Days of Unleavened Bread
Passover Eaten in Haste
Ex 12:11
This is how you are to eat it [the Passover]: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
(from New International Version)
Israel Departs in Haste
Ex 12:33-34
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.
(from New International Version)
The bread they had baked for the journey did not have any yeast added to it - there was no time to hang around and wait for the loaves to ferment and swell.
They set out on their long journey and initially they ate the unleavened bread.
Ex 12:39
With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
(from New International Version)
Annual Festival
God instructed Israel to observe the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread each year to commemorate their release from Egypt.
Ex 13:3-7
3 . . . Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving.
5 When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites--the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey--you are to observe this ceremony in this month:
6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.
(from New International Version)
And so Israel at this time in the years ahead had to clear leavened bread and cakes from their borders and make these days special. Their festivities and rejoicings had to be done without leavening.
The First of the Firstfruits
On one day during the Festival of Unleavened Bread there was a special offering to God which was taken from the very first of the firstfruits ('firstfruits' being the lesser harvest nearer the beginning of the year).
Lev 23:10
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.
(from New International Version)
created 9nov06
upd.19nov06 - para. on firstfruits added
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