We have been reviewing the biblical calendar, and how it is filled with symbolism of the Kingdom and God’s relationship with his people. I believe it is as we maintain recognition of these days that we can be reminded of God’s, and our, purpose. These days become practical object lessons that point to the totality of God’s work among his people, and his presence in this world.
Last time we reviewed Passover; today we will be going over the second of the annual memorials: the week of Unleavened Bread. The narrative explaining this memorial is found in Exodus 12. Here we find the command to Israel to de-leaven their houses and eat unleavened bread for seven days during the year—the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Exodus 12:14-15, 17-20 – “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel. … You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
Yahweh says that this memorial is a remembrance of how “on this very day I brought your hosts out of Egypt.” Besides the narrative here in Exodus, Unleavened Bread is also mentioned in Leviticus 23:4-8, Numbers 28:16-25 and Deuteronomy 16:1-8. Each of these mentions seems to have a slight difference in emphasis. Here in Exodus, the focus is on creating an annual memorial of how Yahweh delivered their hosts from Egypt. In Leviticus, the emphasis is on the first and last day being holy days of rest with offerings of fire made each day during the week. The Numbers narrative goes into further detail on the daily offerings to include bulls, goats, and grain offerings throughout the week. In Deuteronomy, the focus returns to the week being a remembrance of how Yahweh brought them out of Egypt “in haste.”
In general Hebraic practice, the eating of unleavened bread would begin with the Passover memorial on the evening of the 14th of Nisan, the 15th was a sabbath rest, and unleavened bread would be required through the evening of the 21st, which was also a sabbath rest. These commands were enjoined with the severity of being cut off from Israel if they were not practiced.
Exodus 12:19 – “Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.”
This demonstrates how the memorial of this time was to be universally recognized throughout the land, not just within each household, to where even resident aliens, those who were not Israelites, were to also be abstaining from leaven during this time. This universal observance would help to ensure the maintenance of the observance to future generations. Here we are, almost 3,500 years later, still discussing the significance of this observance!
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
For believers in Messiah today, the recognition of this weeklong tradition stems from the mention of it within the apostolic writings of the New Testament. Not only is the practice mentioned within the gospels, it was brought out in a specific application by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthian congregation:
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 – Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Messiah our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
In this passage, Paul’s thoughts have been explained as enjoining believers to observe the week of Unleavened Bread. In reality, I believe he is using the traditional annual practice of Unleavened Bread that they would all have been familiar with to make a point about their pride in tolerance of sin. In the overall context of the passage, Paul is actually mocking their self-righteous pride by confronting their skewed perspective of sexuality (most likely influenced by the Hellenistic social scene) as “leaven which leavens the whole batch of dough.” Here is some of the wider context:
1 Corinthians 5:1, 9-11 – It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles — a man is sleeping with his father’s wife. … I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.
Paul seems to be making the point that even the smallest expression of “tolerance” of sexual perversion (according to God’s Torah) is like leaven that would begin to expand its way through the whole congregation. This is a great and useful analogy in which its wisdom is readily apparent. If leaven is likened to sin, then “unleavened-ness” is akin to holiness and righteousness. Paul seems to be analogizing how the sincere practice of God’s Torah and truth had the ability to overcome the “leaven” of unrighteous practices which were evident within the congregation.
Paul builds on a principle which was taught by Messiah, as well.
Matt 16:5-12 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Yeshua said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to perceive that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Mark 8:14-15 Now they had forgotten to bring bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
In these passages, Yeshua taught that the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the political duplicity of Herod could be likened to leaven stealthily working its way through the pure dough of the righteous remnant, the lost sheep that he had been sent to call out from among the people of Israel. This is the same sense that Paul is using the analogy of leaven: as an insidious microbe that eventually encompasses the whole with its unrighteous influence.
Leaven in the Bible is simply a “spreading agent,” and while typically represented in the negative sense as we have just seen, it can also be a representation of positive influence. Yeshua was shown to have used the concept of leaven in a positive manner as an analogy of the Kingdom of God, illustrating how the spreading of the good news of the kingdom of God would be fulfilled throughout the world.
Matthew 13:33 – He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”
Luke 13:20-21 – Again he said, “What can I compare the kingdom of God to? It’s like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”
In this example shared by both Matthew and Luke, Yeshua appears to be sharing the inevitability of the Kingdom of God to become fully established.
Comparing both of these analogies, he seems to be illustrating how doctrines, both good and bad, have a way of working through the whole. A little bad doctrine, like that promoted by Herod and the Pharisees, can leaven all of the dough; likewise, the smallest spark of the gospel of the Kingdom of God can also work its way through the dough.
Once again, the Bible here presents another example of the duality of this life: hot and cold, light and dark, righteous and wicked, good doctrine and bad doctrine. Either one, like leaven, can continue to grow until it consumes the whole.
In Paul’s example, to refuse the perverted social tolerance of the day was to remain “unleavened” in the purity of sincerity and truth. In Yeshua’s example, to explore the Messiah’s expression of the Kingdom of God is to become leavened with positive doctrine. It’s not that these are contradictory teachings, just different emphases for the specific teaching at hand; both have merit from which we can learn.
“Bad” leaven has a way of unexpectedly influencing the whole; left to its own devices, a batch of dough will become leavened on its own, through its association with the air all around it. But in the Kingdom example, the woman specifically chose to add “good” leaven of the Kingdom to the dough, and it likewise consumed the whole. The key difference is that the woman intentionally added “good” leaven to the dough, while the “bad” leaven was simply absorbed from the atmosphere around it.
In a moment, we will see how these principles come together in the ongoing memorials of the biblical calendar.
—
Closely attached to this week of Unleavened Bread is another annual occurrence known as Firstfruits.
