Jewish Feasts - Passover/Unleavened Bread/Firstfruits

Jewish Feasts - Passover/Unleavened Bread/Firstfruits
July 12, 2022
Passage(s): Exodus 12

Yes, you saw this correctly. We are covering three feasts next. Not all three will be covered in this email but in the next series of emails. I decided to group them together because they are celebrated together or go together, as we will see.

2022 Celebration Dates:

Passover - April 15th through the 22nd

Unleavened Bread – April 17th

Firstfruits – April 18th

Before we get into Passover, there is some pre-work that must be done.

After Purim, about a month before Passover, Jewish families go all throughout their houses to rid their home of any leaven(yeast). This comes from the command in Exodus 12:15. When I say clean, they clean!! They don’t just get rid of the Twinkies and Wonder Bread. For the record, throwing out good Twinkies is a sin in my book, plus I don't think there is any leaven in Twinkies. Anyway, they clean every room:

they search for even the breadcrumbs in the cushions, in coat pockets and pants, in the corners of the floors
emptying and scrubbing the refrigerator
deep cleaning of the stove and oven (the oven would then be turned on at highest temp for an hour to burn any traces left in there)
removing all dishware that is used throughout the year, they have special dishware, pots, and utensils dedicated to Passover
to clean the dining room and kitchen tables they would pour boiling water on them and scrub them down with soap and water
they would pour boiling water on the sinks, counters, and any other appliance
scrub down the floors, windows and all other parts of the house
Leaven represents a corrupting influence, a hidden uncleanness that contaminates pure things. It represents the pride and egotism inside us. Since yeast is used to puff up the bread, pride does the same thing to us. Even the slightest bit of leaven in a batch of dough corrupts the whole thing. Leaven represents the sin in their/our life. The slightest bit of sin in our lives functions the same way.

Remember what I said in my previous email on what feast means? It’s an appointed time/place when you are meeting with the Lord. During the process of cleaning the house, it also became of time of self-reflection to see if they had become like the leaven. It was a time of self-cleansing as well. They were trying to make themselves and their homes pure before meeting with the Lord.

By the way, this is where we get the idea of “spring cleaning”. We can thank God for this annual ritual our parents made us do growing up and continue doing today.

I may be getting a little ahead of myself with this one, but if cleansing the area was important to God before meeting with Him, then this sheds some light into what Jesus did five days before Passover began. If you remember, we see a different side to Jesus. He just had His triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding a donkey and then He enters the temple area, the set apart place. Apparently, He didn’t like what He saw and started over-turning the tables where they were buying and selling things. He even went a second time and ran out the money changers that were set up in the temple area. He was cleansing the place of all the bad, all the corrupting influence taking place there. He was cleansing the house, getting rid of the “leaven” that was present, before meeting with the Lord.

Thankfully, we don't have to go through this process today of cleaning our houses just to meet with God. Just something else we can thank Jesus for. But its probably not a bad thing to do from time to time. We need to do some self reflection, spend some time with the Lord, and see what areas of our own lives we need to clean. Is it some "small" sin that no one knows about, is it anger issues, is it pride, how about your thoughts, or maybe its just not spending time with God on a regular basis. Whatever it is, do some spring cleaning for the next three weeks. If you don't know what you need to fix, ask God, He knows and will always answer that prayer.