Bird's-eye view
In this passage, God institutes the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is inextricably linked to the Passover. Having just given the instructions for the sacrificial lamb whose blood would save Israel from the angel of death, God now prescribes the week-long festival that is to follow. This is not an arbitrary add-on; it is the necessary sequel. The Passover is the event of redemption, the deliverance from bondage. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is the festival of the redeemed, signifying the new life of holiness that must follow. The central command is the removal of all leaven, a powerful symbol of sin, corruption, and pride. For seven days, a number of completion, Israel was to live as a leaven-free community, eating the bread of affliction and haste. This was to be a perpetual memorial, a constant reminder of who they were and what God had done for them, and a powerful type that would find its ultimate fulfillment in Christ, our sinless Passover Lamb, and in the life of the Church, which is called to be an unleavened lump.
The instructions are clear, detailed, and carry a severe penalty for disobedience: being "cut off from Israel." This underscores the gravity of holiness within the covenant community. This is not a private suggestion but a corporate, public requirement for all, native and sojourner alike. The feast is bookended by holy convocations, sacred assemblies for worship, setting the entire week apart as a time of remembrance and consecration. In short, God is shaping a people. He is not just saving them from Egypt; He is teaching them how to live as His redeemed people in the world.
Outline
- 1. The Institution of the Feast (Exod 12:14-20)
- a. A Perpetual Memorial (Exod 12:14)
- b. The Command to Purge Leaven (Exod 12:15)
- c. The Penalty for Disobedience (Exod 12:15)
- d. The Sacred Assemblies (Exod 12:16)
- e. The Reason for the Feast: Redemption (Exod 12:17)
- f. The Specific Timing of the Feast (Exod 12:18)
- g. The Universal Application within Israel (Exod 12:19-20)
Context In Exodus
This passage comes at the climax of the ten plagues. The final, dreadful plague, the death of the firstborn, is about to fall upon Egypt. Chapter 12 begins with the instructions for the Passover (vv. 1-13), the means by which God's people would be spared from this judgment. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts is the sign that turns away the wrath of God. Our text (vv. 14-20) immediately follows, instituting the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The two are one seamless event in God's mind. The Passover is the bloody sacrifice of redemption; the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the sanctified life that flows from it. You cannot have one without the other. This entire chapter is the constitutional basis for Israel's liturgical life, grounding their worship not in abstract principles, but in the concrete, historical reality of their great deliverance from slavery. It is the founding event of the nation, their declaration of independence, written not by men, but by God Himself.
Key Issues
- The Meaning of Memorial
- Leaven as a Type of Sin
- The Nature of a Perpetual Statute
- The Meaning of Being "Cut Off"
- Holy Convocation and Corporate Worship
- The Relationship between Passover and Unleavened Bread
The Bread of New Life
When God saves His people, He does not simply extract them from a bad situation and then leave them to their own devices. Redemption is always followed by consecration. Deliverance is for discipleship. God brings Israel out of Egypt so that they might be His people, a holy nation. The Passover lamb deals with the penalty of sin, which is death. The Feast of Unleavened Bread deals with the practice of sin, which is corruption. Leaven, or yeast, works by puffing up dough, by fermentation, which is a process of decay. Throughout Scripture, it becomes a potent symbol for sin, pride, hypocrisy, and false doctrine because of how it secretly and pervasively corrupts the whole lump. For Israel to eat unleavened bread for a week was an annual, tangible lesson in sanctification. It was a national house-cleaning, a corporate purging of the old life to make way for the new. This is not a suggestion for the especially devout; it is a requirement for the entire covenant community. To be part of Israel was to be part of a people committed to putting away the old leaven.
Verse by Verse Commentary
14 ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a perpetual statute.