Leviticus 23:10-11 – “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest, you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He will present the sheaf before Yahweh so that you may be accepted; the priest is to present it on the day after the Sabbath.”
While not another festival in and of itself, the day has significance in that the Israelites’ agrarian economy was at a standstill until the offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest at the temple. In fact, the timing of the first ripe barley was one of the drivers of the start of the biblical calendar.
Exodus 12:2 – “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.
Exodus 13:3-4 – Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the LORD brought you out of here by the strength of his hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.”
The word abib means “green in the ears” as it relates to grain and crops. As each new year approached, it was customary in Israel to have trusted men go throughout Israel to check the condition of the barley (as the first of the spring crops) to see if it would be ripe within two weeks of the next new moon. If it was, that new moon was declared to be the first of the month Abib (which later came to be known as the month Nisan), the beginning month of the year, the month when the grain became green in the ears.
Only after the first sheaf was offered during the week of Unleavened Bread could full harvest proceed with the remainder of the barley crop. So the timing of this event was critical to the success of the overall harvest that year.
While being an important driver of the economy, the barley firstfruits is a minor notation within the biblical calendar, and not an official chag or feast in and of itself. The holiday that most Hebrews associate with Firstfruits is Shavuot: Weeks, or Pentecost. That is when the summer wheat harvest begins in full swing.
The principle of firstfruits in general has to do with honoring God with a primary offering, often considered the best, the freshest, or the strongest. It is closely tied to the principle of the firstborn:
Genesis 49:3 – “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength and the firstfruits of my virility, excelling in prominence, excelling in power.”
As for the offerings presented to Yahweh by the Israelites, the priest was to be the receiver of Yahweh’s firstfruits as his representative; this was also commanded for them since the priests did not have a land inheritance within Israel.
Deuteronomy 18:4-5 – “You are to give him [that is, the priest] the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and fresh oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock. For Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in his name from now on.”
However, within Christendom, the barley firstfruits during the week of Unleavened Bread has significance because of its association with the resurrection of Messiah. This comes primarily from the writing of Paul to the Corinthian congregation:
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 – But as it is, Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Messiah.
Here, Messiah is specifically listed as the firstfruits, using this firstfruits language to describe how the new resurrection life of all believers (those who belong to Messiah) will be as the fuller harvest that comes after the firstfruits have been presented to Yahweh.
The reason this resurrection firstfruits language is associated with the barley firstfruits is because that event takes place during the week of Unleavened Bread, “on the day after the Sabbath,” (Lev. 23:11). Since Messiah was seen alive on the day after the Sabbath of that week, this connection is typically drawn together.
APPLICATION FOR TODAY
Unleavened bread symbolizes separation, haste, vulnerability, and sincerity. It represents separation, as unleavened bread (while still bread) is distinct from other, regular bread. It also represents haste because it must be formed and cooked quickly to prevent the leavening process from starting. While full, natural leavening can take days, the leavening process can begin in as little as 20-30 minutes. This is how how temporary and vulnerable the condition of the dough is in its uncooked state. It is representative of how quickly the Hebrews had to leave Egypt when their deliverance was provided, and how vulnerable they were until they could be formed by God into the Kingdom people he desired them to be. In this sense, it can also be representative of believers who are separating from the worldliness around them, and how vulnerable they are to becoming consumed again by the things they just left, just as many of the Hebrews wanted to return to Egypt.
It is also representative of sincerity and holiness. According to both Yeshua and Paul, believers were to avoid the natural leavening of both corrupt doctrine and the natural social mores around them. Tolerance of false doctrine and unrighteous social practice have a way of ultimately consuming the whole.
But one cannot remain in an unleavened state permanently. In the annual calendar, Unleavened Bread is a week long observance that ultimately ends. The next seven weeks move toward the memorial of Pentecost or Weeks, an observance where the first harvest of the new wheat crops are brought to Yahweh in the form of two purposely-leavened bread loaves. It is believed that the Hebrews during the first Exodus received the Ten Commandments at that time. This suggests that the “good” leaven of the two loaves or tables of Commandments sets a baseline for Kingdom living.
Deuteronomy 8:3 …man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
In his parable of the Kingdom regarding the woman adding yeast to the dough, Yeshua encourages believers to not remain in an unleavened state, but to intentionally add the “good” leaven of the “right” doctrine (that which proceeds out of the mouth of God, the Commandments) so that the dough can be consumed with the right kind of leaven. In this way, the purity and sincerity of the unleavened batch can rise to become the Kingdom people God desires.
Firstfruits is representative of the freshest, strongest, and best being offered to Yahweh. Messiah certainly qualifies in all of those respects. But those attributes should also apply to our own offerings we bring before Yahweh. Are we truly offering the best of our time and resources (that is, our firstfruits) to Yahweh, or are we focused more on our own plans and desires and only providing him with what is left over?
Observing this weeklong memorial of these events with these principles in mind can revitalize our faith through reflection on our practice of these qualities in our lives. Is there a sense of urgency in our ongoing separation from the world, or have we become vulnerably complacent? Is the practice of our faith leavened with hypocrisy and duplicity or is it sincere and from the heart? Are we committed to only leaven our loaves with the “good” leaven of that which comes out of the mouth of God?
If we observe this week by avoiding leaven and eating only unleavened bread, that which sustains us (the unleavened bread) is a reminder to us that that which ultimately sustains us as believers is based on sincerity and truth. Additionally, reflecting on the firstfruits pattern of Messiah’s resurrection should provide us the confirming hope that he has truly overcome death for all of us, and at the appropriate time of our “harvest” we will be bearing fruit for him.
In my opinion, an annual memorial which causes us to contemplate sincerity and truth in our daily practice while providing us hope for a future eternal life cannot be overrated.
The Core of the Bible 