Unleavened

 

This seems like a strange topic to write about during the fall feasts. As I write this we are celebrating Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. Yesterday was Shabbat and my husband and I were discussing what it means to be unleavened.

 

Every year since embarking on this journey we have participated in the act of ridding our house of leaven before the Feast of Unleavened bread. It’s my job, and sometimes my kids’ help, to locate and eradicate every crumb of bread that is in the house. It’s quite a laborious task. The toaster is the absolute worst! We were taught that doing this was symbolic and would remind up to get sin out of our lives. It really isn’t that simple. We recently learned that leaven isn’t what we thought it was. Someone very wise brought it to our attention, thankfully!

 

Leaven is not sin as we have always been taught. If it is sin then why did Yeshua compare the Kingdom of Heaven to Leaven in Matthew 13:33? That doesn’t make any sense. Really think about that. If leaven were sin then Yeshua was calling the Kingdom of Heaven sin and we know that is not true.  Right? The bread Yeshua shared at His Passover was leavened bread, "artos" in Greek. Why would He do this if leaven is sin and call it "His body"? Besides those examples there are multiple instances in the New Testament that give us more clues about this. Another is when Yeshua warns his followers to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He gives this warning in three of the gospels, Mathew 16:6, Mark 8:15 and Luke 12:1. So, I am thinking it might be really important that we understand what “the leaven of the Pharisees” is.  Yeshua goes on to explain that this leaven, the leaven of the Pharisee’s, is hypocrisy. The word Hypocrisy comes from the Greek (transliterated) word "hypokrisis". It gives us a picture of an actor on a stage trying to appear to be what he is not. John 12:42 indicates that some of the rulers believed in Yeshua, but because they feared the impression of the people and other rulers, they did not confess Him. They “acted” or performed differently for acceptance and popularity. They feared the opinion of man. This is hypocrisy and is the leaven of the Pharisees. It is a snare! This is politics folks! It’s everywhere and not just in our government. It’s in our everyday lives and in our places of worship. And it has an uncanny ability to spread!

 

So leaven, just like it is in the physical, is simply an agent that causes things to spread and grow. It’s not bad, it’s not good, it is a conduit. It transports whatever you put in it. I am a baker, so this makes complete sense to me. I have made artisan breads for years. I have made some very good loaves and unfortunately some very bad ones. Most of them have risen because of the yeast I introduce. If something unpleasant somehow makes its way into the dough, the entire loaf takes on the unpleasant taste of that ingredient and it is the same if something pleasant is introduced to the dough. Hypocrisy is a bad ingredient. It is something we must avoid. Hypocrisy is living a lie and we all know who the Father of lies is. We must guard ourselves and not live a lie! We must love truth. We must seek to be honest with others and ourselves. So having finally begun to understand leaven, especially the unsavory ingredient of hypocrisy, and how it has affected our lives and the lives of others around us, we began to ask ourselves what does it mean to be unleavened? Perhaps this is the more important question?

 

So sitting at our kitchen table yesterday morning, with hot cocoa, my laptop and our scriptures spread out before us, we decided to look at every instance of the word “unleavened” in scripture in an attempt to understand the meaning of that word and what it means to be “unleavened.”  The first mention of the word unleavened surprisingly occurs in Genesis 19:3. Lot prepares unleavened bread to feed the messengers of Elohim before he is taken out of Sodom. Next occurrence is in Exodus 12:8 when the Israelites are commanded to prepare unleavened bread before they are taken out of Egypt. This same account is repeated over and over again throughout scripture and they are commanded to continue to remember Father taking them out of Egypt every year by preparing and only eating unleavened bread for 7 days. Other instances of unleavened bread being used occur in burnt offerings to YHVH except in the ordination of priests and in the Nazarite vow where leavened bread is used as well. I don’t begin to understand that, so if you know, please let me know.  So as far as I can tell unleavened bread seems to always be a paired with being taken out or being set apart from the world. Being Holy as He is Holy perhaps? Yes, yes, yes …..without sin, sure, but so much more! It’s deeper than that. I like what Paul said:

 

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

 

 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed, therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 

Here Paul is calling this kind of leaven pride. He is warning them to empty themselves of pride which is wicked and malicious. These are people that obviously keep the feasts. Outwardly they are doing the right things. Here he is reminding them to clean up and be changed! Being an "unleavened batch" is about being changed on the inside and not just about what you do on the outside.  “Regeneration, not behavior modification.” (Don Harris) Unleavened bread is dead. No life of its own is in it. We are to be dead to our own plans, agenda and ideas and go with Him and be set apart! All the things we “do” will not make a difference if what is on the inside is not right. All the things we do will not change who we are!

 

In other words….I can outwardly keep the commandments. I can keep the feasts. I can learn Hebrew and Greek. I can learn to recite the Shema. I can wear a prayer shawl or scarf over my head and I can memorize the Kiddush and study till my eye balls fall out of my head! I can go to church, synagogue or bible study faithfully. I can attend every conference there is. I can do all these things and not be right on the inside. We must be regenerated or born again to enter the Kingdom of God. The only way to be regenerated is to die and that is a process. Paul said he did this “daily”! Perhaps I am over simplifying this, but I really don't think Father's truths are so complicated that we cannot understand them.

 

So soon it will be the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. This is a time to examine ourselves and prepare for the coming of our King. We are rehearsing the actual event before it happens. Before that happens do you think maybe we need to be “unleavended"? Perhaps this isn’t such a strange topic to explore in preparation for the fall feasts? What do you think?

 

 

Blessings to you in Messiah,

 

More than a conqueror.