No. 06 - SPIRITUAL MEANING OF UNLEAVENED BREAD By: Randall Ricker Thursday, March 28, 2002 (First Day of Unleavened Bread) Good morning again everyone. We all had a very enjoyable Night To Be Much Observed and I would like to thank everybody again who contributed to that. One of the subjects we often like to talk about on the Night To Be Much Observed is how long people have been in the Church. For example, we had a couple of 30-year veterans, if I remember correctly; and I think that is just wonderful. I think back to what I was doing in 1972 or there abouts - 30 years ago, and it had nothing to do with the Church - no interest in the Church. I came along a little bit later. We like to talk about that on the Night To Be Much Observed and it is such a wonderful evening where we can all get together and, of course, fellowship and enjoy a fine meal. Also, we think about our trek out of sin, if you want to think of it that way, some of us 30 years ago. Let us look at some of the physical meanings first of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Turn to Exodus 12. We find, of course, the nine plagues that occurred and the tenth was about to occur - the Passover, where the firstborn of Egypt was to be killed. That is all discussed in Exodus 12. Then as God is giving His instructions to Moses, we start into verse 15 where He starts talking about the Days of Unleavened Bread. Exodus 12:15: “‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation’” (just as we are having here - a commanded assembly if you want to call it that) “‘and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you.’” (The Last Day of Unleavened Bread, of course). “‘No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat - that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.’” And that is really the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread in the Old Testament - God bringing them out of Egypt. “‘Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.’” Verse 18: “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.’” And if you look at the context as well as other scriptures, it is referring to the end of the fourteenth day until the end of the twenty-first day that we are talking about here. Remember, the days started at evening in the Bible. Verse 19: “‘For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.’” So these instructions were given and sure enough the firstborn of the land of Egypt were struck and killed. Go on to verse 31: “Then he” (referring to Pharaoh) “called for Moses . . .” (The Companion Bible actually says sent a message to Moses, not implying that Moses and Aaron were out running around after they had been told to stay in for the night). Then he sent a message to Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “‘Rise and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.’” Verse 33: “And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste.” That is important - they were getting out of there fast. “For they said, ‘We shall all be dead.’ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.” This was a simple, poor slave people. I suspect their primary food was bread. It is generally fairly inexpensive, something that they would have. Here the only method of feeding themselves on a trip was to take the bread before it even had time to be leavened. Verse 35: “Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.” They did have a lot to pack up. “The Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” Skip down to verse 39: “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.” So here we have the Old Testament physical meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Let us look at the spiritual meaning of putting out of leaven. There is a New Testament scripture in Colossians 2 that some people have used in the past to try to prove that the holy days are no longer to be kept, or Sabbaths for that matter either. Let’s read it. Colossians 2:16: “Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” I am reading from the New King James version. Let’s look at this verse a little more carefully. It says, “...let no one judge you in food or drink...” Festival, of course, refers to God’s festivals. Verse 17: “...which are a shadow of things to come.” Now this also means to foreshadow something. In other words, we are looking here at festivals which show future events, and in the case of the Passover a past event, in God’s plan. It is actually showing us something here, it is not something that is to be done away with. It says, “...but the substance is of Christ.” A better translation of this is “but the body of Christ.” The word “is” does not even belong in there. It was added by the translators because they did not know what else to do with it. It says, “...let no one judge you” in these things but the body of Christ. Now what is the body of Christ? If you go back to Colossians 1:18 that term “the body of Christ” is defined. “He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” The body is the Church. So in verse 17 what we are saying is let no one judge you but the body of Christ, or the Church in other words. The body of Christ is to determine how the festivals, Sabbaths, etc. are to be kept. So, if anything, what this verse does is it shows us that the Church is to be keeping the festivals. These festivals are explained further in the New Testament of the Bible - their full spiritual meaning. Turn to Matthew 16 for Christ’s teaching. In Matthew 16 Christ will tell us about the meaning of leavening in the spiritual sense. In Matthew 16:5 - “And when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.’ And they reasoned among themselves saying, ‘It is because we have taken no bread.’” They thought they were in trouble because they forgot to pack a lunch, and that wasn’t it at all, of course. Verse 8: “But when Jesus perceived it, He said to them, ‘O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?’” They were not looking for spiritual meaning. They were just looking at physical meanings here. But we have to, as some would say, dig a little deeper. “‘Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? - but you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” In my Bible here for doctrine it also says “teaching.” So He was trying to get them to look at things spiritually. Here He is comparing leaven to this doctrine or teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Turn to Luke 12. He fills in a few more details on this. In Luke 12 He had just finished calling the Pharisees hypocrites. If you think of teaching, how does a person teach? Of course, he can teach by speaking to someone but he can also teach by his example. In this case, the Pharisees had given an example of what their teachings were and it was not good. Let’s read Luke 12:1 “In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.’” Here He has defined it a little bit further. “‘For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.’” Now the dictionary definition of hypocrisy is: to pretend to have beliefs or virtues that one does not really have, also insincerity. So if you want to define hypocrisy: to pretend to have beliefs or virtues that one does not really have or insincerity. It comes from a Greek word that means “to play a part” - as in playing a part in a play. The Greeks were famous for their Greek tragedies that you may have read about in high school, that sort of thing. Often they would wear masks and they would play a part. The word hypocrisy comes from that word. In verse 2, “‘For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.’” So the Pharisees had certain hidden beliefs and actions that were not good and these would eventually come out. Verse 3: “‘Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.’” So Christ saw through their hypocrisy and others would eventually too. Leaven represented insincerity here and hypocrisy. The Apostle Paul wrote the scripture we often use for looking at the New Testament meaning of leaven. Turn to I Corinthians 5. Paul was looking at the spiritual meaning of the feast, not just the physical meaning. He wrote the scripture that people often turn to try to understand what leavening represents. I Corinthians 5:8: “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.” What is malice? Malice is a desire to harm others - to see others suffer. What is wickedness? Wickedness is practicing evil. The Interlinear Greek says “evil disposition and tendency.” So we are not to have this malice and wickedness but instead the unleavened bread of sincerity. Of course, sincerity is just the opposite of hypocrisy. I know a man who was once described as being exactly as he appeared, he had no front to him. In other words, a very sincere person, and that is the way we are supposed to be. So, the unleavened bread of sincerity and also of truth. Remember there is a scripture that is the Bible definition of truth: John 17:17 - “‘Sanctify them by Thy truth, Thy word is truth.’” So that is the way we are really supposed to be. Sincere and living by God’s truth. We talked about malice which meant to desire to harm others. There is a scripture on that. Keep your finger here because we are coming back. Let’s go to Romans 13 for a moment. Romans 13:10 - “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” So here we have malice which means to harm another person and love is just the opposite. It does not harm a neighbor. Romans 13:10 says, “...love is the fulfillment of the law.” That is one of the definitions of love that is given in the Bible. The Church taught that years ago. So, leavening is really representing breaking God’s law and the opposite is really keeping God’s law - this law of outgoing concern, this law of love. Remember the same person who wrote Romans and I Corinthians 5 also wrote I Corinthians 13, the love chapter. We won’t go there right now but he knew all about love. He taught all about it - that way of outgoing concern. Let’s go back to I Corinthians 5. This time I would like to pick it up one verse ahead. I Corinthians 5:7 - “Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast...” Of Course, the feast they are talking about is the Days of Unleavened Bread. You can tell that from the context because he keeps talking about leaven and unleavened bread - another proof we should be keeping the feast. “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.” So we should not only be putting out the physical leaven, but we put out sin too. That is what we are trying to learn from this. Now there is a characteristic of sin verse 2 will tell us about. Sin tends to puff up a person - feeling rather arrogant about themselves at times. This is one of the causes of sin at times. Read again I Corinthians 5:1 - “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles - that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up” My margin says, “arrogant.” That is another word for