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The Feasts of Israel.

Three Annual Feasts

Exodus 23:14-16.

Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:

You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);

and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labours which you have sown in the field;

and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labours from the field.

The Feasts of Israel.

Feast of unleavened bread.

Pentecost.

Feast of Tabernacles.

The Feasts of Israel.

The Feasts of Israel.

Passover (Leviticus 23:5)

Pointed to the Messiah

1 Corinthians 5:7.

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

His blood would be shed for our sins. Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover at the same hour that the lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover meal that evening.

The Feasts of Israel.

Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6)

Pointed to the Messiah’s sinless life (as leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible) making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus’ body was in the grave during the first days of this feast, like a kernel of wheat planted and waiting to burst forth as the bread of life.

The Feasts of Israel.

First Fruits (Leviticus 23:10)

Pointed to the Messiah’s resurrection as the first fruits of the righteous.

Jesus was resurrected on this very day, which is one of the reasons that Paul refers to him in

I Corinthians 15:20 as the

“first fruits from the dead.”

The Feasts of Israel.

Leviticus 23:4-14.

The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times:

The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.

On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins;

For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.

The Feasts of Israel.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Unleavened Bread:

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven been like leaven, so leaven in itself is not good or evil, Jesus just used leaven as a comparison of the properties of the Kingdom of Heaven, but in most cases he was referring to sin or false doctrine and it’s capacity to spread.

Matthew 13:33.

He told them still another parable:

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Modern day Jews who observe the traditional feasts go through a comprehensive and thorough search of their houses for any form of leavened food (chametz), every last crumb is removed from the house.

Leaven, in the Bible, more often than not, symbolized evil… sin and/ or false doctrine. Both Jesus and Paul warned about leaven…

The leaven of hypocrisy.

Luke 12:1.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Matthew 16:6; Luke 12:1.

Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Mark 8:15.

And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

Galatians 5:7-9.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.

The leaven of hypocrisy.

1 Corinthians 5:6-11.

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch as you really are.

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.

Do not even eat with such people.

The leaven of hypocrisy.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Leviticus 23:6-8.

And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.

The feast of Unleavened bread began on the 15th of Nisan, which was the day following Passover, and continued for seven days until the 21st of Nisan. The first and last days of this 7 day feast were identified as “holy convocations” or High Sabbaths, devoted to rest and worship.

The day prior to a High Sabbath was commonly known as a preparation day which meant the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, was also the preparation day for the "High Sabbath" on the 15th.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

God commanded the Israelites to avoid eating any leavened foods (food that contained any fermenting product such as yeast or baking powder) during this festival, reflecting the fact that the Israelites had no time to put leaven in their bread before their hasty departure from Egypt (Exodus 12:33-34).

Note that at least six Biblical passages emphasize this prohibition of leaven during the feast

(Exodus 12:14-20; 13:6-8; 23:15; 34:18; Leviticus 23:6; Deuteronomy 16:3, 8), the eating of which carried severe consequences

Exodus 12:15.

Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

Exodus 13:6-8.

Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee, in all thy borders.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

More Biblical passages emphasizing the prohibition of leaven during the feast

Exodus 34:18.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. Deuteronomy 16:1-8.

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name. You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Deuteronomy 16:1-8 (continued)

You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you; but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

So why is leaven used as a symbol of evil?

This question is probably best answered by the character and process of leavening, which is a process based on fermentation. Given time, the yeast reproduces, spreading throughout the dough or batter, biologically changing the chemistry of the dough as it works. Sin, like leaven, has a polluting quality. It doesn't stay small or contained for very long, but quickly spreads… eventually affecting our entire being. The symbolism of the feast of Unleavened Bread is that God’s people can not continue in the same old patterns, but have to search out and remove every speck of sin in their lives…

However this is only possible after putting faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

The little foxes spoil the vine.

Solomon 2:15.

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

Solomon calls to our attention that it is the little foxes that spoil the vine.

This appears to be a warning to you and me. It is the little things in life that get us down, that commence to destruct our homes, destroy our relationships, stagnate our local churches. Perhaps we spend necessary time praying and are prepared when Satan enters as a roaring Lion, we are equipped with our spiritual armour, we expect that - However, when Satan arrives as a Little Fox, we find we are not adequately prepared.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

These little foxes have a tremendous advantage.

Not expected to have much Consequence, not expected to knock a marriage out of commission, not expected to end relationships, not expected to spiritually kill a church. We display the attitude that it is just a little/ trivial thing.

The British have a sport where they run around the countryside on horseback chasing and attempting to catch a Fox. They will ride all day long until they capture it or give up. The fox is a rather peculiar animal. It derives its name from its tendency to dig underground to settle in holes or burrows or to feast on grapevines. It is silent and solitary. It has an incredible sense of sight, smell, and hearing.

It exhibits tremendous cleverness in going after its prey. At times, it will actually play dead in order to attack a bird which is within its striking range. When hunted, it is very cunning, devious, and capable of misleading its pursuers with utmost skill.

