The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins after the Day of Passover and lasts for seven days. The instructions for this feast are first given in Exodus chapter twelve.
Exodus 12:13-17 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where
you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not
be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an
ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put
away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eats leavened bread from the
first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh
day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done
in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17 And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day
have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall you observe
this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
Leaven represents the sin nature. So leavened bread would represent Christians that still have the adamic sin nature. Unleavened bread represents Christ in His sinlessness.
Verse 15 says that all leaven was to be removed from the houses beginning on the first day of the feast. So the Israelites would sweep out all leaven from their houses at that time. We understand that just as we are to have a Passover experience, we must also experience the sweeping out of the sin nature in our lives. That, of course, is a ministry of the Holy Spirit. After we receive the Holy Spirit, He begins the sweeping out process in our lives. He sweeps out the leaven to bring forth the purity of Christ in us. Of course, we realize that this doesn’t just automatically happen. We must co-operate with Him in this work.
Introspection can bog down the process. The more you focus on the leaven in your life the more insurmountable it becomes. The focus must be upon the Lord – being aware of His presence and appropriating His life. As you draw Him in the leaven is pushed out. It is a matter of displacement. If you focus on the problems, they tend to get bigger. The more you struggle with the flesh nature the stronger it becomes. Keep your focus on the Lord and worship Him. The sweeping of the leaven out of your life will take place during the worship.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
We cannot change our nature; it cannot be disciplined. The harder we try, the more defeated we become. The answer is submitting to the One who can. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7. Real submission to God, worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, will cause the devil of your flesh nature to flee from you.
Can the leaven of our sinful nature really be swept out of our lives? Can we really experience the divine nature of the Lord? Can we really change? Yes! Exposure to His presence brings change. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. II Corinthians 3:17-18. Change comes as we behold Him in our worship. God has provided the means whereby we can partake of His divine nature. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. II Peter 1:3-4. That is how the leaven is removed.
Copyright © 2000 by Henry DuBose