it. “...and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, concerning him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” Verse 6: “Your glorying is not good.” Glory - again very arrogant and thinking very highly of themselves as a result of sin. “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” His comparison here between sin and leaven is, of course, that leaven spreads through the whole lump of dough. It can spread from person to person. It can also spread in a person. If we are allowing certain sins in ourselves and it is unrepented of, we become callous to sin. We are going to sin again and increase the amount of sin we are doing. That is not a good cycle to be into. We are supposed to be aware of sin and be sensitive to how we are acting. We are supposed to be judging ourselves. When I was reading the verses in Exodus 12 (we won’t go back there), I remember one of the verses (in fact more than one) said, “You shall eat unleavened bread.” It was not just to avoid leavening. It said, “You shall eat unleavened bread.” The teaching of the Church over the years has not been that you have to eat unleavened bread every meal, every day, that sort of thing. The idea is if you are going to eat bread anyway at a meal, it should be unleavened bread, and you surely do not want to go through the whole Days of Unleavened Bread without eating any unleavened bread. We are to eat unleavened bread during this time. In I Corinthians 5 when we talk about replacing the leaven of malice and wickedness with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, we are talking about a replacement here. In Romans 12 we can talk about that a little bit more. It is also known as the Christian living chapter. It is very appropriate to be thinking about when we talk about putting out sin and we are supposed to be living as Christians. Romans 12:2 - “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” So instead of being conformed to the world, in other words, living as the world does, we replace that behavior with a renewing of our minds. See we are replacing the bad with the good. It is hard to just get rid of something without filling it up with something else. There is a little saying, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” When someone poured this glass of water that I am about to take a drink from, the water went in and the air had to go out. With the air out of this glass, you had to put something in it otherwise it would just fill right back in. The same way with us. We take out the bad; we have to put something good in. How can we do that? What are some examples? One way to do it is just to look at the ten commandments and look at them in their spiritual intent in terms of putting out something bad and putting something good in. The first commandment: not to have any other gods before the true God. Of course, we are to serve God wholeheartedly. A certain evangelist used to say God does not want any half-hearted anything. That is certainly good and certainly the right approach. We should be serving God with enthusiasm and here we are having this opportunity now more than any of us had dreamed - to serve God in a more influential way and with more impact than we ever would have had before. I was reading an article a few years ago by a Jewish man and he used to comment that some Jewish people when they wake up in the morning the first thing they say is, “Rise up like a lion for the service of the Lord.” I thought, yes, that is great! Wake up in the morning realizing you are going to try to serve God that day and try to serve Him with enthusiasm. That is what we are going to try to do. The second commandment against idolatry - now, of course, we are not going to have idolatrous pictures on our walls and that sort of thing. We would like to study to understand who and what God is. We feel like we understand that quite well. We always want to review that type of thing. But, also as we were reminded a few weeks ago, we do not want to limit God. To limit God is putting Him in a box. It is almost like idolatry itself. It is a false concept of God. If we believe in a God who cannot do what needs to be done, who does not keep His promises and is not great, there are things He just cannot handle - no, that is not the true God. The third commandment against using God’s name in vain - of course, we do not want to do that. We know we are not to do that. We are to represent the Christian way of life - to glorify God’s name in all we do. The fourth commandment about the Sabbath - of course, we are not going to work on the Sabbath which is a physical aspect. But, how do we spend our Sabbath? We spend some amount of the day in study, prayer and meditation and trying to make the Sabbath a delight for those around us. Have a very positive approach to the Sabbath. The fifth commandment: honoring our parents - of course, we do not want to dishonor them. We want to provide for their physical needs, those of us who still have parents who are alive. But, also we need to go out of our way to spend time with our parents as we are able. The sixth commandment against killing. Now, we know we are not to kill anybody and in the Sermon of the Mount Jesus Christ said that if you hate anybody it is essentially murder. That was a spiritual aspect of that law. We are not to be looking down on people or condemning them, cursing them in all of the ways that that could be done. We are not to be doing any