Three Annual Feasts
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What Does Exodus 23:15 Mean?
Exodus 23:14-16
The "three times" are three general periods during which God's holy days fall. Passover and Unleavened Bread occur in early spring, the "Feast of Harvest" in late spring, and the "Feast of Ingathering" in the fall.
Earl L. Henn
Holy Days: Pentecost
Exodus 23:15
The fundamental reason God gives for the Feast of Unleavened Bread appears in verse 17: "for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt." In other words, this Feast is a commanded memorial of God's deliverance. Additionally, because it is a Feast, God intends it to be a time of rejoicing. Granted, the food we eat is somewhat unusual compared to what we normally associate with a festive occasion, but nonetheless, this Feast is an appointed time for us to remember God's deliverance.
Physical Israel kept this Feast as a memorial of God delivering them from Egypt. Lot's deliverance from Sodom may also have taken place during this Feast (see Genesis 19:3). Spiritual Israel keeps it as a memorial of a far greater, spiritual deliverance from the power of darkness.
Exodus 23:15 reiterates the basic reason for this Feast:
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).
Again, God ties the command to observe this Feast with His deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The context in which this appears is God's instruction to keep Feasts to Him during three seasons each year. Hitting the high points of the appointed times, He does not mention the avoidance of leavening. Its absence does not mean avoiding leavening is unimportant (as other verses show), but it indicates that God is emphasizing other things in this Feast.
In all of God's instructions for this Feast, there are more references to eating unleavened bread than to putting out or avoiding leavening. The instructions, then, are weighted toward the positive aspect of eating rather than the negative aspect of avoiding. Even the name of the Feast gives us an obvious clue to what God intends the focus to be: eating unleavened bread, rather than avoiding leavening.
Moses records a third witness of this in 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.
We see the same two elements here, and thus the same emphasis. Yet, we must be careful with the wording of these instructions, as it contains a detail that can influence the way we think about this Feast. Both this verse and Exodus 23:15 speak of coming out of Egypt. That is indeed what happened, but the wording obscures who was truly responsible.
The effect of such wording can be like a child saying, "The milk got spilled," or "The rock accidentally went through the window." The critical matter of who caused these things to happen slides into the background, and we can understand why a child might prefer that.
The Israelites literally "came out from Egypt"—they walked—but they did not cause themselves to leave it. God made it possible for them to walk away from slavery by decimating their captors, and then God Himself led them out of Egypt "by day in a pillar of cloud . . . and by night in a pillar of fire" (Exodus 13:21).
We should never forget by whose hand these things occurred. Israel "came out from Egypt" only because of God's intervention. They had instructions from Moses to follow, and they had to make the effort to walk, but it was not by their efforts that they were delivered. As Exodus 12:51 reads, "And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt . . . ." The focus of this Feast, then, must remain on God's activity.
David C. Grabbe
Why Do We Observe Unleavened Bread? (Part One)
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Exodus 23:15:
Exodus 12:17-20
Exodus 12:17-20
Exodus 12:19-20
Leviticus 23:9-14
Deuteronomy 16:9
Joshua 5:10-11
| << Exodus 23:14 | Exodus 23:16 >> |
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