Did you know that the unleavened bread is also called the bread of affliction in the Bible? When I first knew this, I was kind of shocked. After all, that’s an unusual name for the unleavened bread. 

We read in Deuteronomy 16:1-4:

¹ “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the LORD chooses to put His name. ³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ⁴ And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

Now, that’s interesting. When I read this unusual reference to the unleavened bread, I immediately asked myself, why would God call the unleavened bread the bread of affliction? What does it represent? And why would God want us to eat unleavened bread, which is also known as the bread of affliction, for seven days during the days of unleavened bread?

The Bread of Affliction and Leaving Egypt

I believe one of the most important reasons God wants us to eat unleavened bread is for you to remember how painful it is to suffer because of the sins we commit. Notice, if you go back to Deuteronomy 16:3, you’ll read the reason why God called the unleavened bread the bread of affliction.

The reason given was that the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Well, okay — so, they were in a hurry to leave Egypt. So, what? What’s the big deal? That wasn’t so hard. 

Well, that’s what you think. The reason the Israelites took unleavened bread is because it took a longer time to prepare leavened bread. Bread doesn’t rise immediately. It takes a few minutes to hours for the bread to rise. That’s why, they decided to take unleavened bread instead.

Now, I want you to put yourself in the shoes of the Israelites. You need to leave Egypt on such short notice. You don’t have enough time to prepare. You have lived all your life in Egypt. You have already established yourself and your family in that country. Now, all of a sudden, you have to leave Egypt to an unknown land. Now, if you ask me, that’s absolutely an affliction of the soul.

Coming out of Egypt, coming out of sin

What’s interesting is that coming out of Egypt is painful. Egypt is a type of sin that we need to come out of. This tells us that overcoming sin is not always easy. Sometimes, the process is painful as well, and eating the bread of affliction reminds us of that very fact.

Here are some of the ways that eating unleavened bread during the Days of Unleavened Bread (DUB) serves as a bread of affliction:

• Fewer options to eat: we are commanded by God to avoid leavened products. As a result, we can’t eat the usual food that we are accustomed to eat. You can’t eat bread, cakes, crackers, breaded fried chicken, hamburgers, and so much more.
• Spring cleaning: God commanded us to remove leavening products and leavened goods in our lives. This means that we have to clean our homes thoroughly. This too demands a great deal of effort, time, and sacrifice.
• The unleavened bread itself: the unleavened bread is bland. It doesn’t taste good. It simply is a tasteless and uninteresting flatbread. Instead of eating the fluffy, soft, and tasty bread, we end up with only one option eating the unleavened bread.
• Overcome cravings: I don’t know about you, but it is quite astonishing for me that during DUB, that’s the time when we crave cakes and sweet bread. Yet, we have to overcome these desires to obey the commands of God.
• Be more careful with what you eat: if you are not careful, you might end up eating food with leavened products. Just to give you an example, I haven’t really thought that fried chickens may have leavened products, but they do when they are added to a breaded mix.

As you can see, the bread of affliction truly causes some level of discomfort, inconvenience, and pain on our part. 

The pain of sin and the pain of overcoming sin

Think about a sin that you always enjoy. Think about a sin that you feel so comfortable living with. Think about a sin that you don’t even think about overcoming. Whether it is an addiction, a sinful habit, worrying, pornography, gossiping, cussing, laziness, pride, greed, or envy, the list just goes on and on. These things can easily make us comfortable with sin. Now, overcoming these things is truly painful. Sin can be like a tumor growing in our body and removing it will not be painless.

So, sin brings pain in our lives, and overcoming sin also brings pain. The process of overcoming sin can be painful and that’s why God wants us to eat the bread of affliction to remind us of how sin can be very both deceptive and destructive.

Choose your pain

Now, here’s what I want us to realize, brethren, whatever decisions we make, we will experience pain. Let me explain that further. You see, living in sin brings pain. Overcoming sin brings pain. However, there’s a huge difference. The pain you get from sin leads to death. The pain you get from overcoming sin leads to life.

Both options bring pain, but the results are different. So, choose your pain. Are you going to suffer the pain of regret or the pain of overcoming? You decide, but I can tell you, brethren, that changing your sinful ways is all worth it.

Notice what we read in James 1:12:

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 

Enduring temptation is difficult. It’s not uncomfortable. At times, it is painful. However, this is what we are called to do. We are to eat the bread of affliction. We are not called to a life of comfort living in sin. Sooner or later, if we don’t change, we will all perish.

Nevertheless, if we overcome it. If we endure the pain of changing. What will happen? We will receive the crown of life.

So, brethren, choose your pain. Are you going to stay in your sin which brings pain or are you going to change to enjoy the blessings God has promised to us both now and in the life to come? The choice is yours, but as we eat of the bread of affliction, may we all learn to make the right choice.

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