Remember, the first four feasts in the spring are a picture of what Jesus has already accomplished for us. The last three feasts in the fall are a promise of what Jesus will do for us in the future.
As we continue our examination of the “Seven Feasts of the Lord,” Israel’s second feast is named after the bread which is required to be eaten during the holiday.
The Hebrew Scriptures call this feast Hag Hamatzot. Matzah and the plural Matzot are the Hebrew words for “unleavened bread.” Therefore, this holiday is known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
14 ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
15 ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
16 ‘On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you.
17 ‘You shall also 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 permanent ordinance.
18 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19 ‘Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land.
20 ‘You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”
1. The “What?” of the Feast
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a reminder of God’s miraculous deliverance from Egyptian bondage, for when Israel fled from Egypt in the middle of the night, there was no time for bread dough to rise. So the Lord commanded, “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life” (Deuteronomy 16:3).
The biblical record gives only three instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread:
--Special sacrifices were to be offered in the Temple each day of the feast (Lev. 23:8; Num. 28:19-24).
--The first and seventh days of the feast were Sabbaths with prohibitions on all work (Ex. 12:16).
--Leaven was strictly forbidden.
The Hebrew word for leaven is hametz, which literally means “sour.” Leaven (usually yeast or baking powder) is used to produce fermentation in bread dough. As leaven sours the dough, tiny gas bubbles are produced which cause the dough to rise.
Not only is the eating of leavened foods forbidden during the feast, but even the presence of leaven within one’s house is unlawful. The Lord commanded Moses in Exodus 12:15, “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.”
Disobedience to the divine command carried severe consequences! Did you notice the consequences of disobedience in Exodus 12:15 & 19? To be “cut off” meant to be put to death. An ancient Jew who did not keep this feast was guilty of a capital crime! Leaven was even forbidden in all the territory of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 16:4).
God’s command allows no room for debate. Any leaven, no matter how small the amount or how discreet its presence, is not permitted during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is not enough to simply refrain from eating leaven, or from touching leaven, or even from looking at leaven by storing it in a hidden place. All leaven must be purged out. Failure to do so is a serious breach of Mosaic law.
2. The “When?” of the Feast
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is observed in the early spring (March-April). It begins on the 15th day (evening of the 14th day) of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for seven days.
Because the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a seven-day holiday) begins the day after Passover (a one-day holiday), often the two holidays are blurred together and collectively referred to as “the eight days of Passover.” In the days of the Second Temple (Jesus’ time), it was also common to call all eight days the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Luke 22:1, 7).
Like Passover, this feast was instituted before the other feasts in Leviticus 23.
The Feasts of Unleavened Bread/Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles were the three annual pilgrim feasts and all Jewish men were expected to present themselves before the Lord at the Temple if at all possible.
3. The “How?” of the Feast
Observant Jewish households begin their painstaking preparations weeks before the arrival of Passover. Walls are washed and sometimes even painted. Cooking utensils are scalded. Clothing is washed with pockets turned inside out. Carpets are cleaned and vacuum bags are discarded. Everything in the house is cleaned and aired in preparation.
On the night before Passover eve, after evening prayers in the synagogue, the father of each household will perform the Bedikat Hametz, or “Search for Leaven,” ceremony. This ancient ceremony purges the last vestiges of leaven from the house. Earlier that evening, a few bits of leavened bread are placed in several corners or on window sills of the house.
After reciting the benediction for the occasion, the father begins the search. He uses an old wooden spoon in one hand and a goose feather in the other. By candlelight, he searches from room to room to discover the distributed bread scraps. The children follow behind with great excitement as he carefully uses the feather to sweep the bread he finds onto the wooden spoon. Finally, the bits of bread, the wooden spoon, and the feather are placed inside a bag or wrapped in a cloth. This is tied with a thread and set aside to be burned the next morning.
4. The “Why?” of the Feast
Sin is often pictured as leaven in Scripture (Mt. 16:6,11; Mk. 8:15; Lk. 12:1; Gal. 5:9). The ancient rabbis believed that “leaven represents the evil impulse of the heart” (Talmud, Berachot 17a).
Leaven is well-suited as a picture of sin since it rapidly permeates the dough, contaminating it, souring it, fermenting it, and swelling it to many times its original size without changing its weight. In fact, this souring process (the first stage of decay) of sin is part of the curse of death decreed by God when Adam sinned (Genesis 3:19).
