Unleavened Bread

In Scripture, leaven also represents sin. Today, cleansing the house before Passover is often a symbolic search to remove any hypocrisy or wickedness.

Unleavened Bread is one of the three pilgrimage feasts when all Jewish males were required to go to Jerusalem to “appear before the Lord” (Deut. 16:16).

Leaven represents sin

Luke 12:1

Luke 12:1 NKJV

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.

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

1 Corinthians 5:7–8 NKJV

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.

Without leaven represents sinlessness

It is a picture of Jesus, the only one without sin. He is the perfect unleavened Bread of Life

Look at what Jesus said:

John 6:32, 35, 41, 48

John 6:32 NKJV

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

John 6:35 NKJV

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 6:41 NKJV

The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”

John 6:48 NKJV

I am the bread of life.

It’s been asked if one could get to heaven, if they perfectly kept the law.

The answer is a resounding NO…NEVER…NOT A CHANCE…UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES…AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN…FORGET ABOUT IT!

There are two reasons for this:

Jesus said you can’t get to heaven without Him.

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

It would be impossible for us to perfectly keep the law

Here is what the Bible says about the human condition:

Isaiah 64:6

Isaiah 64:6 NKJV

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Jeremiah 17:9

Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Romans 3:10

Romans 3:10 NKJV

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;

Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

At some point, we are all going to sin.

we might catch ourselves in an “innocent” little lie

maybe we will find ourselves in a moment of lust

perhaps, ever so briefly, we will place something else before God

We have all disobeyed our parents at some point

It is simply impossible to perfectly keep God’s law. The simple truth is no amount of good works can save us.

Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 NKJV

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

His law was never meant as a means of salvation.

Galatians 3:23-25

Galatians 3:23–25 NKJV

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

The law was simply a means to bring us to faith in Christ.

It was meant to teach us that we are sinners.

Romans 7:7

Romans 7:7 NKJV

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

The law made us aware of sin, and taught us that we could not meet God’s standard on our own. It taught us that we need a savior.

That savior is JESUS

Jesus is “unleavened” or sinless.

2 Corinthians 5:21

2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He conquers the grave with his resurrection because he is not a sinner under the curse of death.

Jesus was scourged and pierced at his crucifixion. As the prophet Isaiah proclaims, “By his stripes we are healed”

Isaiah 53:5

Isaiah 53:5 NKJV

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

All of the festivals instituted by God, including Passover and Unleavened Bread, are “shadows of things to come”

Colossians 2:16–17 NKJV

So 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.

Fascinating Facts

The only type of bread eaten during the eight days of Unleavened Bread is matzah. It is made with flour and water only, not any leaven. It is striped and pierced during baking.

The utensils used must never touch leaven. Bakery goods are made with matzah meal.

On the night before Passover, the father does a final search for any remaining leaven in the house.

Traditionally, by candlelight, he sweeps any remaining bread crumbs onto a wooden spoon with a goose feather.

When finished, the bread crumbs, the feather, and the spoon are placed in a bag and burned the next morning.

The sweeping away of the bread crumbs (leaven) is akin to Jesus cleansing us of our sin.

Unleavened Bread in the Hebrew Scriptures:

Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:18; 2 Chronicles 30; Ezra 6:22

Unleavened Bread in the New Testament:

Acts 12:3; Acts 20:6

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