Ya know the term, "beat a dead horse"? I kinda felt like that's what our scripture did today when it came to the discussion of the passover meal. I was struck by how many times i read the words, "bread without yeast" and how much focus there was on that part of the meal. So much so that if you were an Israelite during the passover time and you snuck a piece of leavened bread, or made something with yeast like wine or bread, you would not only be in trouble, you'd be literally kicked out of the community. "anyone who eats anything made with yeast during this week will be cut off from the community of Israel. These same regulations apply to the foreigners living with you, as if they had been born among you." Exodus 12:19. God was serious about this yeast thing.
Why?
I thought i'd be able to figure that out and write up an incredibly insightful, very moving entry about how God asked the people to be yeast free for these particular, life changing reasons, therefore teaching us something brilliant 2000 years later. But when i looked up yeast and did a little research on it, i basically am left with..."huh"? Why can't they use yeast in their bread? I understand that it changes the structure of the bread, it changes the taste of the bread, but what's the bid deal? Are they forbidden because there is evidence that the ancient Egyptians were the first to use yeast? Did God not want the people to succumb to one of their inventions? Is it because the yeast made the bread more desirable to eat and God wanted them to somehow be reminded of their suffering through the nasty tasting flat bread? Maybe God thought that the yeast was too much of a luxury? Maybe it was all done this way so that they were able to take their unleavened bread on the run with them when they were finally freed and had the ability to bake flat bread and keep the dough for longer than they would with the yeast!
Ultimately, this is one of those things that i am still confused by. God said no more yeast in this festival. not just this year, but always!
And i can't hear that without immediately thinking of Jesus telling the parable of the yeast and how the Kingdom of God is like yeast that works its way through the dough slowly and eventually penetrates the entire batch so that it is all delicious and raised. So, Jesus uses it as if yeast is a good thing. God seems to prevent the people from using it in Egypt, but i can't tell why! Any thoughts...
-kelly
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1 comment:
I think the "leave Egypt so quickly you don't even have time for the yeast to rise in the loaf" thing is the most common view of this... I didn't know about the Egyptians' patent on yeast usage, so that's an interesting aspect...
What I get confused at is that yeast is used in the Bible to describe sin, political maliciousness, and the parable you mention where it's a good thing... (Matt 13:33, Mark 8:14-16, I Cor 5:1-13, and Gal 5:7-10)
But since the whole passover feast is rampant with symbolism, I have to think this is symbolic also... so the yeast to me here must be the sinless thing... And the passover points to Christ, so the bread (His Body?) is yeastless (sinless)...the bones of the lamb were not broken, the cup was his blood... The blood on the door was the redemption of the first born in the family... Wow, you could get dizzy figuring out how it all ties together!!
But good to realize the Jews still celebrate Passover, and we can also celebrate it, but we can understand the spiritual implications on another level...
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