God commands that the day of their deliverance be a memorial. This is not a sentimental, nostalgic looking back. A biblical memorial is a re-enactment, a participation in the foundational event. In celebrating the feast, each generation was to see itself as having been personally delivered from Egypt. It was a feast to Yahweh, an act of worship directed to their Savior. And it was to be a perpetual statute. This does not mean that Christians must avoid yeast for a week every spring. It means that the reality to which the statute pointed is perpetual. The statute is fulfilled and transfigured in Christ. We now perpetually remember a greater exodus in the Lord's Supper, which is our memorial feast until He comes.
15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
The feast lasts for seven days, the biblical number for perfection and completion. This signifies a whole and complete turning from the old life. The command is twofold: a positive one to eat unleavened bread, and a negative one to remove all leaven. This is active, diligent sanctification. You don't just avoid evil; you must cast it out. The penalty for disobedience is stark: that person shall be cut off from Israel. This is excommunication. It means being put outside the covenant community, losing one's identity as a member of God's people. This shows how seriously God takes the holiness of His people. To willfully persist in the old, leavened life after being redeemed is to repudiate the redemption itself.
16 Now on the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be done by you.
The week of sanctification is framed by worship. A holy convocation is a sacred assembly, a calling together of the people for corporate worship. Sanctification is not a solitary pursuit; it is something the community does together. These days were to be Sabbaths, days of rest from ordinary labor. The exception for preparing food is telling. This is not an ascetic fast; it is a feast. It is a joyful celebration of redemption, and God makes provision for that joy. The focus is to be on God and His deliverance, not on commerce and personal gain.
17 You shall also keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall keep this day throughout your generations as a perpetual statute.
God repeats the command for emphasis and provides the central reason. Why must they do this? For on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. All true obedience is grounded in and motivated by God's prior act of grace. We do not obey in order to be saved; we obey because we have been saved. Our worship, our ethics, our entire life is a response to the mighty acts of God in history. The indicative of redemption ("I brought you out") is the basis for the imperative of obedience ("you shall keep").
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
Here God sets the feast into the calendar. He is the Lord of time. The religious life of Israel is to be governed by a God-ordained rhythm of remembrance. The feast begins on the evening of the 14th day, which is the start of the Passover meal itself, and runs for seven full days until the evening of the 21st. The Passover meal kicks off the week of unleavened living. The sacrifice of the lamb is what makes the new, holy life possible.
19 Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.
Again, the command and the penalty are repeated. The scope is now clarified: it applies to everyone within the community, whether he is a sojourner or a native. If a Gentile wished to live among the people of God and be part of the congregation, he had to abide by the covenant's stipulations. There is no two-tiered system of holiness. The standards of the covenant apply to all who claim its benefits. This protects the integrity and purity of the entire community.
20 You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your places of habitation you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”
The final verse is a summary conclusion. The command is comprehensive. It is not just a temple ritual, but something that touches every home, in all your places of habitation. Holiness begins in the household. The purging of leaven was a family affair. This is where the life of faith is lived out, in the ordinary spaces where we eat and dwell. True religion is domestic; it shapes the culture of our homes.
Application
The apostle Paul provides the definitive Christian application of this passage in his first letter to the Corinthians. He tells them, "Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:7-8).
Christ is our Passover Lamb. His sinless life and substitutionary death are our deliverance from the angel of death. Because we are united to Him, we are positionally "unleavened." We are declared holy in Christ. The Christian life, therefore, is to be a perpetual Feast of Unleavened Bread. We are called to live out in practice who we already are in principle. This means we must be diligent to "clean out the old leaven." We must actively purge the sin, the malice, the wickedness, the hypocrisy, the pride from our lives, our homes, and our churches. This is not optional. The New Testament equivalent of being "cut off" is church discipline, which is the necessary, though often neglected, mark of a true church.
This passage calls us to a life of responsive holiness. We do not clean ourselves up to earn God's favor. We clean out the leaven because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Our entire lives are to be a memorial feast, a joyful celebration of our great salvation, lived out with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth before a watching world.