Deuteronomy 16:1-8 - The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

In the life of the children of Israel, three feasts were of special significance to them. They were the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Booths (Tabernacle). These three feasts would be celebrated at the place where God had appointed to make His name known. We know that Jerusalem, the city of God, was the place. That’s the reason the Jews in the New Testament would gather in Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate these feasts.

In Deuteronomy 16:1-8, are instructions on the celebration of the Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. This feast was instituted to commemorate the night that the Angel of death from God passed over the home of the Israelites and spare their firstborns. They were spared because of the blood of a sacrificial lamb, applied on the doorposts of their houses. God had instructed that each household to slaughter a lamb and have its blood applied on the doorposts of their house. When the angel of death saw the applied blood, it would pass over the house, thus sparing their firstborns. The firstborns of all the Egyptians were not spared because they did not have the blood applied on the doorposts of their houses. God did it to deliver the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. The Passover was to remind them of their deliverance.

The Passover, followed by the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, was to be celebrated on the month of Abib, the first month of the religious year in the Jewish calendar. It was to be commemorated on the 14th Day. A lamb was to be offered and its flesh be eaten and not kept till the next day. This would be followed by the weeklong celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. During these seven days, only unleavened bread was to be eaten.

Why were they told to celebrate the Passover? To help them relive the night they escaped from Egypt. God wanted this act to be a shared memory. This was to let the future generations know that it was God who had saved them. The whole Passover with the Unleavened Bread paint for us a picture of the process of salvation. Being saved is just the first step, we need to be sanctified after the initial act so that we can begin to live a life increasingly free from the grasps of sin.  

What about the Feast of Unleavened Bread? From Exodus 12, we are told that in this weeklong celebration, God specifically told them to remove any yeast in their midst. Even the loaves of bread were to be baked without yeast. The reason why the Israelites were told to eat yeast-free bread was that they had to leave Egypt in haste and there simply wasn’t enough time for any yeast to rise. The instruction for the Unleavened Bread was for all yeast to be removed. Yeast has been a symbol of the corrupting nature of sin. And sin has a devastating consequence in one’s life. Its effect lingers longer than we want it to linger. It makes us pay more than we are willing to pay. And it stays longer than we are willing to let it stay. God wants them removed from our lives. The people of Israel had left Egypt but the mentality of Egypt, unfortunately, did not leave them for a long time. There must be a process of removing the sinful mentality. The Feast of the Unleavened Bread served to remind them that they must seek to live a sin-free life.

We know in life we need to constantly deal with our fallen nature. We need to submit ourselves to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. At conversion, we are saved from the penalty of sin. Now progressively in the process of sanctification, the Holy Spirit assists us to be increasingly free from the power of sin. Ultimately, we will be saved from the presence of sin when we reach our eternal destination and experience our glorification. God saved us at our conversion and now He is sanctifying us in our Christian journey. What a marvelous God!