The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Festival of Unleavened Bread is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the sacred calendar (Leviticus 23:6), the Feast of Unleavened Bread was instituted for the Israelites to commemorate the sufferings they went through when they came out of Egypt.

Israelites were released from slavery after keeping the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. However, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army to capture them back to Egypt. With the fiercest chariots chasing behind and the Red Sea in front of them, they faced a dilemma. They cried out to God and at that time, God divided the Red Sea into two walls of water through the staff of Moses.

God guided the Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and they crossed the Red Sea safely on dry ground.To commemorate all the difficulties and hardships that the Israelites had endured, God commanded His people to eat unleavened bread made without yeast—also known as the bread of affliction (Deuteronomy 16:3)—and bitter herbs. This served as a shadow and a prophecy that Jesus would suffer through His crucifixion on the day after the Passover.

In the New Testament times, we participate in Christ’s suffering by fasting.

Mark 2:20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

The Israelites’ entering the Red Sea and landing represents Jesus entering the tomb and then resurrecting. This significance is manifested in baptism which we undergo in the present times. On the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites left Egypt and entered the desert under the guidance of Moses. Likewise, in this age, it is also on this feast that we the spiritual Israelites leave this sinful world into the desert of faith under the guidance of Jesus. God gives us the power to endure all the tribulations and hardships (Luke 22:43-44) when we commemorate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.