Deuteronomy 16 records Moses’ instructions to the Israelite nation about three of their significant feasts. Under the Old Testament Law, the Israelites were required to attend three feasts each year in the city where the Tabernacle (and later the Temple) was located.
Three of the feasts that they could attend to meet this requirement were the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths (tabernacles).
The Unleavened Bread of the Passover.
During the feast of Passover, there was to be absolutely no leaven anywhere in the houses of the Israelites. They were to purge out the leaven. Throughout the Old and New testaments, leaven signified a corrupting agent and very commonly represented sin (1 Corinthians 5). For this reason and to learn a lesson, Israel was commanded to eat only unleavened bread during the Passover.
It is of particular interest, then, that Deuteronomy 16 records, “You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life” (v. 3 NKJV). Moses identified an additional reason for the “no leaven” requirement in Egypt as they were preparing to leave. He called unleavened bread “the bread of affliction,” referring to their slavery in Egypt. He noted that they came out of Egypt in haste. Leaven takes time to work; it requires time to cause the dough to rise. As a result of God’s command to be ready to leave, they were not to prepare the leavened bread and wait for it to grow. Instead, they were to make unleavened bread that could be baked and eaten immediately.
The Time of the Passover Sacrifice
Over a thousand years before Jesus Christ lived on earth, Moses told the Israelite people that the Passover sacrifice was to be made at twilight. “But at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:6).
It is interesting to note in Luke 23:44 that Jesus died on the cross at the 9th hour of the day. This corresponded, in the Jewish time system, to the sunset or twilight hour. Jesus Christ, our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), died at the exact time that Moses had commanded the priests to kill and offer the Passover sacrifice of the Old Testament. It is valuable to take the time to consider the details of the Old Testament Scriptures because they inform and reveal to us details that help us more thoroughly understand the revelation of God.
