This is a continuation of the seven feasts of the Jewish faith. Last week we looked at the Feast of Passover; you can read it here. You can find the INTRODUCTION to the feasts here.
Description: The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a continuation of Passover and occurs on the fifteenth day of the first month. It symbolizes when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus 12:14-17, “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.”
Leviticus 23:6-8 gives the account of the feast that is routinely to happen, “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”
The Jewish people were expected to remove all sources of leavenings from their homes during this time. Today, it is not uncommon for Jewish homes to have two separate kitchens and dishes to be used during this time so the yeast doesn’t mix with other food. I read that some people today sell their food with leavening agents to their neighbors before this feast and buy it back after it is over. It seems like a technicality to me.
To put it simply, yeast is typically a symbol for sin. It takes a very small amount of yeast to make dough rise. Sin is the same way. A little sin can quickly escalate to more sin.
Jesus spoke about yeast in Galatians 5:9 and 1 Cor 5:7-8.
Galatians 5:9 “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” This verse typically refers to sin and the corruption of people around us. All sin has some sort of damage for everyone around, not just the one sinning.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 says to “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
In Matthew 13:33, Jesus told a parable that was about growth, restoration, and transformation. “He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Www.gotquestions.org puts it this way, “Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6) – Pointed to the Messiah’s sinless life (as leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible), making Him the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Jesus’ body was in the grave during the first days of this feast, like a kernel of wheat planted and waiting to burst forth as the bread of life.”
In her book, A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel, Jill Shannon writes, “The seven days of Unleavened Bread represent a period of cleansing and purification from our old lifestyles and ways. After we have made the faith decision to ask the Lord Jesus to forgive us our sins and to purify us through His blood, He frees us from satan’s merciless enslavement and transfers our souls into His Kingdom of light. We are not only redeemed slaves, but the Lord takes us to be His own people and seals us with His own Spirit. At this point, we can begin the process of removing the leaven of corruption and malice from our lives.” Shannon, P.97
Christ’s fulfillment: Christ’s sinless life and burial is fulfilled through the feast of Unleavened Bread. We need to be alert for sin growing in our lives. When we see it we need to get rid of it before it contaminates and spoils it all.
This quote from Jill Shannon puts it the best, “The unleavened bread is an amazing picture of the Lord’s body. When we examine a sheet of matzah, we notice several unusual features. It is pierced with many holes. The Jewish authorities realized that when dough is punctured, it cannot inadvertently rise while baking. It also has a bruised and striped appearance, due to rows of dark brown, burnt areas on the surface of a flatbread baked hastily and at high temperatures. Isaiah speaks of the One who would be pierced, bruised, and scourged for our sakes. These words were written more than seven hundred years before Messiah was born. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).” p. 101
Next week, we will cover the Feast of First Fruits.
Let me know what you think.