Soon we will face the common challenge of removing yeast, baking soda, baking powder, leavened products, and bread crumbs from our homes. What utensils or tools do you use to deleaven your home? Do you use a knife, screwdriver and vacuum cleaner?
What, specifically, will you use to clean the toaster? This repository “of all evil” sits prominently on our kitchen counters—defying our shakes and slaps and even the strokes of a toothbrush! Yes, a toothbrush! Perhaps your toaster will have 30 percent fewer cavities this year. Even the best of efforts seems to leave thousands of crumbs untouched inside this mechanical crumb scorcher.
Have you tried a hose? I have known of at least three brethren who used a garden hose! I am told it cleaned very well. But, I know of three toasters that will not work normally again!
Over time, these experiences in rooting out physical leaven impart in us wisdom and balance in God’s way. Why? Because “a good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psalm 111:10). While a thorough detailed cleaning is certainly a demonstration of zeal, we need not destroy our appliances, upholstery or homes. The scriptural command, during these days when we consume unleavened bread and cease from eating leavened bread, tells us that no leaven “shall be seen among you… in all your quarters (Exodus 13:7). However, while we perform our physical deleavening, we need to keep in mind God’s full purpose for these days. The substance of these days is spiritual. The spiritual lessons of deleavening should be our focus, while not “leaving the others undone” (Matthew 23:23).
A Spiritual Feast
The Apostle Paul warned that in the end-time people would be self-absorbed, loving pleasures more than loving God, “having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1–5). Have the Days of Unleavened Bread become a physical drudgery for some of us—just a form and ritual practiced in the Church? What is the real emphasis of the Days of Unleavened Bread? Jesus answers this question: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24). God gave us His Feast to worship Him in spirit and in truth! The truth is that God’s Feasts are spiritual. But, how are they spiritual?
First, they are divinely revealed. Moses, speaking of this fact, stated: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Originally, God gave His holy Feast days to the ancient House of Israel (Exodus 12; Leviticus 23). Yet the Israelites never fully understood them. In addition to the Exodus, the Bible records four occasions where Israel kept the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread (Joshua 5:10–11; 2 Chronicles 30, 35; Ezra 6:19–22). As a whole, Israel was never able to understand the “deep things of God” contained in His Feasts. They never understood God’s plan of salvation, because the Spirit of God was not made available to them. Their observance focused on the physical—similar to the Pharisees of Christ’s day, who strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel (Matthew 23:24). Paul summarizes Israel’s understanding by stating: “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3).
However, God’s Spirit-begotten children do understand (1 Corinthians 2:10). The Days of Unleavened Bread teach us that God can only form His righteousness—His character within us—if we truly hunger for it. We eat unleavened bread for seven days—picturing God’s righteousness that must come into us. Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). As God’s people, we should “feast” on Jesus Christ— the living bread, the Word that became flesh, and now is at the right hand of the Father. We must reaffirm our commitment to believe and obey all that Jesus Christ taught.
Put in God’s Righteousness
Feasting on this bread certainly includes finding the time for profound study and meditation on the “weightier matters… justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23). The purpose of such study and meditation is to become Christ-like. Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice, for sins. We are to become “living sacrifices,” transformed by God’s Spirit to be “God-willed” instead of self-willed. Jesus came in the form of a humble servant. We are to “let this mind” of humility and servant leadership come into us (Philippines 2:5). Christ has perfect judgment, limitless mercy, and powerful faith. We are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior” (2 Peter 3:18). “Sin” in the form of leavened products has been put out prior to the Days of Unleavened Bread. Though we may discover a piece of missed leavening during these days and remove it, the real emphasis is upon putting in God’s righteousness! God’s Feast is about doing God’s will! (James 1:22).
Yeast spores abundantly float around in the air. They are ubiquitous. As soon as you think that your home is deleavened, hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of them enter through the door or window. Circulating in the air, some of these spores land on the end of your nose. With yeast so pervasive, is it possible to put it all out? In most cases, it would take a miracle to attend to every nook and crack where leaven may be hiding. The knowledge of the nature of leavening reveals an important spiritual lesson regarding sin. Without God’s help, we cannot save or cleanse ourselves from sin.
Apart from God, it is impossible to spiritually deleaven our lives (Matthew 19:26). We need a powerful Savior and High Priest—Jesus Christ! The experience of preparing for the Days of Unleavened Bread teaches many such lessons. We desperately need God’s help and His righteousness! Upon baptism, God gives us the supernatural help we need—His Holy Spirit, to daily lay aside “the sin which so easily ensnares us” (Hebrews 12:1). With God’s help, we are to strive against sin—and conquer it (v. 4)!
