Now it came about when they had finished circumcising all the nation, that they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

 

Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

 

While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho.

 

And on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

 

And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year (Joshua 5:8-12).

We see above that it was on the very day after the children of Israel celebrated the Passover that they began to eat the fruit of the land. There is a fundamental connection between remembering the Passover sacrifice of Christ, and our beginning to walk in the fruit of the Spirit as I Corinthians 5:7 states: "Christ our Passover." We need to look briefly at this connection before our study of the fruit of the Spirit.

We stated last week that to partake of the Passover refocused Israel on their true Deliverer. It is Christ who has delivered us from our bondage. Just as Israel was commanded to celebrate the Passover Feast year after year so that they would never forget this, we, too, need to always remember that it is the cross of Jesus that delivers us from our bondage and from death, giving us eternal life. The more we start to walk in the fruit of the Spirit and possess our promises, the more we need to be reminded that this is not the result of our own righteousness or our own ability. It is a free gift we should always be thankful for, even through eternity. This is why the Lord is called “the Lamb” throughout eternity as we see in the book of Revelation. Eternity will not be long enough for us to thank Him for His great salvation!

It was on the very night that Israel partook of the first Passover that would be their last night in Egypt and bondage. Their whole lives changed so radically that they would never again see all that they had been familiar with their whole lives. They would from that day on journey to lands in a new realm they had never seen before. This is how radically our lives should change when we come to Christ. As we are told in II Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” This represents the new birth that we have when we partake of Christ as our Passover.

However, a birth is not the end goal, but the beginning. Israel was born again on that night, but it took many years for them to become mature enough to be able to take their land. One whole generation that could not get Egypt and bondage out of their hearts had to pass away, and another grow to maturity before they could enter into their full purpose. The Lord wanted the first generation to enter, but they disqualified themselves by their lack of faith. We, too, will need to have faith in God to possess our Promised Land.

A part of the Passover Feast that Israel was also commanded to celebrate is called: “The Feast of Unleavened Bread.” In Scripture, leaven represented two seemingly opposite evils. One is sin and wickedness, which we see in I Corinthians 5:6-8:

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

 

Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

 

Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of sin and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

In Matthew 16:6 Jesus warned His disciples to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” This represented the legalism of those movements. We see that leaven represents both the lawlessness of sin and wickedness and the self-righteousness of legalism. These are the two ditches that are on either side of the path of life. Both of them are referred to as leaven even though they seem to be the opposite problem. This is because they each work into a person’s life like leaven. When you place just a tiny bit of leaven into a lump of dough, it quickly begins to spread until it has penetrated the entire lump. Such is the nature of both lawlessness and legalism.

The tragedy is when many fall into one of these ditches they may get out, but then they often so overreact to the ditch that they go to the opposite extreme and fall into the ditch on the other side. Reactionary people will spend much of their lives going from one extreme to the other. Because of them some of the worst doctrine, theologies, and even heresies have spread through parts of the body of Christ. If we are going to be free of these, we must refuse to let mistakes, failures, or wounds be the source of our beliefs and the way we live. We must resolve to believe the Word of God and only the clear teaching of Scripture.

Israel celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a reminder of how they left Egypt in such haste that their bread did not have time to become leavened (see Exodus 12:33-39, and Deuteronomy 16:3). That, too, is how we keep such leaven from our lives—we must leave Egypt in haste. Even though we are leaving for the purpose of inheriting a Promised Land, we do need to get out of bondage fast, fleeing the evil ways of this world. Egypt represents the ways of this world that keep people in bondage. People who come to the Lord, but are slow to make the complete departure from their old ways, will inevitably end up back in bondage.

In recent years, studies have been made that indicate that there is no longer a distinguishable difference between the character of Christians and non-Christians when it comes to basic issues such as morality, cheating, lying, and stealing. This reveals that the leaven of the world has gotten back into the bread of the church and spread. This condition will not last long, but will soon change because the church is about to endure a new circumcision and then celebrate the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread again. The cross and the crucified life will soon become restored to the church. We will not be able to go on to possess our promises until this is accomplished. We will go no further in our present condition.

Again, to keep the leaven out of our bread, we must keep moving forward, growing, and going on to maturity. However, we are not to be moving in reaction to past mistakes or problems, but rather in the pursuit of God and the fulfillment of His purposes. The children of Israel were leaving bondage, but God did not come with a promise of just getting them out of their troubles, but rather of leading them to the Promised Land. We must always keep this in mind. We do not live in reaction to the ways of the world, but in obedience to God. There is a difference. One will lead to the religious spirit that is rooted in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the other will be eating of the Tree of Life.

When someone starts to slow down and camp too long in one place, either sin and wickedness, or legalism, will tend to creep into their lives. This is why movements are so important to the body of Christ. Each one is intended to keep us moving forward toward our purpose, growing closer to the Lord and becoming like Him. If we are not moving forward, growing more Christlike by growing in the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, and growing in power and authority, we will regress. To not be moving forward is to become lukewarm at best, which is the most dangerous condition any Christian could ever fall into.

So here we see that immediately after the circumcision, Israel celebrated the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, and then immediately began to eat the fruit of the land. The principle is that our fruitfulness is the result of what Christ did on the cross, which we must always keep in mind. The way we keep the leaven out of our bread is to leave Egypt in haste, and keep moving, growing, and going on to maturity. When Christians begin to do these two things again, we will begin to immediately see the fruit. We will also begin the conquest that we have been waiting so long for.