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Starting the
15th of Nissan till 21st
for Seven Days is the Feast of the
Unleavened Bread. During Passover, no food
with leaven is permitted. Leavening is a
fermenting process in which yeast turns the
food sour. The following five kinds of
grains are considered yeast contained and
are avoided; barley, wheat, rye, oats, and
spelt. Although wine is fermented, it
doesn't enter into the category of leaven
because it is not made from one of these
five types. The question whether the wine at
the Last Supper was fermented alchoholic
wine is debated. This is because wine
represents mirth and joy and is used as such
in the Biblical symbolism throughout. Leaven
symbolizes sin. Unleavened Bread speaks of
sanctification. God told the Jews to cleanse
all leaven from their homes and eat only
unleavened bread, matzos, for seven days,
symbolizing a holy walk with HimJesus is
the "Bread of Life" without sin. Born in
Bethlehem. In Hebrew, Bethlehem means house
of bread. Just as matzoth is striped and
pierced, so was the Messiah. This Feast
falls on the day Jesus was buried.
The Regulations
. Exodus 12:15-20
For seven days you are to eat bread
made without yeast. On the first day
remove the yeast from your houses, for
whoever eats anything with yeast in it
from the first day through the seventh
must be cut off from Israel. On the
first day hold a sacred assembly, and
another one on the seventh day. Do no
work at all on these days, except to
prepare food for everyone to eat – that
is all you may do. Celebrate the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, because it was on
this very day that I brought your
divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this
day as a lasting ordinance for the
generations to come. In the first month
you are to eat bread made without yeast,
from the evening of the fourteenth day
until the evening of the twenty-first
day. For seven days no yeast is to be
found in your houses. And whoever eats
anything with yeast in it must be cut
off from the community of Israel,
whether he is an alien or native-born.
Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever
you live, you must eat unleavened bread.
31- 34
During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses
and Aaron and said, ``Up! Leave my
people, you and the Israelites! Go,
worship the Lord as you have requested.
Take your flocks and herds, as you have
said, and go. And also bless me.'' The
Egyptians urged the people to hurry and
leave the country. ``For otherwise,''
they said, ``we will all die!'' So the
people took their dough before the yeast
was added, and carried it on their
shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in
clothing....
39-42
With the dough they had brought from
Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened
bread. The dough was without yeast
because they had been driven out of
Egypt and did not have time to prepare
food for themselves. Now the length of
time the Israelite people lived in Egypt
was 430 years. At the end of the 430
years, to the very day, all the Lord's
divisions left Egypt. Because the Lord
kept vigil that night to bring them out
of Egypt, on this night all the
Israelites are to keep vigil to honor
the Lord for the generations to come.
See also Exodus 13:3-9; Leviticus 23:6-8;
Numbers 28:17- 21 ; Deuteronomy 16: 3-4;8
Leaven in the bible both in the Old and
the New always symbolized. The basis of
Christian walk is to be sinless. Yeast puffs
up the dough. Christians are to walk humbly
with the Lord. Well, in the Bible, leaven
symbolizes error or evil. It is the
substance that causes fermentation, decay
and mutation of the original into another.
Let us look at the occurrences in the Old
Testament:
They were always the food served to
Angels:
Abraham
Genesis 18:6-8
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto
Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three
measures of fine meal, knead it, and make
cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto
the herd, and fetched a calf tender and
good, and gave it unto a young man; and he
hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and
milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and
set it before them [the Eternal and two
angels]; and he stood by them under the
tree, and they did eat.
Lot
Genesis 19:3 And he [Lot] pressed
upon them [the two angels] greatly; and they
turned in unto him, and entered into his
house; and he made them a feast, and did
bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
Gideon
Judges 6:19-21 . . . Gideon . . .
made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes . . .
and the angel of God said unto him, Take the
flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them
upon this rock, and pour out the broth, and
he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put
forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand, and touched the flesh and the
unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out
of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cakes . . . .
Whereever Angel of the Lord is mentioned
it is likely that it was the Preincarnate
form of Christ that is probably intended.
In all Levitical sacrifices whenever
bread was involved unleavened bread was
used.
Leviticus 2:4-5
And if thou bring an oblation of a meat
offering baken in the oven, it shall be
unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with
oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken
in a pan, it shall be of fine flour
unleavened, mingled with oil.
Leviticus 6:16 And the remainder
thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with
unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the
holy place; in the court of the tabernacle
of the congregation they shall eat it.
Leviticus 7:12 If he offer it for a
thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the
sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes
mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers
anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with
oil, of fine flour, fried.
I Chronicles 23:29 Both for the
shewbread, and for the fine flour for meat
offering, and for the unleavened cakes, and
for that which is baked in the pan, and for
that which is fried, and for all manner of
measure and size.
Consecration of the Priests
Exodus 29:1, 2, 23 And this is the
thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow
them, to minister unto me in the priest's
office: Take one young bullock, and two rams
without blemish, And unleavened bread, and
cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and
wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of
wheaten flour shalt thou make them . . . .
And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled
bread, and one wafer out of the basket of
the unleavened bread that is before the
Lord.
Leviticus 8:2,26-27 Take Aaron and
his sons with him, and the garments, and the
anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin
offering, and two rams, and a basket of
unleavened bread . . . . And out of the
basket of unleavened bread, that was before
the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, and a
cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and put
them on the fat, and upon the right
shoulder: And he put all upon Aaron's hands,
and upon his sons' hands, and waved them for
a wave offering before the LORD.