of that kind of thing. In fact, we are supposed to replace that with, “having kindly affection toward one another in brotherly love,” as one of the scriptures says. Then against adultery, of course, we do not commit adultery, we are not to. Jesus Christ said do not even think about it because that would be breaking it in the spirit of the law. But, also going a bit further, those who have spouses - give our spouses a happy marriage. Be really positive about this. Our spouses deserve all the benefits of a happy marriage with a Christian. Stealing - the eighth commandment: we should be living the giving way of life. Remember Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, “There are two ways of life - give and get.” We are to live the giving way of life. In fact, there is a scripture that talks about it, who have very little but give much. I have observed that many times about other people. I say, “How can they do that for somebody? They hardly have enough for themselves.” They will be very generous to another person. I think that is just wonderful when I see that kind of thing. Against bearing false witness, the ninth commandment - a positive approach might be to speak up and encourage people as we can. We are to be uplifting to others. We have that opportunity. The tenth commandment against covetousness - let’s look for ways to give to each other and to all of those we come in contact with. How are we going to do all of this? We cannot do it all by ourselves. It must be by Christ living in us by His Holy Spirit. We will cover that, to a large extent, on Pentecost and probably in between as well. Yet, again, realize we are not trying to earn our salvation. While we are in Romans let us go back to Romans 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, eternal life is a gift. It is not something we earn by keeping the commandments. We are to keep the commandments, it is required; but we are not earning salvation. Go back a little further in Romans 3. Some of these verses I am reading here are helping us to remember that Paul admonished people not to sin. It was not as if it was all being done for them or the other extreme that they were earning their salvation, neither one. Romans 3:24 “...being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation” (also translated as payment) “by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” Or in the old King James Version, the Authorized Version, it says, “God had passed over sins that are past.” In other words, the idea is that we are not to continue in sin and say, “Okay, Christ paid the penalty so we can just sin as we please.” No, that is not it at all. He paid for the sins that were past and we are not to continue in sin, although if we do fail, of course, we can ask for forgiveness and He will apply His sacrifice to us. Romans 6 - just to emphasize this just a little bit further - as Paul goes along here in Romans there are some scriptures that are difficult to understand the first, second and maybe a third time through. Peter even admitted that Paul had some writings that were difficult. But, as you are going through here, there are some very clear statements. So if a person was starting to get off track a little bit, he could read Romans 6:1-2 for example. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” Or, in the old King James, “God forbid!” “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” Verse 15: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” So we are not to be sinning. We are not to just drift along, follow right along with whatever temptation and broadcasting comes from Satan and the demons that go into our mind. We are not to follow along with whatever people around us are doing. No, we are not to be drifting along. Our part in God’s plan is to strive to obey God. Now, the Old Testament had some of this, believe it or not! Turn to Exodus 13. I do not know if Paul had considered any of this when he wrote his deeper spiritual meanings of leavening and unleavened bread. He was digging deeper, if you want to think about it that way. We are going to dig a little deeper in the Old Testament in just a few minutes here too. Exodus 13:6 - “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt.’” Again, showing the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread - coming out of Egypt. Verse 9: “It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.” It talks about a sign on your hand and a memorial between your eyes. What does this mean? I looked in Clark’s Commentary. He says this refers to what is called “phylacteries.” What the Jews did and, in fact, still do is they will have four strips of paper with verses on them in Hebrew from Exodus 13 - some of what we are reading here. Also from Deuteronomy 6, which we are going to get into in a little while here too, although I am not going to read exactly the same verses they do. They take these strips and put them in a little leather box. My dictionary just happens to have a picture of a Jewish man praying with these. They will have one like a strap that goes around the forehead and the other is on the left arm. I think it is up here, actually, intended to be close to the heart. So they are taking this very literally in a physical sense. They will only have these on while they are praying and studying. Clark’s Commentary mentions this as well. He feels like they miss the spiritual point; and, in a sense, they have. We will get into this a