UNLEAVENED BREAD
WHICH 7 DAYS?
We do eat unleavened bread on Abib 14, Exodus 12:8, “You must eat the meat that night, after first roasting it over a fire. Eat it with unleavened bread, along with bitter herbs.” Here we see that unleavened bread actually starts on Abib 14 at dusk, not on Abib 15! This is clearly spelled out in Exodus 12:18 below.
Exodus 12:15-20, “You will eat unleavened bread during seven days. On the first day you will remove the yeast from your houses. Whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person must be cut off from Israel. 16On the first day, there will be an assembly that is set apart to me, and on the seventh day there will be another set-apart gathering. No work will be done on these days, except the cooking for everyone to eat. That must be the only work that may be done by you. 17You must observe this Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it is on this day that I will have brought your people, armed force by armed force, out of the land of Egypt. So you must observe this day throughout your people’s generations. This will always be a law for you. 18You must eat unleavened bread from dusk of the fourteenth day in the first month of the year, until dusk of the twenty-first day of the month. 19During these seven days, no yeast must be found in your houses. Whoever eats bread made with yeast must be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether that person is a sojourning foreigner or someone born in your land. 20You must eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.’”
Please notice the command in verse 15 is to eat unleavened bread during seven days. Notice verse 18 tells us when to start and end our eating of unleavened bread. But dusk of the 14th until dawn the next morning that begins Abib 15, is ONLY 12 HOURS of time! Also, eating unleavened bread from dawn on the 21st day until dusk of that 21st day is ONLY 12 HOURS of time! So, are we really eating unleavened bread for the full seven days? Well, yes we are. The last ½ day of the 14th plus the first ½ day of the 21st makes 1 whole day. The 15th through the 20th is six whole days. So, add the 1 whole day made from the two half days to the six whole days, and we get the complete 7 days of unleavened bread, just spread over an 8 day feast period! Pretty cool huh?
Leviticus 23 does not delineate which seven days we must eat unleavened bread. Verses 6-8, “On the fifteenth day of the same month (Abib) is the Feast of Unleavened Bread for Yahuwah. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7The first day you must set apart to gather together; you will not do any of your regular work. 8You will present a food offering to Yahuwah for seven days. The seventh day is an assembly set apart to Yahuwah, and on that day you must not do any regular work.”
Deuteronomy 16:3-4; 8, “You will eat no leavened bread with it (Passover lamb/meal); seven days will you eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Do this all the days of your life, so that you may call to mind the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4No yeast must be seen among you within all your borders during seven days; nor must any of the meat that you sacrifice at dusk on the first day remain until dawn. . . 8For six days you will eat unleavened bread; on the seventh day there will be a festive assembly for Yahuwah your Divine One; on that day you must do no work.” I’ve always wondered why Yahuwah says 6 days here in verse 8, instead of 7 days. Well, now that I see the two ½ days described in Exodus 12:18, these 6 days make sense as describing only the full days of Abib 15 through Abib 20! I believe the Lord is showing us here in Deuteronomy 16:8 that the Sabbath of the 21st is the priority over eating unleavened bread for half a day, though we still eat unleavened bread until dusk of the 21st! The Sabbath on Abib 21 is a full 24 hours from dawn beginning Abib 21 to dawn beginning Abib 22.
It seems that Exodus 12:18 leans towards a dusk to dusk count of time to determine days, not a dawn to dawn day, because dusk of the 14th through dusk of the 21st is the FULL SEVEN DAYS required for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Without the 6 days mentioned in Deuteronomy 16:8 above, I would not have figured this feast from a dawn to dawn makes-a-day time frame. Two half days plus 6 full days still fulfills the 7 days of unleavened bread requirement, and does not break the Torah of Deuteronomy 16:8. Pretty cool huh? Six days of Unleavened Bread does not make any sense on a dusk to dusk makes-a-day time frame of reference. You see, if you follow FULL days of the 14th through the 21st as the days of Unleavened Bread, you end up with eight days of Unleavened Bread, which is unbiblical and breaks Torah. Therefore, to be biblical and obedient to Torah, you only eat unleavened bread for ½ day on the 14th, from dusk to dawn, and only from dawn to dusk on the 21st day of Abib. That’s the ONLY way you can get EXACTLY 7 days of unleavened bread, two ½ days plus 6 full days. Pretty cool huh? So, during the last 12 hours of Abib 21, from dusk to dawn, you can bake leavened bread, if you are so inclined to do so.
In conclusion, even Ezekiel 45:21 would make no sense unless you understand that the Father wants us to begin Unleavened Bread at dusk on the 14th day of Abib, only the last ½ of that day. Ezekiel 45:21, “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, there will be for you a feast, a seven day festival. You will eat unleavened bread.” If you do Unleavened Bread as a full day on Abib 14, the seven full days of Unleavened Bread would end at the END of Abib 20, at dawn that begins Abib 21, thus breaking the Torah and Scripture. You can only fulfill all of the Torah and other Scriptures related to Unleavened Bread if you BEGIN at dusk of the 14th and END at dusk of the 21st day of Abib. 1/2 day + 6 days + 1/2 day = 7 FULL days!
For reference, unleavened bread is also mentioned in Numbers 9:11 and 28:17.
Numbers 9:11 specifically commands us to eat unleavened bread with the Passover meal. Numbers 9:11, “They must keep the Passover in the second month on the fourteenth day at dusk. They must eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.” This backs up Exodus 12:8 at the beginning of our study.
Numbers 28:17, “On the fifteenth day of this month a feast is to be held. For seven days, unleavened bread must be eaten.”