17 February 2020
Devotion
The Bread of Sincerity and Truth
The feast of Unleavened Bread follows on from the feast of Passover. After Passover, the Israelites are to eat unleavened bread rather than anything leavened for seven days. This reflects the way in which the Israelites were required to leave Israel in haste after the first Passover. Leaven (or yeast) is the ingredient added to bread that makes it rise. As it is actually a living, fermented ingredient, even a small amount of it will spread throughout the dough.It is no surprise then that both Jesus and Paul use the image of leaven in the dough to paint a picture of the way in which false teaching and sin can spread. In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul says that the only appropriate response to the ultimate Passover sacrifice (Jesus) is to live like a spiritual version of unleavened bread. That is to set aside the old things (malice and evil) represented as leavened bread and to pursue sincerity and truth. This should still be desire of those of us who follow Christ: to put aside malice and evil and to live in the spiritual fruits of sincerity and truth.
Prayer
I thank You, Jesus, that through Your sacrifice, we are able to say goodbye to the old things and put on the new things. I am thankful that through the cross I can let go of malice and sin and instead walk in sincerity and truth.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Exodus 12:17-20 (HCSB)
You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (HCSB))
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
