Bread

Bread was such a staple food in the Bible lands and times, that the Mosaic Law forbade taking a man’s millstone if he owed a debt, because it would in essence be taking his life.  The first instruction God gave in regards to bread, besides the declaration that man would eat bread by the sweat of his brow, was pertaining to the Feast of Unleavened Bread established right before the Israelites left Egypt.

     Exodus 12:14-16, 17-20:

     And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD

     throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. 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 ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for

     in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall

     ye observe this day in 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, even that soul shall be cut off from

     the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. Ye shall eat

     nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

After the first Passover, the people gathered their things and the items given to them by their

Egyptian neighbors and set off to follow Moses through the wilderness.  

     Deuteronomy 24:6: No one shall take a handmill or an upper millstone in pledge, for he 

     would be taking a life in pledge.

     Exodus 12:34, 39:

     And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being

     bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And they baked unleavened cakes of the

     dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were

     thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any

     victual.

In chapter 13, they were reminded again to “keep this ordinance (Feast of Unleavened Bread

with the Passover) in its season from year to year” as a memorial for all their generations to

come. (Exodus 13:10) He told them three times to make sure they understood. Then, after the

great escape from the Egyptian Army through the Red Sea, God told them:

     Exodus 15:26:

     And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do

     that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his

     statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the

     Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Up to this point, the only commandments and statutes that God gave to Israel in addition to the

command to leave Egypt and dedication of the firstborn were a few ordinances that involved

specific instructions about food.  The Law had not yet come to Moses, yet adherence to these

few seemingly insignificant commands guaranteed the health of His people.