Why Eat Seven Days of Unleavened Bread

More understanding of Unleavened Bread

by Robert B. Binnion

Since the apostasy, some ministers in the true church Christ founded have taught, or been permitted to teach, that although the Bible contains numerous verses proving that true Christians must continue to properly keep the Feast Days given to ancient Israel, and are to eat unleavened bread for seven complete days during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, what the Bible really means is that, whenever we happen to eat bread during this time period, it should be unleavened!

Is this true? Or is it a dangerous deception taught by these ministers that tampers with God’s true healing doctrine, preventing people from being healed in the Church today? This article will help you to understand that not only does this deception derail God’s healing doctrine, it also removes the only other sign besides the Sabbath and other Holy Days that shows who are God’s people. This will be covered in more detail later.

First, let’s see whether the command to actively eat unleavened bread for each and every single day of the Feast CAN BE 100% PROVEN, or not.

God says to prove all things. Continue down this page to read that proof…

Proof 1 - WE ARE INSTRUCTED TO COUNT DAYS

Exodus 13:6 “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.”

If we follow exactly what this says, we should count each day that we actively eat unleavened bread, and the seventh day is a high day - correct?

But, if we were to happen to not eat unleavened bread on some days, then if we still count seven days of actively eating, as this verse tells us to do, but not count the times we don’t eat, still using this verse, in fact eight, nine, ten or more days could pass before we reached a seventh day of ACTIVELY eating, and made it a high day.

If we did this, the verse would become meaningless.

Proof 2 - GOD DID NOT CHOOSE AN ARBITRARY NUMBER

Seven is God’s number symbolising perfection, or completeness. As was mentioned in Proof 1, we are to count 7 days. But seven days of maybe eating or not eating unleavened bread does not fulfil the requirement of completeness, by taking us completely out of sin. Only by actively taking in Christ daily, -- eating Christ daily, and becoming a “daily” or “continual” sacrifice , can we completely replace sin. (Recognising that the Church is the “Daily” [see Strong‘s Hebrew word number 8548] in Daniel 12:11, is also vital to our understanding of these prophecies.)

By eating unleavened bread every day during the specified seven days, we are symbolically asking God to feed us the bread of life day after day after day (Luke 11:3), in order to be completely corrected.

Proof 3 - WE MUST BE ACTIVE, NOT PASSIVE CHRISTIANS

1 Cor. 5:8 talks about eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Think about this. Are there any days when we can forget about being sincere and truthful?

Would it be OK to give sincerity and truth a miss for a few days?

As was said above, the Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures not only putting sin out of our life, but also putting Christ into our life - completely. In an old letter that many in God's church may have forgotton (read it here), Mr. Herbert Armstrong wrote to the newly baptised members of the church (this letter was sent to me, and possibly to you also, if you have a similar background). It stresses the need to have private contact with God EVERY DAY.

Christ said we should ask God to be active towards us every day, asking God to “Give us this day our DAILY bread” - NOT “give us some occasional bread.”

Interestingly, 2 Peter 1:1-10 lists seven qualities of Christ’s nature that we should add to our lives after we have obtained faith. Verse 1 of 2 Peter says we start with faith, then verses 5, 6, and 7 add seven more qualities, and verse 9 tells us to not forget that we have been purged, or cleansed from our past sins, referring to Christ’s blood cleansing us. (See Eph. 5:25,26, Heb. 9:14, and 1 John 1:7) It becomes obvious that these verses tie directly back to eating unleavened bread for seven days during the Unleavened Bread season! This is new understanding... I don't believe the church has ever previously linked each specific day of Unleavened Bread to a specific quality of Christ's nature.

By understanding this we see that eating up the seven qualities of Christ’s nature on each of these seven days also pictures Christ as the bread of life (John 6:48). On the first day of Unleavened Bread we picture eating the bread of virtue or goodness (2 Peter 1:5). On the second day we picture eating the bread of knowledge or understanding (verse 6). On the third day we picture eating temperance or self control. On the fourth day, eating patience or perseverance. On the fifth day, eating godliness (verse 7). On the sixth day, eating brotherly kindness. And on the seventh day, eating charity or love.

Peter lists seven qualities of Christ’s nature to build onto our faith, or in a sense, seven qualities to eat up, and in verse 9, Peter ties them into looking back to Christ’s sacrifice. (The seven days of unleavened bread BEGIN with the Passover, starting ON the evening of the Passover).

2 Peter 1:9 says that anyone who does not add these qualities is blind. Blindness is a Laodicean quality (Rev 3:17). By not properly keeping these days, Laodiceans can not see deeper understanding in the meaning of these days, but they should!

We are to eat Christ - John 6:53.. When we eat Christ, Christ becomes part of us as living bread (John 6:27-58, esp. John 6:56).

On this point alone, can we see the need to actively eat unleavened bread for seven days, daily, during the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread? Why would we want to water down God’s instructions on this subject?

Bread also pictures Israel. - read Leviticus 24:5 and 8. Christ said to gather up the fragments that remained of the bread in John 6:12, Christ wasn’t just being tidy. Perhaps this pictures the gathering of all Israel. Notice that in John 6:13 the disciples gathered twelve baskets from the fragments that remained. Could this represent the 12 tribes of Israel to be gathered into 12,000 of each tribe (Rev. 7:4-8), to total 144,000 at the start of the World Tomorrow?

Proof 4 - GOD CALLS THINGS WHAT THEY ARE

It’s also worth noting that this time period is NOT called “The Days of the Absence of Bread.” Instead, in places like 2 Chron. 35:17, the whole 7 day time period is called the FEAST of Unleavened Bread, which implies much eating of unleavened bread, not any absence of eating it.

Why don’t Scriptures just say “You shall eat some unleavened bread during that week”. Or “seven days you shall eat, or not eat, unleavened bread, depending on whether you feel like it or not.” ---Does that sound like God talking?

Proof 5 - WE HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT…

In one of the Laodicean congregations a minister gave a sermon where he claimed that the Church had a letter from Mr. Armstrong that said we did not have to eat unleavened bread every day of the Feast, but if we did eat bread, it had to be unleavened.

In his sermon, this minister (a Regional Director - some CORRECTLY call them Regional Destroyers!) said (and this is an exact quote) “God wants us to clean up our lives spiritually. You see it’s a spiritual thing we are involved in … and one or two people seem to think that it’s physical. They just don’t get the picture that Christ is doing something here magnificent and it’s a spiritual orientation…”

This minister claimed we should take a more spiritual approach to Unleavened Bread, therefore we do not have to physically eat unleavened bread every day. But if this is true, why does God command us to physically deleaven our houses? This type of reasoning would very soon have us abandon keeping of the Feast altogether. (Which, of course, is Satan’s goal, and that is a clear example of how Satan works with deceptive reasoning!)

With this type of thinking we would soon not be keeping the weekly Sabbath either, because we would ultimately decide to just keep it in our hearts!

Did Mr. Armstrong write any letter watering down this truth? Is it consistent with something Mr. Armstrong would write? Obviously not, and from my online research I’ve concluded that Mr. Armstrong definitely did NOT write any such letter. However, we do not have to trust men to know which teaching is correct, as the Bible is clear on this subject!

Proof 6 - GOD DOES NOT TAKE HALF MEASURES - GOD IS NOT ‘WISHY WASHY’

Mr. Armstrong never spoke in a wishy washy unclear manner. He would not have said “Because it’s unleavened bread week, some unleavened bread should be eaten.”

Christ spoke with authority. In Matt. 5:37 Christ says “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’, anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

1 Cor. 14:8 “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?”

Exodus 13:7 says “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days”. This is definite. On the other hand, to say ”Unleavened bread shall be eaten some days” would sound unauthoritative, and seem to lack clear guidance. God simply does not talk like that.

Proof 7 - WE CANNOT EMBRACE ABSURD REASONING

Leviticus 8:33 gives instructions about the ordination of Aaron and his sons. It says that they were not to go out of the door for seven days. It’s also a seven day time period.

A basket of unleavened bread is mentioned several times in this chapter as well, but the subject is the anointing of Aaron and his sons.

It says they were to be consecrated seven days and were told not to go out of the door in seven days, “that ye die not.”

Did this mean that they could stroll around outside on some days, but if they happened to be inside on some of the seven days, that for those days when they happened to be inside, that they couldn’t go outside? Logically, that’s absurd.

So if this instruction applies to each of the seven days here, wouldn’t all the Bible verses that plainly command “you shall eat unleavened bread seven days” also mean each and every day as well?

By examining these seven proofs it becomes clear that actively eating and taking in unleavened bread is just as important as deleavening, if not more so, because just getting rid of sin does not save us.

Without Christ living in us, and growing in us, we have no option but to die forever.

This is why we MUST eat unleavened bread every day of the feast.

DETECTING ERROR

How can we detect error? Have you ever heard a sermon that did not tell you anything of substance? (Especially in the latter years of the original WCG when the apostasy occurred.) When the Church goes off the track, this type of sermon becomes endemic.

For example, a sermon might be given where we are told to purify ourselves. But what does being pure mean?

Satan is pure too …pure evil!

If a sermon does not explain cause and effect, how and why, and does not give adequate and accurate explanation, including examples or proof from Scripture; where a sermon is just filled with nice sounding statements lacking substance, then it indicates that sermon is coming from the wrong broadcast tower.

If a sermon puts you to sleep with familiar phrases, and doesn’t expand your understanding, making the subject live, could it be that it is in fact a dead sermon, possibly given by a spiritually dead or dying minister? Can you tell?

Corrective sermons calling other churches Laodicean have often been given by ministers who are themselves Laodicean. This is one of the additional ways that Satan (more so than any particular minister) has promoted confusion, not just in one, but in many of the church splits.

CHRIST’S BODY

The subject of this doctrine that has been attacked is against the very bread that represents Christ’s torn body, which was flogged and bloodied and then crucified.

The Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread form one whole picture. To keep the Passover as a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice, and then to dismiss the partaking of unleavened bread in remembrance of Him for any of the days during the remainder of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is serious doctrinal error.

Perhaps more would be healed if more observed Passover and Unleavened Bread more correctly.

When we truly repent, God mercifully and consistently forgives us. But neglecting to consider the bread of life properly however, may cause God to neglect us.

A SIGN

Exodus 13:6 “Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread” … Continuing in verse 9 “And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord’s law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:9)

God said it is a sign.

The weekly Sabbath is also a sign. Ex. 31:12-17. Mr. Armstrong covered this subject fully in many places. He explained how the Sabbath and Holy Days are signs of ownership, that we belong to God.

2 Tim. 2:19 tells us “The Lord knows those who are his.”

How does he know?

It’s obvious. God looks to see who keeps his sign of ownership, and then He protects them, and rewards them with eternal life on the wife level of the God family, so they can live with Christ sinlessly and joyfully forever and ever.

To hold on to the truth about unleavened bread is to submit to God’s government and God’s ownership. To do anything else is submitting to man’s government and Satan’s ownership.

Let’s not break this sign!