, let's go down now to 27, verse 27. Or verse 26, "And as for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Eternal, so shall you say unto him. Thus sayeth the Eternal God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard because your heart was tender."

   Now speaking, this is God speaking through this prophet or this priest back to the king "because your heart was tender and you didn't humble yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humble yourself before me and did bend your clothes and weep before me, I have even heard you also sayeth the Eternal." So God heard Josiah, and Josiah had purpose in his heart to follow God's way.

   Verse 31: "And the king stood in this place and made a covenant before the Eternal, to walk after the Eternal and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant which were written in this book."

   And now, on forward, I'm not reading all of this to chapter 35. "Moreover, Josiah kept a Passover unto the Eternal in Jerusalem, and they killed the Passover on the 14th day of the month." And you can read on down through there, verse 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 talks about how they took the Passover and what they did about the Passover after they discovered all these years that they hadn't done that.

   And, notice on over into verse 16: "So all the service of the Eternal was prepared the same day to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings onto the altar of the Eternal according to the commandment of King Josiah, and the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days."

   So here they have discovered God's law. How long it had been out from the midst of Israel. Well, it talks about that right here in the very next verse, verse 18, "And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet." It doesn't say that there wasn't any Passover kept, but from the days of Samuel the prophet was not a Passover kept like Josiah kept it here. In II Chronicles 35, not since Samuel the prophet, "Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept and the priests and the Levites and all Judah in Israel that were present and the inhabitants of Jerusalem."

   Yes, Josiah discovered that the land had become corrupt and polluted, that leaven had permeated the land. And they had forgotten God's way because somehow they had forgotten God's to be reminded year by year about God's holy days. They had just forgotten them. And it was gone out of the land and the land was corrupted from heathen idolatrous worship.

   Brethren, these reminders are for us to keep us ever mindful of God's way. Every year we rehearse these things so that we don't go the way that Judah went, so that we don't have to find the scriptures someday, I hope. Surely we don't have to find them in our homes to read them and them all over them and to have God's law in our mouth when we eat unleavened bread. Surely we embrace God's way when we practice the Days of Unleavened Bread and eat that unleavened bread. I hope we do, brethren. I hope that's what the symbolism means to you when you eat that bread. I'm taking in of God's law. I've already gotten rid of the leaven in my life and the sin in my life, and now I've got to do something else. I want to embrace God's way and I want to eat His law and I want to have it a part of me. And that unleavened bread is to remind us that God's law is to be in our mouth and in our hearts and in our lives.

   Yes, brethren, I think we ought to look at ourselves as Mr. Pierce said, and when these days come now, in the next couple of days, and we eat that unleavened bread every day, let's be reminded that we're taking in God's law. Let's be reminded that we've already done away with the sin, and now we're embracing God's law and it's going to permeate us and fill us and uncorrupt doctrine, an uncorrupt thing. No hypocrisy involved as He accused the Pharisees and the Sadducees about, not God's way, it's unleavened. All of that's gone, and we eat that unleavened bread and we put God's law in our mouth and it ought to be there on our lips all the time. We ought to speak of it. We ought to practice it. We ought to live it. It ought to be a part of us. We ought to imbibe it and take it in, and it's symbolic of God's love during the Days of Unleavened Bread when we eat that unleavened bread.

   So I hope we can take a look at this here Josiah's experienced back in the days of Judah, and we can think about how easy it is for us to let God's ways slip away if we're not constantly and ever reminded of it. If we don't partake of that unleavened bread and eat that unleavened bread, how are we going to remember God's law? It was easily forgotten back in Judah. Yes, not since the days of Samuel did they keep a Passover or the Days of Unleavened Bread like that that they kept during the days of Josiah.

   Brethren, I hope we can look back and we can say maybe we have slipped a little bit, maybe we have embraced a little bit of this world. Maybe we are taking on a little bit of idolatry. Maybe we are letting a little bit of corruption in here and there. It's subtle and incipient, and maybe we don't recognize it, but God's holy days are coming up to remind us that we've got to go God's way, that we've got to let those corrupt things out. We've got to take in that unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, which is God's way of life and His law in our mouth.

   And I hope we can say that this Passover and that these Days of Unleavened Bread were not ever used or ever experienced and no Passover, Unleavened Bread was ever experienced like that in Houston as the one upcoming, and brethren I think we can if we remember what it's all about and if we recognize the symbology of leaven and the symbology likewise of unleavened bread and eat God's law and let it be imbibed into our very being.