What is Unleavened Bread and why does it matter? This is our current understanding of the text based on many years of study and interaction with other Messianic Leaders in the Body of Messiah. Please keep in mind that the Halacha of Yeshua is light and easy compared to the Halacha of the Pharisees and later Rabbis.
Week of Unleavened Bread (Texts and Guidelines)
I. NAS Exodus 12:15 - 15 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread [Matzah], but on the first day you shall remove leaven [se’or: lump of leavened dough, leavened starter dough] from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened [Chamets: all finished leavened bread products] from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. [anything leavened was strictly in reference to bread. Note the following JPS text]
II. TNK Exodus 12:15 - 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
III. Symbolic Value:
A. ULB: Symbol of Affliction and Haste: They came out Egypt hastily! (Deut. 16:3)
B. Leaven: Sin (1st Cor. 5)
Application
I. All leavened dough and leavened breads are to be removed on the 1st day of Unleavened Bread (not any other day, see Exo. 12:15). This is to communicate the theology that we are saved by grace not works. After we are saved (pictured in the Seder on the 14th) then on the 15th we begin to experience sanctification by removing the symbol of sin i.e. leavened [puffy] bread. This is why we wait to remove leavened bread on the 15th. If we begin to remove it earlier than the 15th we communicate that we get rid of our sins first and then we get saved afterward. This would teach a works based righteousness verses a grace based righteousness, which is through faith in the blood of the lamb.
II. Symbolic items to remove on the 15th of Nissan (1st day of ULB)
A. Seor: Lump of leavened dough (leavened starter dough)
B. Chamets: All finished leavened breads
1. Any leavened breads made from the five grains wheat, barley, oats, spelt, or rye including,
2. Buns, rolls, muffins, cakes, doughnuts, and croutons.
3. All leavened bread dough
III. Spiritual realities represented in leavened bread which need to be removed on the 15th of Nissan (1st day of ULB)
A. Un-forgiveness, bitterness, malice, wickedness, envy, jealousy, strife, gossip, lust, pride, rebellion, etc., etc.
B. Invite God’s Spirit to search your hearts for any leaven (sin) and,
C. Confess it, repent of it, ask for deliverance, and get ready to escape its dominion by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pharisees Halacha Summarized
I. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? NAS Acts 15:10
II. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. NAS Matt. 23:4
Yeshua’s Halacha Summarized
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
NAS Matt. 11:28-30