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.
Exodus 12:15
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is in full swing this week. Passover was on Monday. It’s a yearly reminder of the redemption God worked by bringing Israel out of Egypt. I was able to enjoy a Seder meal with my church small group again this year.
However, this holiday is more than just a large meal with matzah, wine or grape juice, a plate of some strange foods, and reading a booklet. This meal kicks off something bigger. In preparation, all leavening is to be cleaned from the house. I’ve attempted this a few times. What I’ve discovered is that it takes a lot of planning if I don’t want to throw anything out. I’ve always ended up with forbidden leaven remaining. I’ve moved what doesn’t need refrigeration to my basement, pushing it out of the way.
Leaven is a common symbol for sin in the Bible. As a Gentile, I’m not required to abstain from or clean out leaven, but the Bible is drawing a picture of sin. How often do I sweep my sins under the rug rather than get rid of them? I decide I’ll never do something again, yet I fall back in again. The Apostle Paul had stern words to the church at Corinth who didn’t feel their sins were a big deal:
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast–as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
We have a Messiah who died for our sins. Thank God for his great forgiveness! Let us live holy lives, breaking the cycle of sin.
