Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 16:1-8.  Here is a link to this Scripture – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2016&version=NASB1995

I quote only the following verses.

“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.  You shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to establish His name.  You shall not eat leavened bread with it;  seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.  For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and none of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.”  Deuteronomy 16:1-4.   

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Here is the story of the Passover.

“Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.  You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts;  and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians;  and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you.  And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.  When you enter the land which the LORD will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite.  And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the LORD who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’”  And the people bowed low and worshiped.”  Exodus 12:21-27.

Christ is our Passover.   Like the Passover lamb was sacrificed, Christ was sacrificed.  Like the blood of the Passover lamb caused the LORD to pass over the houses and not allow the destroyer to come into the houses to smite them, Christ’s blood caused the LORD to pass over His elect for whom Christ’s blood was shed and forgive them of all of their sins and not allow them to be sent to hell.  

Leaven in the Passover rite represents sin.  The elimination of leaven in the Passover rite reminds us, through God’s grace and work in us, to live Godly lives.  The following concluding Scripture puts it together and exhorts us.  

“Your boasting is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?  Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.  Therefore let us celebrate 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 5:6-8.