John 8:32
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Freedom is what Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are ultimately about. God’s freeing Israel from bondage in Egypt is the object lesson that we are to apply spiritually. Truth and freedom go hand- in- hand. Ignoring this fact is why the Christian world is in the condition it is in. The vast majority of Christians do not really mark the death of Jesus Christ in the way that God commands us to observe it. They may be very much aware of it, and it is a large part of their teaching: They understand that Christ died for our sins. But they miss its full importance—its full impact—because they do not observe the Passover. Thus the lesson is missed.
Truth and freedom go hand- in -hand, but truth will produce freedom only as it is used. That ought to be self-evident. We can know something is true, but if we fail to use it, what good is it? Its value is worthless unless it is used. Freedom and truth come to those who press on. Freedom, the kind of freedom that God is involved in bringing us into, comes progressively, not all at once. These are lessons from the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Pentecost is unique among the holy days because it is the only annual feast determined by counting. All the other festivals God commands us to keep on certain dates on the calendar, but we must count for Pentecost. Whether we count fifty days or seven weeks or seven Sabbaths from the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, we must still go through the exercise of measuring the time to keep the feast properly. Why? It appears that God wants us to count, number, or measure the time of our conversion. This should bring several well-known verses to mind. For instance, Paul considers us wise if we are “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). Measuring teaches us to realize and use carefully the ever-shrinking time we have to come “to measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
