All of the festivals of God are listed in Leviticus 23. We call this the Festivals Chapter. Verses 6 and 7 tell us that the Days of Unleavened Bread are in the first month of the Hebrew calendar. This is in March or April. The Days of Unleavened Bread had an important meaning for the Israelites of the Old Testament. They have an even deeper significance for Christians.
Let us look at some of the physical meanings of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Turn to Exodus 12. We find the nine plagues that occurred and the tenth was about to occur - the Passover, where the firstborn of Egypt was to be killed. That is all discussed in Exodus 12. Then as God is giving His instructions to Moses, we start into verse 15 where He starts talking about the Days of Unleavened Bread. Exodus 12:15: “'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation'” (a commanded assembly if you want to call it that) “'and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you.'” (The Last Day of Unleavened Bread, of course). “'No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat - that only may be prepared by you. So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt.'” And that is really the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread in the Old Testament - God bringing them out of Egypt. “'Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.'”
Verse 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.'” And if you look at the context as well as other scriptures, it is referring to the end of the fourteenth day until the end of the twenty-first day that we are talking about here. Remember, the days started at evening in the Bible.
Verse 19: “'For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.'” These instructions were given, and sure enough the firstborn of the land of Egypt were struck and killed. Go on to verse 31: “Then he” (referring to Pharaoh) “called for Moses…” (The Companion Bible actually says sent a message to Moses, not implying that Moses and Aaron were out running around after they had been told to stay in for the night). Then he sent a message to Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”
Verse 33: “And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste.” That is important - they were getting out of there fast. “For they said, 'We shall all be dead.' So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.” This was a simple, poor slave people. I suspect their primary food was bread. It is generally fairly inexpensive, something that they would have. Here the only method of feeding themselves on a trip was to take the bread before it even had time to be leavened.
Verse 35: “Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.” They did have a lot to pack up. “The Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” Skip down to verse 39: “And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.” So here we have the Old Testament physical meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Let us look at the spiritual meaning of putting out of leaven. There is a New Testament scripture in Colossians 2 that some people have used in the past to try to prove that the holy days are no longer to be kept, or Sabbaths for that matter either. Let's read it. Colossians 2:16: “Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” I am reading from the New King James version.
Let's look at this verse a little more carefully. It says, “…let no one judge you in food or drink…” Festival, of course, refers to God's festivals. Verse 17: “…which are a shadow of things to come.” Now this also means to foreshadow something. In other words, we are looking here at festivals which show future events, and in the case of the Passover a past event, in God's plan. It is actually showing us something here, it is not something that is to be done away with.
It says, “…but the substance is of Christ.” A better translation of this is “but the body of Christ.” The word “is” does not even belong in there. It was added by the translators because they did not know what else to do with the verse. It says, “…let no one judge you” in these things but the body of Christ. Now what is the body of Christ? If you go back to Colossians 1:18 that term “the body of Christ” is defined. “He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” The body is the Church. So in verse 17 what we are saying is let no one judge you but the body of Christ, or the Church in other words. The body of Christ is to determine how the festivals, Sabbaths, etc. are to be kept. So, if anything, what this verse does is it shows us that the Church is to be keeping the festivals.
These festivals are explained further in the New Testament of the Bible - their full spiritual meaning. Turn to Matthew 16 for Christ's teaching. In Matthew 16 Christ will tell us about the meaning of leavening in the spiritual sense. In Matthew 16:5 - “And when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, 'Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.' And they reasoned among themselves saying, 'It is because we have taken no bread.'” They thought they were in trouble because they forgot to pack a lunch, and that wasn't it at all, of course.
Verse 8: “But when Jesus perceived it, He said to them, 'O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?'” They were not looking for spiritual meaning. They were just looking at physical meanings here. But we have to dig a little deeper. “'Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? - but you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” In my Bible here for doctrine it also says “teaching.” He was trying to get them to look at things spiritually. Here He is comparing leaven to this doctrine or teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Turn to Luke 12. He fills in a few more details on this. In Luke 12 He had just finished calling the Pharisees hypocrites. If you think of teaching, how does a person teach? Of course, he can teach by speaking to someone, but he can also teach by his example. In this case, the Pharisees had given an example of what their teachings were, and it was not good. Let's read Luke 12:1 “In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'” Here He has defined it a little bit further. “'For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.'” Now the dictionary definition of hypocrisy is: to pretend to have beliefs or virtues that one does not really have, also insincerity.
