The Joy Diet
And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy. Ezra 6:22
Joy – What a shame that we know so little about God’s yearly feasts! We vaguely connect Passover with Easter, much to our loss. The symbols involved are far deeper, embedded in the history of God with men. So it is with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It began with the birth of the nation of Israel (see Exodus 12:15). The imagery is crucial. It is a tangible demonstration of the effects of sin and purity, set in the center of family life – the kitchen. It is a time when the routine preparation and the usual food on the table is radically altered in order to express obedience to God, expulsion of sin and purity of life.
But that isn’t all. Deuteronomy 28:47 tells us that God expects His people to make these changes in diet with joy. The Hebrew word is simkhah. Gladness, pleasure, rejoicing, cheer and celebration accompany this word. When God calls for a feast, even a feast of abstinence, He looks for hearts that leap with joy to perform it.
We might think otherwise. Bread with yeast is quite different. Our palates are used to another texture and flavor. Like most diets, we often exclaim how difficult it is to deny ourselves the usual pleasures. But God expects us to be joyful, not because it’s a pleasure to eat this strange bread, but because it is a pleasure to obey the King. During this week, Israel was reminded at every meal that God is holy. In preparation for this feast, every person in Israel made a thorough search of the communal living space as a symbol of the necessity for complete investigation of every corner of the heart before the holy God. This was serious business, resulting in a wonderful celebration.
Maybe we are missing something today. We’ve left behind one of God’s great festivals – a feast that celebrates His holiness and our need for decontamination. As a result, we have no yearly, joyful reminder of God’s purity. Maybe we need to experience the joy of being at God’s table by recapturing this event. Maybe, until the King returns, it’s appropriate to spend a week eating meals that remind us of the need for the Passover lamb, even after the Lamb has come.
If there is one thing missing in the lives of most believers today, it is joy. Life pushes us toward frenzy, drains us of time and crowds out relationships. We come home exhausted and empty. Vacations are merely respites between interminable work battle zones. But when we read of Jesus, Peter and Paul, we see a different kind of living. They were not immune to agony, hardship and pressures, but they knew joy. They celebrated during the worst of times. They had something we don’t seem to have, but desperately need. Maybe God was quite right to institute a feast like the Unleavened Bread. A week drawing closer and closer to Him at every meal can’t be bad. He seemed to think it was essential. Maybe joy is found in a different diet – a diet of obedience and holiness. Are you ready to remove the yeast?