Since leaven pictures sin, only unleavened bread was used in the Temple. Offerings had to be pure, and anything leavened was deemed impure and unfit.
As with the other feasts of the Lord in Leviticus 23, the prophetic meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is found in the work of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Passover pictures the substitutionary death of the Messiah as the Passover Lamb.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the burial of the Messiah.
The Hebrew prophets foretold a day when the Messiah would be a sacrifice for sin. He would be the Lamb offered up by God as the once-for-all sacrifice. The prophet Isaiah declared of the Messiah: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all…When You make His soul an offering for sin” (Isa. 53:4, 6, 10).
Isaiah also predicted Messiah’s amazing burial in Isaiah 53:9…
“His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”
Normally, one who dies a criminal’s death receives a criminal’s burial. But this was not the case with the Messiah. Jesus was executed as if He were a criminal, but God did not allow His body to be cast outside the city onto the garbage heap. The Messiah was honored in His burial because He was a pure, sinless (without leaven) sacrifice.
Jesus did not die for His own transgressions (He was innocent), but for ours (we are guilty). Therefore, God honored the Messiah with burial in a rich man’s tomb. Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (Mt. 27:57-60). He was a rich man. God was making a statement about the innocence of the Messiah.
But there is further significance surrounding the burial of the Messiah in that His body did not return to dust. King David prophesied of the Messiah in Psalm 16:10, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol [the grave]; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
Obviously, King David did not prophesy this of himself. His grave has been a revered site in Jerusalem for almost 3,000 years. David’s body did decay, just like the body of everyone else who has died. But the Messiah’s body did not decay. The sons of Adam are sinners under the divine curse: “To dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).
As a pure, sinless sacrifice, Jesus was not under the curse to return to dust. Therefore, Jesus came forth from the grave on the third day after He had carried our sins far away. Psalm 103:12 tells us, “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Hebrews 9:24-28 reads, For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread in that He was a pure, sinless sacrifice (unleavened bread). Seven is the number of perfection. The unleavened bread (Jesus) was eaten for seven days while sacrifices were offered (Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for our sins).
God validated this by the Messiah’s burial in a rich man’s tomb. Furthermore, the body of Jesus was not permitted to decay in the grave (like dough soured by leaven), but was brought forth because He was not a sinner under the curse of death and decay.
5. The “So What Now?” of the Feast
It is interesting that Paul used the purging ceremony, the Bedikat Hametz, or “Search for Leaven,” to convey spiritual truth to the believers in the city of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Paul’s message is simple and direct. For believers who have, by faith, accepted the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb upon Calvary, Passover is past history. The deliverance by Messiah, the true Passover Lamb, has already been experienced in their lives. They are now living in the Feast of Unleavened Bread where purity and separation from leaven are required.
It does no good to simply get rid of the large conspicuous loaves on the table and leave the little pieces of leaven scattered on the floor. A little leaven will contaminate everything else. “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6). He commands them to purge it out—all of it. In other words he pleads: “How can you enter into the Feast of Unleavened Bread still eating your leavened bread? It is not kosher. It does not belong. The two do not go together. It is an outrage! Get rid of it!”
Paul is simply stating what he later taught in Romans 6:1-18. The believer is no longer under the power (dominion) of sin—those chains have been broken. The believer is no longer a helpless slave to sin. A Christian chooses to sin when he is drawn away by his own lust (James 1:14-15).
The tragedy is that far too few believers realize this truth. They continue to be duped by the flesh into thinking and acting as if sin is still the evil taskmaster that they are obligated to obey.
In God’s sight we are now unleavened (justified and pure) and are called to lives of holiness. So Paul questions, “Why keep living as if we are not?
The presence of any leaven during Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is an absolute outrage. Even the mere sight of it is a very serious matter.
Just as is done in the purging ceremony, we need to thoroughly sweep out our lives. It is not sufficient to simply throw out the conspicuous loaves on the table and hide the favorite sourdough loaf in the cupboard or allow the unnoticed crumbs to remain under the table.
We need to take the candle of God’s Word and search our lives. Every corner, every crack, and every window sill must be scrutinized in its light. The task is not complete until every speck of leaven is purged. Why? Paul gives us the motivation: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).
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