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they shall one day be presented "holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight"
(Col. 1: 22).
Notice the basis of the exhortation of I Cor. 5: 7:
"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened."
In Christ the Corinthians were `unleavened'. They are addressed as `saints', but their
walk was far from being `as becometh saints'. They could not make themselves holy, but
being sanctified in Christ they can be urged to walk worthy.
Another associated meaning which Scripture attaches to the feast of Unleavened
Bread is connected with the pilgrim character of those who first partook of it:
"Thus shall ye eat it (the lamb, the bread and the herbs), with your loins girded,
your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste"
(Exod. 12: 11).
"And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being
bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders" (12: 34).
"And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of
Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not
tarry" (12: 39).
The feast of Unleavened Bread speaks of separation from Egypt, of a people who are
not at home, whose hopes are beyond and above. It is evident that the observance of the
feast of the Passover lamb alone was not sufficient memorial:
"Ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; FOR in this self-same day have I
brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: THEREFORE shall ye observe this day in
your generations by an ordinance for ever" (12: 17).
Redemption saves from and saves to. The Passover not only saved Israel from the
destroyer, but from further contamination with or service to Egypt. The Passover
naturally led to the Red Sea and the wilderness. The lives of the people had been made
`bitter with hard bondage'; this can be easily forgotten, as is seen in the case of Israel in
the wilderness. There, when the experiences of the Passover and the Red Sea were things
of the past, they remembered `the flesh pots' and `bread to the full' (16: 3).
"We remember (said they) the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers,
and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick" (Numb. 11: 5).
That is what they `remembered', six items! They soon forgot the wonders of their
deliverance and the bitterness of their bondage. Therefore added to the unleavened bread
was `bitter herbs', `bitterness' as the Hebrew really is. It is God Who appoints the
bitterness of the pilgrim's path. Israel met it at the beginning of their wilderness
experience, and the first stage of their journey is named Marah, or Bitter. Let us accept
these indications without murmuring, for they are sent in love to wean us from the
flesh pots of Egypt, and to remind us of the bitterness of our former bondage. May we all
rejoice in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, and experimentally realize the place
and importance of the feast of the Unleavened Bread.