It is considered as an emblem of slyness.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

The Fox is Fast, Slick, Sneaky, Little, Adorable, Cute and Cunning. We tend to underestimate the smaller things in life. The atom bomb was a small object yet brought the nation of Japan to surrender in just a few minutes. A flea is very small but enough of them can kill the largest dog. The termite is a very small insect, but it can destroy a three story house if ignored. Solomon warns of the “Little foxes”. In this passage of Scripture we see the principle of little things. If we ignore the little things they will someday grow up and become “big things”, and then they will present us a great problem.

The children of God generally do not fall into great and well known sins, but there are sins that we commit often, according to the Word of God. These sins are like little foxes which spoil the vine and our lives -- and we become fruitless.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Little Foxes.

TELEVISION = Babysitter of our children.

Television can cause our children to become desensitized. Television can glamorize violence and death.

• Too much TV – not enough Prayer Time • Too much TV – not enough Study Time • Too much TV – not enough Church Time • Too much TV – not enough Deny Yourself Time • Too much TV – not enough Revival Time • Too much TV – not enough witnessing Time

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Busyness. (cares of this life)

Jesus is the vine and we are grafted into him, but the little foxes will spoil our relationship with him by eroding our time in his presence , in his Word and in his service.

Have you ever heard men who worked too much for too long all of their lives say, “I wish I had spent more time with my kids?” Some day that will happen to people that stand before God. They are going to say, “I wish I had spent more time with God. I chased things that did not last for eternity. I chased money.

I chased big business. I chased fame. I chased whatever. It is all gone and it meant nothing.

And yet those things that looked so big at the time, like fame or position or power; in the long term with God, were just little foxes nipping away at the most important things in life. Life with God is more important than anything you will ever do.

Life with God is done on a daily basis. It is not done on a monthly or weekly basis.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Busyness. (cares of this life)

I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do. I had to hurry and get to work For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer, And jumped up off my knees. My Christian duty was now done My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time To spread a word of cheer. No time to speak of Christ to friends, They'd laugh at me I'd fear. No time, no time, too much to do, That was my constant cry, No time to give to souls in need But at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord, I came, I stood with downcast eyes. For in his hands God held a book; It was the book of life. God looked into his book and said "Your name I cannot find. I once was going to write it down... But never found the time"

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Little Foxes.

Money.

I TIMOTHY 6:10

FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL: WHICH WHILE SOME COVETED AFTER, THEY HAVE ERRED FROM THE FAITH, AND PIERCED THEMSELVES THROUGH WITH MANY SORROWS.

The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Little Foxes.

Sam Harris' new book "Lying" asks the question which was the focus of a college course at Stanford, "Is it wrong to lie?". While there are situations where it is clearly dangerous for you and others if you don't lie, Harris‘ professor, Ronald Howard, demonstrated that even when most "good people" would lie without a qualm, it is virtually always possible to find a truth worth telling.

Harris' work focuses on "white lies", which are the lies we tell to spare others' discomfort.

These are the lies good people tell while imaging they are being good in the process. How do you feel when you are told a "white lie" by a friend and later discover it was not true. Would you rather have wanted to known the truth? How do you regard that friend now? As we all are "liars", when we go to bed tonight, we will have told many lies during the day. As Harris asks "What does this say about us and about the life we are making with one another?

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The Feast of Unleavened bread.

Little Foxes. White lies.

There are many studies on lying.

One found that 10% of communication between spouses is deceptive. (DePaulo and Kashy, "Everyday Lies in Close and Casual Relationships").

Another, that 38% of encounters among college students contain lies.

(DePaulo, "Lying in Everyday Life").

Little Foxes. White lies.

Statistic Verification Source: Little White Lies : The Truth About Why Women Lie DatabaseRecords.com, Newsweek Research Date: 9.14.2012 Lying Statistics Data

12 % admit to telling lies "sometimes" or "often“

80 % of women admit to occasionally telling harmless half-truths

31 % of people admit to lying on their resumes

13 % of patients lie to their doctor

32 % of patients "stretched the truth" to their doctor

40 % of patients lied about following a doctors treatment plan

30 % Percent of patients lied about their diet and exercise regiments

60 % of people lie at least once during a 10-minute conversation

Average number of lies per day by men to their partner, boss, or colleagues 6

Average number of lies per day by women to their partner, boss, or colleagues 3

Little Foxes.

Is it not a little one? Genesis 19:20. ( Charles Spurgeon)

THESE words we shall take for a motto, rather than a text in the ordinary acceptation of that term. I shall not this morning attempt to explain the connection.

It was the utterance of Lot, when he pleaded for the salvation of Zoar; but I shall take it altogether away from the connection in which it stands, and make use of it in another fashion. The great Father of Lies hath multitudes of devices by which he seeks to ruin the souls of men. He uses false weights and false balances in order to deceive them. Sometimes he uses false times, declaring at one hour that it is too early to seek the Lord, and at another that it is now too late. And he uses false quantities, for he will declare that great sins are but little, and as for what he confesses to be little sins, he makes them afterwards to be nothing at all—mere peccadilloes, almost worthy of forgiveness in themselves.

