Some among us like to count things in Scripture. Now, maybe you weren’t counting, but this passage contains three more references to God’s deliverance—in verses 3, 8, and 9.
In verse 3, God says to remember the day in which they went out, and verse 9 also calls this feast a memorial. Memorials cause God’s people to remember something foundational, and as we rehearse them, God’s lessons become imprinted into our being.
Thus, it is essential for us to have the right perspective of the memorials that God commands so that we remember the things God wants us to remember, and not merely remember something that is true, but which misses the larger object that God intends.
Now, just as we saw in chapter 12, this passage states the reason and the object of this feast, which is to remember that God brings His people out of slavery. God’s merciful deliverance undergirds everything else this feast entails.
Verse 9 here contains a critical detail. It says part of the reason we eat unleavened bread and avoid leavening is “that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth.” This is curious because what is physically in our mouths this week is unleavened bread. But here, God begins to show that the unleavened bread is symbolic. It is a token or a teaching vehicle to bring something more important to mind. We are not going to explore this just yet, but make a mental note for now, and we will come back to it.
Back in Exodus 13:9, we read that part of this feast is having God’s law in our mouths. The word translated “law” there is torah, which encompasses much more than the 10 Commandments, or even, say, the holiness code. In its broadest sense, it means “teaching” or “instruction.” Everything that is part of God’s revelation to mankind is part of His teaching, and therefore, what should be in our mouths this week.
The question, though, is what it means for God’s revelation to be “in our mouths” because the mouth can refer to speaking as well as to eating. Really, though, in the case of this feast, both applications fit.
The phrase, “in your mouth,” refers to speaking more often than to eating. In this way, God’s instructions should be a large part of what we speak about. This can challenge us. If we have been in the church for a number of years, perhaps the sheen has come off our calling. Maybe the truth, and the relationship with God, may not be as riveting or exhilarating as when our conversion process started, when we saw God dramatically change our lives, so we really don’t talk about it any longer. We talk about other things that fill our minds.
One of the natural laws we must continually fight against is entropy, of letting down, of leaving our primary love. And so, God, in His wisdom, instituted memorials to help us to remember Him and His work. And if we are reflecting on God’s work with us internally, it will come out, because “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” What we communicate gives evidence of what our minds and hearts are turned toward.
The other meaning of the mouth is as a symbol of eating. It indicates that taking in God’s word should be a significant part of this Feast, even more than usual. We can tie the eating aspect to what it says in Deuteronomy 8:3—that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Thus, what we eat is a symbol for what we take in and which then feeds our minds and fuels our lives. And to come full circle, if God’s word is what we feed on, it is also what will be what is on our minds, and thus, what we speak about.
Some among us like to count things in Scripture. Now, maybe you weren’t counting, but this passage contains three more references to God’s deliverance—in verses 3, 8, and 9.
In verse 3, God says to remember the day in which they went out, and verse 9 also calls this feast a memorial. Memorials cause God’s people to remember something foundational, and as we rehearse them, God’s lessons become imprinted into our being.
Thus, it is essential for us to have the right perspective of the memorials that God commands so that we remember the things God wants us to remember, and not merely remember something that is true, but which misses the larger object that God intends.
Something similar happened in the histories of Israel and Judah. Under some of the kings, the feasts were observed, but the people didn’t remember the correct things. The books of Amos and Isaiah record that they had a good time and they paid lip-service to God, but the feasts did not produce anything lasting. The people did not tie their observance to the correct reasons, and so the feasts lost their effectiveness—their God-given power. Without the focus that God intends, the feasts became good times with a religious gloss, but they were not truly kept to God. They can even be times of debauchery, as we saw with the idolatrous Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel last fall. Over the centuries and millennia, Israel and Judah forgot what God said to remember, and it has all gone downhill.
Now, just as we saw in chapter 12, this passage states the reason and the object of this feast, which is to remember that God brings His people out of slavery. God’s merciful deliverance undergirds everything else this feast entails.
Verse 9 here contains a critical detail. It says part of the reason we eat unleavened bread and avoid leavening is “that the Lord’s law may be in your mouth.” This is curious because what is physically in our mouths this week is unleavened bread. But here, God begins to show that the unleavened bread is symbolic. It is a token or a teaching vehicle to bring something more important to mind. We are not going to explore this just yet, but make a mental note for now, and we will come back to it.