little bit further. Keeping your finger right here, let’s go to Matthew 23 because Christ had something to say about people who were trying to do that little portion of the Bible physically but were missing the spiritual point. Matthew 23:5 - the Pharisees were in trouble again. “‘But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.’” Broad phylacteries Clark thought maybe instead of a little box this was a big box that was more visible for people to see and think - oh, this man must be really righteous. He has lots of scriptures in his phylactery. Maybe they just had more pieces of paper in there than anybody else - in some ways trying to prove their own righteousness. That was not what this verse meant at all, not to say that there was anything wrong with the Jewish people doing that. But, you have to have the spiritual point as well. It says, “With a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt...” again tying this to coming out of Egypt but it talks about a “memorial between your eyes.” What could that mean? Of course, we think with our brain. Our brain is more or less between our eyes. It is talking about what we think - our will, if you think about it in that way. The Lord’s law is to be in our will, in our mind and also a sign on your hand. In other words, what you do. You are supposed to be living by God’s law. This is the spiritual intent of these verses. So what we have seen right here is you have a discussion of what does all of this mean about the Days of Unleavened Bread and God says it is because of coming out of Egypt but it is also because of putting the law in your mind and in your actions. So right here we are talking about basically putting out sin during the Days of Unleavened Bread and putting God’s law in. It is in the Old Testament right here! I heard this years ago in Worldwide, and I was quite amazed when I heard this. It is absolutely correct. It is showing us that the Days of Unleavened Bread are to be putting out of sin even using an Old Testament scripture to prove it. Let’s go to Deuteronomy 6 because we are going to have some of the same type of thing in there. We are going to start in verse 6. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand…” Again, here is what they interpret, anyway, as a phylactery. “...and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Again, like putting something between your eyes. But again, we can see the spiritual intent here would actually be on your hand is what you do and between your eyes is what you think - what your will is. This is how God’s laws are that we are supposed to be teaching to our children. They are supposed to be in us, in our mind and in our actions. We sin in thoughts and actions. We sin one way or the other don’t we, or both? It is wrong but we do and we are trying to repent of that. Deuteronomy 6:20 - “‘When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your son: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us into give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.”’” So here, again, we are talking about coming out of Egypt and being associated with keeping God’s commandments, statutes and laws. It says it will be righteousness to us. This is in verse 25: “‘Then it will be righteousness to us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments…’” But, what is righteousness? There is a Bible definition of righteousness. Turn to Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 119:172 - “My tongue shall speak of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteousness.” That is the Bible definition of righteousness. All of Your commandments are righteousness. This is not self-righteousness, of course, where we think ourselves righteous. Before we said we keep the commandments by Christ living in us; we are not doing it all by ourselves. Now, I do not know if Paul considered all if this when he wrote his spiritual meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread. He might have. He was certainly digging a little deeper. We mentioned a little while ago, God’s law being in our hand and on our forehead. Symbolically the forehead, let’s talk about that just for a moment. Turn to Revelation 7. This is beginning to apply more and more directly to us. Revelation 7:1 - “After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.” Mr. Armstrong interpreted that as the Holy Spirit. “And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’” Why the word “forehead?” Again, what you think, what you do, what your will is. Verse 4: “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.” So here we have one hundred and forty-four thousand where God’s law is sealed in their mind. They have put out sin just as we are talking about doing during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Keep your hand here in Revelation and I would like to go back to Hebrews 10 for a minute. Talking about our minds again. Hebrews 10:15 - “And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Eternal: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’” So He says, “‘...in their minds I will write them.’” In other words, God’s laws will be written in our minds. In fact, they are being written there right now. We are trying to live by this covenant. So the hundred and forty-four thousand are to be among those at the marriage supper of the Lamb, of course - marriage supper of Christ. So let’s read about that just for a minute in Revelation. This time Revelation 