The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The Feasts of Israel: Part 9
At the same time God instructed His people how to prepare their first Passover, He connected it to the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Families would not only busy themselves with lamb preparation the first day of future Passovers, they’d also be clearing their homes of leaven. It would be a full seven days before the sweet fragrance of yeasted bread tickled their noses once more.
Why this focus on leaven? In part, it has to do with what it symbolized.
Leaven’s legacy
Leaven is most often mentioned in Scripture in reference to something that ought to be put away—such as hypocrisy (Luke 12:1) or malice and wickedness (1 Corinthians 5:1–8). Like yeast, sin may begin inconsequentially, but it soon ferments. Its influence grows until the whole loaf of our life is touched by it. Setting aside leaven demonstrates a spiritual resolve to put away sin from our lives.
This ritual abstinence, however, wasn’t meant to be burdensome. The feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were supposed to be joyful celebrations. Unleavened bread wasn’t just associated with separation from sin, it also played a role in events such as the consecration of priests (Leviticus 8:1–3) and the sanctification of Nazarite vows (Numbers 6:1–13).
In other words, the separation process may be difficult, but it leads to the joy of consecration. Abstaining from sin (or even yeast) isn’t about proving what strong wills we have or how tough we can be. It brings the glad reward of more intimate involvement with God.
Learning from Tradition
Exodus 12:8–20 gives minimal details about the leaven clearing process, but traditions developed over time. One was for fathers to give each of their children a candle with which to search the house. When they spotted a crumb, they called out to their father who swept up the leaven for them and threw it into the fire.[1]
We too need God’s candle when we search our own hearts. Without His wisdom, we can’t tell the difference between a dust bunny that needs a simple sweep or a crumb of leaven that needs total destruction. Nor do we have the power to exterminate even the smallest grain of sin on our own. We need to call on our heavenly Father who alone can destroy it utterly.
Seven Days to Completion
That still leaves the question of why the feast ran a full week. Surely the majority of leaven was destroyed in the search on the first day. Why stay vigilant for seven?
The Feast of Unleavened Bread actually began the same day as Passover. While one was a celebration of separation, the other was a celebration of deliverance. In previous blogs, we connected Israel’s rescue from Egypt to our own personal salvation stories. So we can think of the surge of house cleaning on the first day of Unleavened Bread as being like the first flush of holiness we experience on being reborn in Christ’s household. We suddenly find many sinful habits in our lives we’re glad to get rid of.
Nevertheless, the rest of the week of our lives remains to watch for what else may need removal. None of us gets rid of all sin at one time—a fact that neither disappoints nor surprises God.
The joy of the Feast of Unleavened Bread comes in the symbolism of seven. As with the days of Creation, seven suggests completion. As we move from the first flush of change at salvation, our Father will continue to bring hidden sin to light bit by bit. As we confess what we’ve found and cry out to Him, He will continue to destroy what we cannot. The week of Unleavened Bread promises a day when we shall find ourselves utterly and completely consecrated to God. And, ah. Isn’t that the joy of our salvation?
[1] Michael Norten, Unlocking the Secrets of the Feasts (Nashville: West Bow Press, 2012, 2015), 16–17.