Exodus 12:15-20

"Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day, ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel And in the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses, for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a sojourner, or one that is born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread."

It is true that these instructions regarding the holy convocations at the beginning and at the end of the passover week were applicable to later times after Israel had entered into the land of Canaan, but no such fact negates the truth that these instructions came along with and accompanied that very first Passover. In a very similar way, Jesus Christ gave very specific teaching regarding the Lord's Supper in John 6:56ff, at a time long before it was possible for his disciples to do what he commanded there. The instructions here were, in time, faithfully carried out, but in the context of that first Passover, they would indeed eat the unleavened bread, but the holy convocations would have to wait.

"Leaven ..." This, by reason of God's instructions here, was made to be a symbol of corruption, sin, wickedness, and impurity. Paul gave the spiritual application of it in 1 Corinthians 5:7, and Jesus mentioned it in Matthew 16:6-12. The only instance in which leaven might not have been intended to convey this meaning is that in the parable of the leaven hidden in three measures of meal (Matthew 13:33), and even there, if the true meaning is the final and total corruption of God's church by the forces of evil, it would still retain the unfavorable denotation. In our interpretation of that we found no way to accept the premise of the final corruption of the whole church (Matthew 16:18), and therefore construed a favorable meaning of leaven there.

"For in this selfsame day I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt ..." This sentence is the principal problem associated with the interpretation of this entire passage. In God's reference here to the exodus as an event already accomplished, past perfect tense, the critical scholars especially find proof (allegedly) that these instructions were not part of God's original rules for the Passover, but that they were later added to accommodate changed conditions. Even conservative scholars are inclined, generally, to admit the weight of this argument. Keil said, "Moses did not receive instructions concerning this seven days' feast until after the exodus."[19] Fields mentioned the possibility that "God did not relay instructions concerning this feast until after the departure was underway."[20] However, Fields mentioned "another interpretation" as possible, saying:.

"God said, `I have brought you out,' (a completed action) before he had actually brought them out, because the predicted act was as good as done in his determined plans. Numerous Bible prophecies are spoken of as completed acts.[21]

To us, this appears to be absolutely the correct understanding of the place. We have already pointed out that the instructions at this point for what could not be done until later is exactly paralleled in the instructions about the Lord's Supper before his death occurred. Jamieson also observed this and declared that:

"The close analogy traceable in all points between the Jewish and Christian Passovers is seen also in the circumstance that both festivals were instituted BEFORE the events they were designed to commemorate."[22]

We are amused at the boldness by which critical scholars misinterpret this place as if they had never even heard of the prophetic tense, one of the outstanding features of Holy Scripture, and which without doubt appears also in Exodus 12:17.