PASSOVER AND UNLEAVENED BREAD FEAST
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. One of the most frequent questions is: What leavened products
do I clean out of the house?
People can get confused and some very nit-picky. The simple
answer is; this is the Feast of unleavened BREAD, not unleavened
Wine, Grape juice, 7 Up, Potato chips, and such like. The old
English milk shakes (before the Big M came there) were puffy and
light, but it's not the days of un-Puffy English milk shakes, it's
the days putting out puffy leavened flour products. The Israelites
left Egypt without hanging around to bake bread that PUFFED UP,
from leaven agents. The symbolic type used in the New Testament
is that "leaven" typifies sin (1 Corinthians 5). Hence for this
New Testament feast of God we just remove FLOUR baked foods that
are specifically made with leaven agents of some kind to PUFF it
up.
The most popular leaven agents in the Western world are "yeast"
and "baking soda." Just put our flour products that are made to
"puff up" and buy flour products that are made without a puffing
up agent.
Some unleavened bread can be one inch, two inches etc. thick, but
they are still unleavened because no puffing up agent like yeast
was used to make that flour product.
And raw yeast and baking soda are not "puffed up" of and by
themselves. You do not have to throw them out. It is the
principle of "eggs" - they can be used to leaven, puff up, but of
themselves they are not puffed up, you do not have to throw out
your eggs. I think the egg example should clear up that uncertain
question about yeast and baking soda.
And remember the heart of doing this during this Spring Feast of
the Eternal, is the MOST IMPORTANT thing. Some can make the
"physical" side of this Feast more important than the spiritual
heart side. They get the cart before the horse. Yes we do having
certain physical rites in the Christian Church of God; water
baptism, the symbols of the bread and wine in the Passover
service, but partaking of those symbols means nothing if the
heart and mind is not in touch and in tune with the Father and
Christ.
If you are a family, especially with small children, make the
looking for and removing of leaven flour products a "fun time" -
hide and seek type fun, and maybe a reward for helping find and
clear out leaven flour products from the house. Maybe you would
want to deliberately hide some leaven flour products so you can
have the young children make a game out of it, as you of course
explain the symbolic meaning behind it all.
2. Do we throw out the bottle of wine even if we have only used a
small portion for the Passover service?
For a single person, a couple, or a family, put out your small
cups a wine/grape juice, say on the 13th, and also the unleavened
bread to be eaten in the service. Now, if you buy or bake
unleavened bread, do you throw it all out after you take a
portion to set it aside for the evening Passover service? No, we
do not! So then the same for the wine or grape juice.
In a church service setting the elders will make sure there is
usually more glasses of the fruit of the vine, and also
unleavened bread, than the people who will be attending. As that
fruit of the vine and unleavened bread has been sanctified for
the Passover service, then what is left of both should be
discarded. As the apostle Paul would say, "In my judgment, and I
do have the Spirit of the Lord."
3. How do I observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread with a husband
or wife that does not follow my faith?
Let me be very clear on this. You DO NOT try and force your
religious faith on your mate. Some unconverted or "different"
faith mates will comply with your wishes that no leaven flour
products enter the house for the 7 day Feast of UB (unleavened
bread). But if they do not, you should do nothing to "twist the
arm of" them to comply with your wishes. We are called to peace,
to be peaceable people. God looks on the heart. He can see the
situation. He understands the situation. You are called to be
peaceable. Your focus is that you do want you can, which will be
that you will eat only unleavened flour products for those 7 days
of the UB feast. You have no power (and do not try - you are
called to be peaceable) over others that do not see things in the
way God has revealed them to you.
4. What about adult children living in your house, who do not
follow your faith?
Your house is always your house. You have the right to have
household laws that reflect your faith. If you have adult
children who (for whatever reason) desire to live in your house,
you need to make it clear to them there are certain basic rules
your house lives under. Christian parents should not allow their
adult single children, living "at home" to bring their boy or
girl friend in for the night and sleep with them (which also
means having sex with them). You have the right to lay down that
rule, if they want to live in your home.
So for the UB feast, you let them (nicely of course) there will
be no UB flour products allowed in the house for those 7 days.
Then you need to relax, this feast is to be enjoyed, not held as
some kind of "witch-hunt" and "spy" time. If your adult son or
daughter sneaks a leaven flour dough-nut into your home and into
their room in a nap-sack ... well you may not know it, so don't,
don't turn this Feast of the Lord into a "spy-and-search" and
"I'm watching you, and I'll catch you" Feast. God will know your
heart and a spy attitude will obliterate your spiritual observing
of this Feast.
5. What about friends and relatives not of your faith coming to
visit during the UB Feast?
Be kind, be polite, be peaceable, as much as lies within you.
Lovingly explain to them (if they do not know) how you physically
live with flour products during this 7 day Feast of UB. You may
be surprised how many will want to know more, and be quite open
for you to explain. Nations today in the Western world are very
diverse in culture and religion, hence there is quite an open
understanding and acceptance of various religious practices and
faiths.
The above are the most common 5 questions that I have heard and been asked
Keith Hunt
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