Little Foxes.

Is it not a little one? Genesis 19:20. ( Charles Spurgeon)

Many souls, I doubt not, have been caught in this trap, and being snared thereby, have been destroyed. They have ventured into sin where they thought the stream was shallow, and, fatally deceived by its depth, they have been swept away by the strength of the current to that cataract which is the ruin of such vast multitudes of the souls of men.

It shall be my business this morning to answer this temptation, and try to put a sword in your hands wherewith to resist the enemy when he shall come upon you with this cry;— "Is it not a little one?“ and tempt you into sin because he leads you to imagine that there is but very little harm in it.

"Is it not a little one?"

Little Foxes.

Leprosy in the Bible is a picture of sin.

For instance: In this man’s case, who came to Jesus with leprosy, he was probably out ploughing one day, and noticed a little white spot on his hand… just a little white spot! He showed it to his wife, and she said, let’s watch it a few days…but then there were several little white spots, which became nodules, which grew and began to ooze fluid.

“You’d better go to the priest and show him” As the law required, the priest would have the man quarantined for 14 days, at the end of which the priest broke the bad news, you have leprosy, you’re going to die, you must be banished, separated away with others like yourself.

“Wait, I have to tell my wife goodbye” No, that’s not possible, you can never go near her or your family again.

“Wait, just one hug from my children!” No, you cannot…never again can you touch a clean person.

Little Foxes.

He was sent to a leper colony to die. (the avg. lifespan for a leper in those days was 9 years) Certainly he probably watched his children grow up from a distance…they would approach from the safety of a few hundred feet and would wave at him, leaving him food or a written message. Soon the sores covered his whole body and became ulcerated, and would begin to bleed…then flesh would begin to fall off of his body, sometimes in large portions—fingers and toes first, perhaps an ear or part of the nose. Lepers would begin to emit a foul odour so bad you could taste it. If you tried to lie down long to rest, the rats would come to eat off of your flesh. He couldn’t drink from a stream,

he couldn’t sit on a rock, it was against the law, because someone else may sit there later and contract the loathsome disease.

Little mistakes/ Big consequences.

The £1.7billion RBS computer crisis is believed to have been caused by a junior technician in India hitting the delete key by accident during a routine software upgrade. The “inexperienced operative” is said to have wiped out a whole day’s worth of transactions, sending the bank’s systems into complete and utter meltdown.

The £1.3billion Hubble Space Telescope was almost rendered useless by a fleck of paint. The machine was launched in 1990 to let ­scientists view the furthest reaches of Space. But despite five years of careful planning, the first images came back blurred. It was eventually found a microscopic speck of paint had caused the telescope’s mirror to be four microns out.

The error – 25 times smaller than a human hair had to be fixed by a £300million space mission

Little mistakes/ Big consequences.

A loose nut sparked a power cut which led to riots that cost New York £650million in 1977. When lightning struck ­generators owned by the Con Edison power company, circuit breakers should have contained the surge. But workers forgot to tighten just one nut, leading to a 24-hour blackout that caused riots, arson, vandalism and looting across the city. More than 1,616 stores were damaged in the ensuing violence. There were also around 1,037 fires started, with police officers forced into making 3,776 arrests.

A lost hunter sparked a £510 million fire after he set off a distress flare to signal for help. Sergio Martinez panicked when he became separated from a friend during a deer hunt in California.

His signal flare triggered a massive blaze which destroyed 2,300 homes and killed 15 people. The fires raged for 11 days and spread over 280,000 acres.

Little Foxes.

What should we do when we realize the things we are doing are sins?

You know, when God puts His finger on us and calls our actions "sins." This is something we certainly don't like to hear. We would rather call it other things. We may even realize it is sin, but we have a list of excuses to help us justify ourselves.

Have we forgotten, what God calls sin is still sin? Do we need to be reminded there are no big and small sins? Sin is sin. Have we deceived ourselves so much we believe our pitiful excuses will touch God's heart and make Him want to look the other way when we sin? Is there a part of us that thinks God has done away with the concept that there are consequences to sin?

God loves us and does not want sin in our lives. The problem is we need to come to the place where we are sorry for our sins, ask to be forgiven, and decide to turn from them. We need to uncover the sin and deal with it.

Little Foxes.

Have you ever realized that it is the little sins that send a lot of people to hell?

People don't commit sins that are big in their sight, but they aren't careful about the sins that seem small in their sight.

And the little sins don't stay alone. They become numerous, and the little sins become big sins. First, you steal a little, and then a little more, or you tell a little lie, and then a bigger lie, etc.

When we commit little sins, we are trapped by Satan and we can't help committing the big sins.

In God's sight, there aren't any little sins, nor big sins. Every sin is disobedience towards God, and all that, God hates.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

For other ministry on the feasts:

The Feast of Passover

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