"And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein" (Lev. 23:6-8).

The foregoing scripture brings before us the second of the great feasts of Jehovah. The first one was the Passover which presented the idea of redemption through the blood of the lamb. In type, the Passover presented Christ's redemptive work, or Life saved by the shedding and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (I Pet. 1:18-19). The Feast of Unleavened Bread presents the truth of the believer's fellowship with Christ, or "Life shared by feeding on the Living Bread." This is suggested by a New Testament reference which reads thus: "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5:8). Consequently, we shall present our study from this viewpoint, first in parallel columns, and then we shall discuss each point in detail.

With the comparison between the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Believer's Fellowship with Christ before us, we are ready to discuss the points in detail.

We notice first,

"It sets forth fellowship with Christ, the Bread of Life."

Here are three striking similarities to note: First, it was the result of a surrendered life (Exod. 12:15); and Christ became the Bread of Life through surrendering His life (John 10:17-18); second, it was sinless — unleavened (Exod. 12:15), and Christ was sinless (Heb. 7:26); and, third, it was sustaining (Exod. 12:18-19), and Christ sustains His people (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 4:13). This last named thought reminds us of the story of a Chinese missionary. After he had preached the gospel, a native Chinese came to him and asked, "Why do you always preach Jesus?" To this the missionary replied: "What did you have for breakfast?" The Chinese answered, "Rice." "And what did you have for dinner?" asked the missionary. "Rice," replied the Chinese. "And what did you have for supper yesterday?" asked the missionary. "Rice," was the Chinaman's answer. "Why do you always eat rice?" queried the missionary. "Because it keeps me alive," said the Chinaman. "That's just why I always preach Jesus; He is the Bread of Life," said the missionary.

We now note our second point of comparison, namely,

"It followed the Passover."

Some people seek to have fellowship with Christ apart from acceptance of Him as their own personal Saviour, but this cannot be. First, Christ must be accepted as our Lamb Who died on Calvary to bear our sins away, then we can have fellowship with Him. This is clearly illustrated by the conversion of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle. First, he met Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, and realizing that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, he cried out, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). Then later, a faithful disciple named Aanaias was sent by the Lord to visit Saul and restore his sight with the assurance, "Behold he prayeth" (Acts 9:11). And likewise, our communion with the Lord Jesus Christ follows our acceptance of Him as our personal Saviour.

We come now to the consideration of point three:

"It was observed by the children of Israel."

In Exodus 12:45, 47, we read: "A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof . . . . . All the congregation of Israel shall keep it." It is well to note here a very important point in typical study, namely, that Israel, the nation, is a type of the individual believer in Jesus Christ. (See I Cor. 10:6, 11). Consequently, the harmonious antitype for this point is, that only believers in Jesus Christ have fellowship with Him (I Cor. 11:27-29). Only believers are to observe the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. It is very interesting to note in another passage that if a priest bought a servant or if one was born in his house, he could eat of the holy food (Lev. 22:10-11). Christians thus have a double right; they are bought with the blood of Jesus Christ and are born into His family by the new birth (I Pet. 1:18-19; John 1:12-13). Blessed blood - bought, birthright fellowship with the Father and the Son!

We proceed to the study of our next point:

"It demanded holiness of life."

Not only was the bread itself to be unleavened, thus typifying Christ's sinlessness, but the Israelites were to "put away leaven out of" their houses (Exod. 12:15). Leaven in the Bible is a symbol of . that which is evil, either in doctrine or deed (Matt. 16:1-12; I Cor. 5:6-8). The believer, too, must put evil doctrine and practice away if he is to have fellowship with Christ. John makes this very clear in his first epistle in these words: "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:6-7).

The fifth point of comparison now comes before us, namely,

"It was accompanied with bitter herbs."

In Exodus 12:8, we read: "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat of it." This suggests something of the bitterness of the sufferings of Christ which the believer should indeed remember with a sense of humility and gratitude — humility because our sins made the sufferings of Christ necessary, and gratitude because of His overmastering love and grace which caused Him to assume our debt of sin and shame on Calvary (I Cor. 11:23-26). Martin Luther, overwhelmed with a sense of his own unworthiness and the grace of God cried out, "Lord Jesus, Thou art my righteousness, and I am Thy sin." Tradition has it that whenever the Apostle Peter heard a rooster crow after his shameful denial of Christ he would weep bitterly as he remembered his cowardice on that dreadful night of long ago. Bitter herbs! May they cause us to appreciate the depth of our Lord's sufferings and the infinite love which led Him to become sin for us.

The last point to be considered is,

"It was eaten when they were prepared to leave Egypt for Canaan."

In the original feast, the Israelites were to eat this feast with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and with their staves in their hands (Exod. 12:11). They were to be already for that memorable journey from Egypt, a type of the world, to Canaan, a type of the yielded life of the believer in Christ. Therefore, we can see a New Testament truth presented here, in short, that fellowship with Christ requires separation from the world (II Cor. 6:1417). The unclean thing must be forsaken if the holy fellowship of God is to be enjoyed. We must reckon ourselves to be "dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:11). We must "yield" ourselves "unto God as those that are alive from the dead" (Rom. 6:13), if we are to bring forth fruit unto God (Rom. 6:22).

1) Achie H. Yetter is Director of the Bible Institute of Denver Bible College, and is in demand as a Bible conference speaker.