April 2 -- "Commemorating Deliverance"

 Today's Reading:  Exodus 13

"Commemorating Deliverance"

Quite often in Scripture, the Lord instructs His people to celebrate. To rejoice in what God had done and what He is doing on behalf of His people. Today's passage is one such instruction. Take some time to pause and remember the deliverance of the Lord and enjoy a feast to commemorate His blessings.  

This is part of the instructions given by God to the Israelites after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt. The context is the celebration of the Passover, which commemorates the night when God spared the Israelites from the last of the ten plagues that he had inflicted upon the Egyptians.

Here, God commands the Israelites to eat unleavened bread for seven days as a reminder of their hasty departure from Egypt. The absence of leaven in the bread represents the haste with which the Israelites had to leave Egypt and the fact that they did not have time to let their bread rise. The seventh day of the feast was to be a special day of celebration and feasting dedicated to the Lord.

In the New Testament, unleavened bread is most notably associated with the Last Supper, which Jesus shared with his disciples at the Passover before his crucifixion. During this meal, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take, eat; this is my body broken for you" (Matthew 26:26 ESV).

Just as the unleavened bread eaten during the Passover commemorated the Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the unleavened bread used by Jesus during the Last Supper represents his body, which would be broken for the salvation of humanity. By using unleavened bread, Jesus was connecting his sacrifice to the deliverance of the Israelites and to the broader history of God's redemption of his people.

The statement "this is my body, broken for you" is a powerful declaration of Jesus' sacrificial love for humanity and his deep connection with his followers. Knowing this truth makes every day a special day of celebration and feasting dedicated to the Lord.