Unleavened Bread

(Exodus 12:15-20; 23:14-17; Leviticus 23:6-8; Numbers 28:17-25; Deuteronomy 16:3-8)

The day after Passover began the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, with both the fifteenth day and the twenty-first day of the first month celebrated as Sabbaths. During this time, from sundown on the fourteenth to sundown on the twenty-first, no leaven was to be anywhere in an Israelite home and they were to eat only unleavened bread. This was one of the three Festivals during the year when all males were to come together before God in Jerusalem.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they were in a hurry and couldn’t wait for their bread to rise before it was baked, so they ate it without leavening, as quick flatbread. It is quite possible that it took them a week to arrive at and cross the Red Sea, finally leaving the last physical traces of Egyptian bondage behind them – the Pharaoh and his army lying dead on the seashore. After that, they no longer needed to be in a hurry. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminded them of this experience. Leaven is also used in scripture as a symbol of sin and, as they were supposed to get rid of all traces of leaven for that week, they were to put sin away from their lives.

The Festival of Unleavened Bread is a symbol of the purifying process that God wants to do in our lives. Leaven is a symbol of sin and its many manifestations:

false teachings–

Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.   Matthew 16:6

And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.   Mark 8:15

hypocrisy–

In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.   Luke 12:1

malice and wickedness–

Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  1 Corinthians 5:7, 8

Even though the Israelites were delivered physically from Egypt, they still had Egypt in their hearts and wanted to return on several occasions. God has delivered us from the tyranny of Satan and sin. Will we allow Him to free us from the urge to return?