Starting the 15^th of Nissan till 21^st 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 Him

Jesus 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.

. 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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.