In verse 2, “'For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.'” The Pharisees had certain hidden beliefs and actions that were not good and these would eventually come out. Verse 3: “'Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.'” Christ saw through their hypocrisy, and others would eventually, too. Leaven represented insincerity and hypocrisy here.
The Apostle Paul wrote the scripture we often use for looking at the New Testament meaning of leaven. Turn to I Corinthians 5. Paul was looking at the spiritual meaning of the feast, not just the physical meaning. He wrote the scripture that people often turn to try to understand what leavening represents. I Corinthians 5:8: “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” What is malice? Malice is a desire to harm others - to see others suffer. What is wickedness? Wickedness is practicing evil. The Interlinear Greek says, “Evil disposition and tendency.” We are not to have this malice and wickedness but instead the unleavened bread of sincerity. Sincerity is just the opposite of hypocrisy. I know a man who was once described as being exactly as he appeared, he had no front to him. In other words, a very sincere person, and that is the way we are supposed to be.
We read, “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Remember there is a scripture that is the Bible definition of truth: John 17:17 - “'Sanctify them by Thy truth, Thy word is truth.'” So that is the way we are really supposed to be. Sincere and living by God's truth.
We talked about malice which meant to desire to harm others. There is a scripture on that. Let's go to Romans 13 for a moment. Romans 13:10 - “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Here we have malice which means to harm another person, and love is just the opposite. It does not harm a neighbor. Romans 13:10 says, “…love is the fulfillment of the law.” That is one of the definitions of love that is given in the Bible.
Leavening is really representing breaking God's law, and the opposite is really keeping God's law - this law of outgoing concern, this law of love. Remember the same person who wrote Romans and I Corinthians 5 also wrote I Corinthians 13, the love chapter. We won't go there right now, but he knew all about love. He taught all about it - that way of outgoing concern.
Let's go back to I Corinthians 5. This time I would like to pick it up one verse ahead. I Corinthians 5:7 - “Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast…” Of course, the feast they are talking about is the Days of Unleavened Bread. You can tell that from the context because he keeps talking about leaven and unleavened bread - another proof we should be keeping the feast. “Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” We should not only be putting out the physical leaven, but we put out sin, too. That is what we are trying to learn from this.
Now there is a characteristic of sin that verse 2 will tell us about. Sin tends to puff up a person - feeling rather arrogant about themselves at times. This is one of the causes of sin. Read again I Corinthians 5:1 - “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles - that a man has his father's wife! And you are puffed up.” My margin says, “arrogant.” That is another word for it. “…and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, concerning him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
Verse 6: “Your glorying is not good.” Glory - again very arrogant and thinking very highly of themselves as a result of sin. “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” His comparison here between sin and leaven is that leaven spreads through the whole lump of dough. It can spread from person to person. It can also spread in a person. If we are allowing certain sins in ourselves and they are unrepented of, we become callous to sin. We are going to sin again and increase the amount of sin we are doing. That is not a good cycle to be into. We are supposed to be aware of sin and be sensitive to how we are acting. We are supposed to be judging ourselves.
When I was reading the verses in Exodus 12, more than one verse said “You shall eat unleavened bread.” It was not just to avoid leavening. It said, “You shall eat unleavened bread.” In I Corinthians 5 we talk about replacing the leaven of malice and wickedness with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In Romans 12 we can talk about that a little bit more. It is also known as the Christian living chapter. It is very appropriate to be thinking about when we talk about putting out sin and we are supposed to be living as Christians.
Romans 12:2 - “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Instead of being conformed to the world, in other words living as much of the world does, we replace that behavior with a renewing of our minds. We are replacing the bad with the good. It is hard to just get rid of something without filling it up with something else. There is a little saying, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” When someone pours a glass of water, the water goes in and the air has to go out. With the air out of a glass, you have to put something in it otherwise it would just fill right back in. The same way with us. We take out the bad; we have to put something good in.
How can we do that? What are some examples? I John 3:4 (King James Version) defines sin as “the transgression of the law.” The spiritual law is the Ten Commandments. In another Bible study we proved that we are to keep the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments define the sin that the Days of Unleavened Bread teach us that we must put out of our lives. We are to develop character. A way in which character is defined is to know what is right, to choose the right, and to do it under all circumstances whether we really want to or not. There is no such thing as “situation ethics” with real character or with holy righteous character. That is the message of the Days of Unleavened Bread - to be developing God's holy righteous character.