What's Up with the Flat Bread?

[Steve Myers] We're right in the middle of the Days of Unleavened Bread. The Apostle Paul describes this time in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And in verse 8 he tells all of us, "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:8). So the Apostle Paul is very specific. He says there's something that we've got to get rid of. And it teaches us that lesson in bread.

[Darris McNeely] Leavening is what we're supposed to get rid of. Leavening is a type of sin. And that is what is supposed to be focused on and put out during these days of unleavened bread. This is a piece of unleavened bread. This is a Jewish matzo—typically associated with the Jewish culture and traditions. But it's what one would eat during the Days of Unleavened Bread to picture a sinless life, to picture a life that is not puffed up with pride, with envy, with a lot of the sins of the flesh. In a sense, a kind of flattened approach to ourselves as we understand how we should be as we approach God.

[Steve Myers] Well, if you get rid of leavening, it produces something that's flattened. It produces something different than this giant piece of bread.

[Darris McNeely] And when that happens, we're in a state of mind that God can use and work with far better than a large puffed up piece of bread.

[Steve Myers] And I think it tells us a whole lot about God's way. If we're going to put on sincerity and truth, we've got to get rid of sin. Sin's got to be put out of our life and we've got to put in the godly traits.

[Darris McNeely] The Apostle Paul in Colossians chapter 3 goes on to be more specific in talking about what should be put off and what should be put on during this period of time where we put out sin, when we put out the leavening that symbolizes sin, and we eat the unleavened bread, which shows us how we should be putting on an unleavened, sinless type of life. He talks about, "Put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you." Have nothing to do with sexual immorality and other matters of the flesh. He says, "Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don't lie to one another." And then he goes on and says, "Put on a new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him" (Colossians 3:5-8). That is really the lesson of the Days of Unleavened Bread. We put out sin, but we put on a new person modeled after Jesus Christ.

[Steve Myers]  I think that's a challenge for all of us. Have you had struggles in your life? We all have. And it's because of sin—now's the time to replace it. Now is the time to get rid of that sin and put on the mind of Christ, then we can be celebrating the Feast in the way that God would have us.

[Darris McNeely] That's why God gives us, and is gracious enough to give us, the Days of Unleavened Bread as part of His Holy Day plan to show us how we are to live before Him in a different life and to be renewed in that. It's an annual reminder of the way we are to be before God. Unleavened Bread—it is the wave of the future.

[Steve Myers] That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.