Consecraton of the Nazarites
Numbers 6:15-19 And a basket of
unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour
mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened
bread anointed with oil, and their meat
offering, and their drink offerings. And the
priest shall bring them before the Lord, and
shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt
offering: And he shall offer the ram for a
sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
with the basket of unleavened bread: the
priest shall offer also his meat offering,
and his drink offering. And the Nazarite
shall shave the head of his separation at
the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation, and shall take the hair of the
head of his separation, and put it in the
fire which is under the sacrifice of the
peace offerings. And the priest shall take
the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one
unleavened cake out of the basket, and one
unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon
the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair of
his separation is shaven.
It thus invariably symbolizes sinless
nature.
In the New Testament Leaven is always
used as a symbol of sin, errot, heresy and
evil. The idea is clearly stated by Paul.
I Corinthians 5:6-8 Your glorying
is not good. Know ye not that a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out
therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a
new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
Therefore let us keep the Feast, not with
old leaven, neither with the leaven of
malice and wickedness; but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Galatians 5:9 A little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump.
Jesus Uses it as such in the following
cases;
Matthew 16:6-12 Then Jesus said unto
them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they
reasoned among themselves, saying, It is
because we have taken no bread. Which when
Jesus perceived, He said unto them, O ye of
little faith, why reason ye among
yourselves, because ye have brought no
bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither
remember the five loaves of the five
thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
Neither the seven loaves of the four
thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
How is it that ye do not understand that I
spake it not to you concerning bread, that
ye should beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then
understood they how that He bade them not
beware of the leaven of bread, but of the
doctrine of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees.
Mark 8:15 And He charged them,
saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of
the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
Luke 12:1 . . . Beware ye of the
leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Some tend to think in the Kingdom Parables
leaven is the symbol of the gospel because
of erroneous interpretaiton. (Please see the
articles on the Kingdom Parables) In these
references Jesus is pointing to the era of
errors and heresies that will come into the
Church.
Matthew 13:33 Another parable spake
He unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in
three measures of meal, till the whole was
leavened.
Luke 13:20-21 And again He said,
Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
It is like leaven, which a woman took and
hid in three measures of meal, till the
whole was leavened.
Feed on the
Word
During the festival of the Unlevened
Bread they were to cease from daily work. It
is to shows that we are being saved not by
works of righteousness. The person of Christ
saves us. So walk in Him. Walk with Him. The
Sabbath is always for worship. Thus the
seven days ( Seven is the fullness of time -
all time) i.e. walk closely with the Lord
worshipping and serving Him all the days of
your life. Ultimately we will enter into our
rest with the Lord eternally. For all
believers the period soon after the
conversion is a period of intense
experience. In order to grow in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2Pet 3:18),
they need to be fed properly and be anchored
properly before they could go on with normal
life. Prayers, Study of the Word of God and
being alone with God are essential during
this period until they become a way of life.
The feast of the unleavened bread indicates
this early period and their ritual
necessity. Even to be normally related with
the rest of the Christians will take time.
So this festival paints the new creation man
in its formation until he is incorporated
fully in the body of Christ.
From Death to Life.
The Jewish
tradition requires the entire family to
search out for any yeast or yeast infected
flours or breadcrumbs etc to be hunted down
and burned before the Passover dinner is
celebrated. To make it symbolic very often
mothers will spread breadcrumbs in visible
places so those children could collect it.
Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover.
He was then buried in a newly hewn cave tomb
The body of Jesus would not decay in the
grave. God the Father would not "allow thine
Holy One to see corruption (Psalm 16:10;
Acts 2:27). The Feast of Unleavened Bread
proclaims that Christ's physical body would
not experience the ravages of death while in
the grave; for He was sanctified (set apart)
by God the Father and sinless in nature. The
basic nature of sin is selfishness. The sin
of Adam was that he wanted to be like God.
This puffing up was the cause of the fall of
the angels and still is the cause of all
problems in this world. Decay and death are
the natural result of such a stand. This was
reversed in Jesus who came to serve and be
given as a ransom for many. Therefore death
could not hold him "because it was
impossible for death to keep its hold on
him." (Act.2:24)
In the same way those who have received
Jesus in their lives will now go over from
death to life. This is what Jesus declared
in the Last Supper breaking the Unleavened
Bread of the Passover Dinner. Jesus's body
is the true Unleavened Bread.
Jn 6:53 Jesus said to
them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day.
55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is
real drink.
56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me, and I in him.
57 Just as the living Father sent me and I
live because of the Father, so the one who
feeds on me will live because of me.
58 This is the bread that came down from
heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died,
but he who feeds on this bread will live
forever."
59 He said this while teaching in the
synagogue in Capernaum.
This declaration was made
in the synagogue.
Jn 11:25 "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes
in me will live, even though he dies;
26 and whoever lives and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?"
The Process
of Unleavened Bread Making
Early church made their
Unleavened Bread meticulously. Until
recently the priests in the Malankara
Churches made their own bread. This process
is symbolic and significant."A grain of
wheat is, first of all a seed. The heart of
the grain, so to speak, is the germ, or the
embryo. This is the part which, if the seed
is planted, will develop into a new plant,
and it is logically where most of the
vitamins and minerals are stored. The major
portion of the seed, the endosperm, contains
the gluten-forming proteins glutenin and
gliaden, and starch food for the developing
embryo. Surrounding the endosperm is a layer
of aleurone cells (another protein) and
several layers of bran, covered by a thin
husk. " Hence the Unleavened Bread was made
with hand ground whole wheat which contained
the germ of life. This is based on the
regulation:In Leviticus 2:14,
which reads, "If you offer a grain offering
of your firstfruits to the Lord, you shall
offer . . . green heads of grain roasted on
the fire, beaten from full heads"
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