The Feasts of the Jews – Part III

Charles Cooper

The readily perceived conformity regarding linkage of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ with the spring Jewish feasts is one in which our Lord follows a precise temporal sequence, i.e. a chronology of the exact days and months on which each feast occurred historically. This temporal sequence includes Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost and is clearly noted in the events connected with Christ. Beyond that, however, one can comment on little else concerning Christ and the Jewish feasts.

On the night of Nisan 14, one night before the celebratory eating of the actual Passover meal on Nisan 15 (remember: a Jewish night comes first and is followed by day), the Lord instituted a new memorial for those who believe in him – the Lord’s Supper. In this event, believers remember the death of Christ by eating bread (symbol of Christ’s body) and drinking wine (symbol of his blood). It should be very easy for believers to see that Christ combined the Jewish feasts of Passover (blood=wine) and Unleavened Bread (body=bread) to constitute the new memorial that believers are to celebrate until the Lord returns, i.e. the remembrance of the release of God’s elect from the bondage of sin.

It is therefore clear that the Jewish feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were to continue in celebration of the physical deliverance of the Jews from Egypt. In the memorial that Christ set up for believers, we celebrate the spiritual deliverance of God’s elect from sin. While completed Jews celebrate two events (physical and spiritual deliverance), we gentiles celebrate the spiritual deliverance brought by Christ at Calvary. Christ did not “fulfill” these feasts. Rather, he established a new memorial—the Lord’s Supper.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated the day God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage. The feast begins on the 15^th of Nisan and runs for 7 days. Exodus 12:17 states, “And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe the day, throughout your generations, as a stature forever.” Again, we see the “perpetual statue” statement in connection with this feast. Since this feast celebrates God’s work of delivering the Jews from Egypt and ties it explicitly to the 15^th day of Nisan, no other day of any other month would serve as meaningfully in connection with this feast.

It is fascinating to me to see how many attempt to show that Christ fulfilled this feast. Yet, in doing so, they completely ignore the obvious. On the 14^th day of Nisan, the Jews were to kill and prepare the Passover lamb as well as also remove all leaven from their homes. They ate the Passover supper on the night of the 15^th of Nisan (Remember: the Jewish day begins at 6 PM). Then, during the day part of the 15^th of Nisan, the Jews would cook and eat unleavened bread as they celebrated for seven days the day of God’s deliverance from Egypt.

It is both sad and highly regrettable that scholars have attached the wrong significance to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How Bible teachers explain the Lord’s so-called “fulfillment” of the Feast of Unleavened Bread makes absolutely no sense to me. When attempting to show how the Lord ultimately fulfilled this feast, most scholars emphasize the relationship between “leaven” and “sin.” Some teachers state that the Feast of Unleavened Bread “pictures the burial of Jesus.” Others state that it points to the Lord’s “sinless life.” A broad study of this topic by conservative scholars fails to yield a consensus regarding precisely how the Lord Jesus fulfilled this feast.

Yet – and this is supremely important – it is a fact that modern interpreters’ inclination to associate “leaven” with “evil” metaphorically is a convention not found in the Old Testament in any shape, form, or fashion. Let me say that again. Nowhere in the OT is there an explicit or even implied relationship between “leaven” and “evil.” If associating “leaven” with “evil” is the point of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then the Jews never understood the reason for it during the first 1000 years of its celebration, because “leaven” was not associated with “evil” until about 400 years before the birth of Christ. In this regard, Ryan S. Schellenberg writes,

In the OT, leaven…is never explicitly given metaphorical significance. It appears exclusively in the context of prohibitions against its use in cultic contexts, specifically during the feast of Unleavened Bread.[1]

Please take time to understand what this scholar is saying. There is no reference in the Old Testament that states that “leaven” represents “evil.” There are no references in any other literature of the period that equate “leaven” and “evil.” It is not until the New Testament time that “leaven” becomes a metaphor for “evil.” The only thing the OT says about leaven is that Jews were to remove it from their homes during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but not because it represented evil. There is not a single reference in all of Jewish literature to support the notion that leaven represented evil when the Jews began celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Scriptures give another explicit statement, which answers the question as to why God prohibited the use of leaven in connection with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It cannot be that God intended for “leaven” to represent evil, primarily because the people only lived without “leaven” for seven days a year. Otherwise, people could use it as much as they wanted during the remaining 51 weeks. This would be tantamount to God’s saying “sinning” is OK all the yearlong, except during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

On the contrary, the original emphasis was on eating unleavened bread. In this regard, unleavened bread reinforced the nature of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Leaven was not a problem in itself. Rather, unleavened bread, which represents Israel’s hurried departure from Egypt, is the picture that is symbolically significant here. The very name of this feast comes from the fact that the Jews departed Egypt in haste. In the original account, as recorded in Exodus 12:11ff, Moses gives us the reasoning behind this feast. Exodus 12:11-20 and 28-38 state,

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

…Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!” The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders. The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves (italics added)

In this passage, we see several references to “haste.” In Exodus 12:11 God instructs the Jews to eat the Passover in haste. The Hebrew term used here gives the sense to “hurry, i.e., the active voice of doing something quickly, implying anxiety or anticipation (Ex. 12:11; Dt. 16:3; Isa. 52:12).^[2] In Exodus 12:31, Pharaoh also urges the people to leave Egypt with great haste. Exodus 12:33 explicitly states that the Egyptian people made strong requests that the Jews leave Egypt with haste. This time the Hebrew verb “to make haste” occurs. The context makes clear that the reason the Egyptians wanted the Jews to leave with haste was because of their fear that “We shall all be dead,” if the Jews did not leave immediately.

Perhaps Exodus 12:39 is the most important verse in this respect. It says, “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.” The Egyptians were so insistent that the Jews leave Egypt immediately that the people had no time to prepare provisions for the journey. The text states, “Because they were thrust out of Egypt.” The people were driven out and not able to linger in Egypt. The people normally ate leavened bread in Egypt, but because they did not have time to leaven the dough, they ate unleavened bread. Deuteronomy 16:1 indicates that the Jews left Egypt “by night.”

Deuteronomy 16:3 adds,

You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

Again, we see that the reason the people were to eat unleavened bread was because “you came out of the land of Egypt in haste.” Here the Lord calls it “the bread of affliction.” The Word Commentary states, “The description of מצה as ‘bread of affliction’ suggests that it was what was eaten by those who were poor or suffering deprivation.”^[3] Another adds, “bread such as is prepared in circumstances of trial and pressure, When there is no time or opportunity for the application of all the means required for the preparation of bread of the better sort.”^[4] Thus, it is clear that there is not a clear understanding among scholars of exactly what God meant.

The point we are making here is that the reason the people were not to eat leavened bread was not that leaven was bad, but that they had to leave hurriedly from Egypt with dough that had not been leavened. Therefore, the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated the hurried nature of Israel’s departure from Egypt and their lack of preparation for the journey. In eating unleavened bread for seven days, the Jews were to remember the hurried nature of their departure from Egypt and God’s provisions for them during this time. It had absolutely nothing to do with “leaven” being associated with evil. This is man’s addition to what God originally intended.

In this light, we see that there is no scriptural association between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the burial of Christ. Christ died and was buried on the 14^th day of Nisan. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began in earnest on Nisan 15 and lasted for seven days. Jesus combined the blood (wine) and his body (the bread) in a new memorial we continue to celebrate today—the Lord’s Supper.

Sadly, many have built a case for fulfillment that Scripture never intended. This only continues to mislead students of Scripture and produce children of a lesser god.