Use God’s Spirit
One purpose of the Holy Spirit is to “convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). We are to use it to root out “evil thoughts” that corrupt and befoul the mind. Jesus said that it is what comes out of the heart that defiles us, not what goes into the stomach (Matthew 15:17–19). So, the leavening about which God is most interested is the leavening that breaks the spirit of His law, not just the letter of it.
For example, consider that Church members who are married to non-members face an interesting predicament. Their mates may want to keep toast, doughnuts or other leavened products in the home. They may even demand them, or bring them into the house despite the pleadings of the Church member spouse. Is a Church member somehow less spiritual than his or her brethren because of having a mate who will not cooperate in the physical deleavening of the home? Of course not! Even with an unconverted and uncooperative spouse, a Christian can deleaven his or her own personal space, and can still observe the spiritual intent of these days—fully keeping God’s Feast! God looks at our heart and intent. He sees the zeal and sincerity of the member trying to do the best he or she can. Therefore, by a submissive and obedient attitude and intent—a willingness to obey God, doing his or her part the best that he or she can—a Church member enters these days unleavened, not needing to worry about the contrary conduct of a non-member mate.
By His power, the true righteousness of God is being formed within us. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Jesus Christ imparts the living faith to love God and love our neighbors. It is this divine love that fulfills the righteous requirement of all of God’s commandments and Feasts (Romans 13:8–10)! What good would it do, if we perfectly cleaned our houses of physical leavening, yet entered the Holy Days harboring lust, resentment or bitterness? Would we not be quenching the power of God’s Spirit and His mercy—denying the power? Certainly! Our worship would indeed be in vain.
God’s Holy Days, which are spiritually revealed, teach us to worship our Father and His Son by the living faith of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20). Living faith is backed up by action, because faith without works is dead (James 2:14–22). The Holy Days encourage us to think not only about love toward God, but also about love toward our neighbors. The focus is away from self.
The New Testament Example
How did the Apostolic Church keep the Days of Unleavened Bread? The Apostle Paul’s experience with the Corinthian brethren reveals the insightful answer. Gross immorality and factions permeated this congregation. Some were disgusted by the open display of adultery, while other members condoned the conduct. Such a situation, if allowed to continue, would have divided, corrupted and destroyed the entire congregation. So, Paul addressed these “puffed up” attitudes: “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, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7–8).
From the context, it appears that the Days of Unleavened Bread had begun. The physical deleavening had been completed. Yet Paul corrected them, showing the need to put sin out of their lives and out of God’s House. Notice another vital lesson. Not only should we remove physical leavening from our homes, but the emphasis is also on the spiritual meaning. We are commanded not to bring or allow spiritual sins into the House of God, which is the Church!
In addition, Paul describes spiritual unleavened bread as “sincerity and truth.” What does this mean? Paul explains: “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” (v. 7).
True Christians are described as a “new lump” of unleavened bread. Jesus Christ, the Living Bread, is living within us by God’s Spirit. Therefore, we should walk in “newness of life,” with a spiritually unleavened attitude of righteousness, sincerity, and truth as the unleavened children of God. The Days of Unleavened Bread focus us on this aspect of our Christian walk.
Beware of This Leavening
Finally, Jesus Christ warned the disciples to avoid a specific leavening agent, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6–12). The disciples, whose hearts were focused on physical things, concluded that Jesus was speaking of their failure to take bread on their trip across the Sea of Galilee (v. 7). However, Jesus was referring to the leavening of evil influence—the teachings and practices of the Pharisees and Sadducees (v. 12). Speaking of them, Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6–7).
The Pharisees and Sadducees viewed religion solely within the context of form and tradition. Jesus continued: “For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do… All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition” (vv. 8–9). Jesus adamantly instructed His disciples, “do not do according to their works,” which served only to clean the outside of a person and did not focus on the spiritual intent of the heart (Matthew 23:1–4, 25–28).
The Pharisees had the form, but denied the very Son of God. Shocking as it may sound, some of them denied the power of God’s Spirit working through Jesus Christ. Is it possible that we could wash feet, take the Passover symbols, remove leavening from our homes, yet still be leavened inside our hearts and minds? Yes, it is!
Therefore, brethren, let us prepare now to keep God’s Feast by emphasizing the spiritual intent and purpose of these days. As a Christian, you are called to be a type of “unleavened bread,” picturing the keeping of these days in sincerity and truth, hungering and thirsting after God’s righteousness. It is well understood by God’s Church that the number seven is symbolic of perfection and completeness. Will not God complete and perfect what is lacking in us? Absolutely! Are there not two Holy Days of Unleavened Bread—the first and seventh days—just as Christ is both the “author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2)? Most certainly! Throughout our lives in God’s Church, we are promised His help—“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).