Why the Leaven?

Khen Lim




Unleavened bread (Image source: thereforenow.com)

On Friday, April 22 (Nissan 15-22) this year, the Jews will be celebrating the First Seder Night. This is a time when God’s people are with family and close friends, where they make special effort to ensure that the elders, the famished and the left-behinds can come together for a ceremonial meal called the Seder. These people are invited into homes or they’re given a gift basket each filled with Seder plates, food and wine. At the same time, they will also commence the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread.

On the evening following the Passover, God instructed His people who were leaving Egypt not to let their bread rise but instead to grab everything they could and simply leave. During those days, people used to gather yeast on grape leaves to leaven their bread if they needed to hasten the process. However God had told His people to leave their dough untouched with leavening even as they were preparing to depart (Ex 12:39) and so in their hurriedness, they grabbed whatever they could and fled towards the land God had promised them. 

God had also commanded His people to never forget that it was He who brought them out of their bondage and to do that, they were to celebrate seven days of the Feast mentioned (v.17). In fact God was so serious about the leaven that there must not be any traces of yeast whatsoever in the homes (v.19) as well as in all their surrounding areas throughout the feast (v.20).

On the eve of Passover, the Jewish family leaves a bit of bread in their home, hiding them in places for their children to find. The idea is to locate all the yeast they can find and cast them from their homes to be burned. The traditional practice is analogous to the sheer impossibility in cleaning one’s own home of all traces of yeast. No matter how meticulous you are, yeast is practically in the air. They land on grape leaves (which is why ancients gather them in a hurry) and invariably, they find their way into any household.

The important thing is that God told His people then, that yeast represents sin. And in that sense, yeast fits the symbolism perfectly. For those with bread-making experience will tell you, just a little yeast in flour and water will grow, multiplying with every warming second they remain together. Those who work with whole wheat know perfectly well that once yeast is added, there is no backing out anymore.

Sin found its way into God’s original perfect plan for Adam and Eve and once it made its way in, there was no getting out of it anymore. We now live in a world creaking under the increasing burden of sin and there is no escaping it no matter what we do. Even as we appear churchy and pious before our fellow men, God will nonetheless perceive us as nothing but sinners because only He knows the true ravages of sin that has afflicted the lot of us.

If we understand all this, then we will realise that even as we clear out our houses of yeast and eat unleavened bread, ours will continue to be a hopeless case. It’s not any different to how incapable we are in sparing ourselves of the stench of wretchedness in our spirit. That is why we yearn for the One who is perfection personified to do it for us.

Through the seven days of the Feast, the matzah bread takes central importance and the Torah mentions this several times (Ex 12:8, 18, Dt 16:3, 8). Not only does it serve as a historical reminder to commemorate the exodus from Egypt but it is also symbolic of redemption and freedom and it is also a representation of the ‘poor man’s bread,’ meaning we are asked to be humble and not forget what life was like in servitude.

Image source: inspirational-motivational-quotes.com

Interestingly the matzah bread features stripes that appear as if bruised and pierced through. Although we’re told that the stripes is to enable the bread to fully cook in 18 minutes thus effectively keep all the yeast out, they are also redolent of how Jesus was so brutally and savagely beaten, bruised and pierced for our sins. 

The sinless Jesus was and still is the only One able to pay the price for our transgressions. His body is represented by the matzah, which tells us that even modern-day Judaism cannot run away from God’s plan of redemption that involves Jesus.

All of us need Jesus’ atoning blood because it is the only way to cleanse ourselves of our sins. We must make way for Him to come in and dwell in us, in the form of the Holy Spirit, so that He can find all the leaven (sins) and ‘burn them up’ just like how the families set leftover yeast on fire between the two feasts.

To lead an unleavened lifestyle requires Christ. Without Him, we are all completely hapless and hopelessly helpless. Even so, we must stay unleavened every day because yeast has the tendency to creep back into our lives at all times and in all manners.

Recommended reading: Ex 13:3-16, Lev 23:6-8, Deut 16:8, Jn 6:51