An overview
The Feast of Unleavened Bread which follows the Feast of Passover begins Monday, 22 April 2024, and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, 30 April 2024.
Leaven is the symbol of Israel’s old life in Egypt. Exodus 13:3-16 God called them out of Egypt to separate a people onto Himself. Today leaven represents deliverance from the bondage of sin and friendship with the world that is enmity with God. James 4:4
The idea of consciously seeking out sin within ourselves and our lives is not a popular idea within charismatic circles that emphasize identity and imputed righteousness. Those believers who take a seeker-friendly approach to evangelism and discipleship tend to forget that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Gal 5:9 The resulting tendency to ignore the leaven (sin) and emphasize that God loves us as we are is common. This is in my opinion, one major reason for so much sin and resulting heresy in the charismatic church today. As the saying goes, “When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn’t change. The devil changes you.” Jesus did NOT come to Christianize culture. He came to call us out of it. 2 Cor 6:17, Rev 18:4 The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a time to take inventory of ourselves.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23-24
You will note that the bread known as the unleavened bread of affliction is bruised, striped, and pierced. Isaiah 53. Its reference to Jesus might have been obvious had God not given the Jews a
“spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.” Rom 11:8
If that is confusing then we invite you to read Romans 11 and maybe Those Dern Zionists.
The leaven-free bread of affliction is a picture of Jesus the sinless lamb of God who took upon Himself the sin of the world John 1:29, so that we might become children of God, John 1:12, righteous in Him. 2 Cor 5:21
The Feasts of the Lord are easy to see throughout Jesus’ ministry once we have a basic understanding of their role.
For example, “The Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.” when Jesus fed the 5000. John 6:1-14. Once again, while the actual Passover Feast is on the 14th of Nissan, Passover also denotes the season that includes the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and First Fruits. Many Christians miss the fact that some of Jesus’ most prophetic acts took place on or around the very feasts He came to fulfill. For example, it was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that Jesus cleansed the Temple of worldly leaven in John 2:13-17. It was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that Jesus declared Himself to be its fulfillment. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” John 6:35 Jesus‘ emphasis on His being the bread of life culminates with
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the breadfn the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” John 6:53-58
Jesus was taken down from the Cross before Sundown on the 14th. Sundown marked the beginning of the 15th, The Feast of Unleavened Bread. While the Jews were ritualistically sweeping Leaven from their houses, Jesus was spiritually sweeping the Leaven of Sin from the world as the fulfillment of the feast. In other words
He took, our sin in His Spirit, “our leaven of sorrows in His soul, our leaven of sickness, disease and death His body.” Richard Booker Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts
How does this apply to born-again believers?
It is in the context of addressing sexual sin that Paul says,
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 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. 1 Cor 5:6-8
Leaven for us today is sin and or friendship with the world in any form for which we have not repented. James 1:27, Rom 12:1-2 The tradition of sweeping the house clean of Leaven is where we get the idea of “Spring Cleaning.” That the traditional Unleavened Bread dinner includes the father going about the house with a candle, and a feather and spoon to search out and sweep up any remaining bits of leaven is a picture of what we are called to do regarding any remaining sin and worldliness within ourselves. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 3:10-15 The father deposits the collected leaven into a bag that is removed from the home and burned. This is a picture of Paul’s words, But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 1 Cor 11:1 The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a time to do just that. We voluntarily subject our sins and false doctrines to fire so that we are not subjected to fire ourselves.
each one’s work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he will be saved, but only through fire. 1 Cor 3:13-15
While we are saved (justified) by grace through faith which itself is a gift Eph 2:8-9 we are sanctified, purified, transformed, and made Holy in partnership with God in our beliefs, and resulting actions. Our actions testify to what we actually believe. Romans 12, James 5:16 Hence we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Phil 2:12 We purpose to sweep the proverbial leaven from our lives and God meets us there to sanctify us. Phil 2:13, 1 Thess 5:23,