19 where we will read about the marriage of the Lamb. Revelation 19:7 - “‘Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’” Of course, wife or woman is often symbolic of the Church. The Church has to make itself ready. Of course, we are very much dedicated to that - to helping the Church get ready, individually and as a spiritual organism. Verse 8: “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Or in the King James Version, it says, “...fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.” We were talking about righteousness a little while ago and that keeping God’s commandments would be righteousness to us, back in Deuteronomy. We were talking about having God’s law in our mind and in our hand. In other words, what we do would be righteousness to us. Here we are talking about righteousness symbolized by fine linen, by clothing. Righteousness has this same symbol in the Old Testament. I would like to turn there just for a moment as well. Back to Deuteronomy, Chapter 24. What we are doing is going beyond a basic understanding of the Days of Unleavened Bread. I know most of the sermons and sermonettes I have given over the last several years I have always tried to be very basic about it. I thought this time let’s try going a little bit further and a little more into the spiritual aspects of it to see what else we can learn. Deuteronomy 24:10 - “‘When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight. You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment…’” (let’s remember that) “‘…and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God.’” This is talking about if a poor person took out a loan, often some kind of collateral is required. Even right now, if you want a loan, usually you have to have some kind of collateral - not always. If you are poor enough, the only collateral you have is clothing. So, in this case a person might have to get a loan from someone and offer up some article of clothing as collateral. In this case, that is what is referred to here. As you read the whole thing, it is not as clear here as it is elsewhere where it is talked about. The point is, it says you “. . . return his pledge that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you and it should be righteousness to you.” It is interesting he talks about garments and righteousness in the same context just as in Revelation where he talked about fine linen, a garment, tied to righteousness. This was not a brand new idea in Revelation. There was actually some precedent way back in Deuteronomy. So, here you have garments related to righteousness. In another place where that is done in the Old Testament is Psalm 132. Let’s turn to Psalm 132:9 - “Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.” Now priests in the New Testament, well that is us! We are a royal priesthood. We are to be clothed with righteousness. We have learned that is a lesson of the Days of Unleavened Bread - that we learn to keep God’s commandments which is a definition of righteousness. So, let the priests, the New Testament Church in this case, be clothed with righteousness. Again, clothing and righteousness being tied together just as in Revelation. Now, Christ expects us to be clothed with righteousness and to have the fine linen, bright and clean. Turn to Matthew 22 where he talks about someone who does not. Matthew 22:1 - “And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: ‘The kingdom of heaven…’” Now, when I used to read these parables sometimes at the beginning of the parable I read over that where it says, “‘The kingdom of heaven is like…’” Sometimes I just read the rest of the thing and that is not right. You are talking about some aspect of the kingdom of heaven here. This is what we have to remember. “‘The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found - both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.’” Verse 11: “‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.’” Here we are talking about clothing again. “‘So he said to him, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’” So here we are talking about a wedding garment and someone being thrown out of the wedding for not having a garment. Now we know this wedding is referring to a king setting up a marriage for his son; it is the Father setting up a marriage for Christ. In other words, Christ’s wedding supper is what we are talking about here. Here someone did not have the fine linen bright and clean, the righteousness, the righteous acts (if you will); and he is not permitted to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is thrown out. We do not want to be in that situation. We want to be developing God’s holy righteous character. We want to be part of the firstfruits! We are called to develop that character now as part of the firstfruits. That is the message of the Days of Unleavened Bread - to be developing God’s holy righteous character. Remember, we have heard a way in which character is defined - to know what is right, to choose the right and to do it under all circumstances whether we really want to or not. There is no such thing as “situation ethics” with real character or with holy righteous character. We want to develop that holy righteous character so that we will have that wedding garment. We will be in bright linen, symbolic of righteousness, keeping God’s commandments, having that holy righteous character. We want to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb!