Lessons from Leaven

We have just finished celebrating Passover, Firstfruits, and the Week of Unleavened Bread, and I have been reflecting on the lessons I have learned from celebrating these holidays over the past 11 years. The seven day holiday of Unleavened Bread is one that often gets overlooked by most Christians today. Many people don't even know it exists. But it's one of those special times that God calls His appointed times, and there is much to be gained and learned by acknowledging it, keeping it, and celebrating it.

In the Bible, God often talks to us and teaches us using practical terms to explain spiritual things. Sometimes this might be in a story or parable. Other times He asks us to physically do something to learn a spiritual concept. That's exactly what happens when we prepare for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

In Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28, and Deuteronomy 16, we find the instructions God gives His people for keeping Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. All leaven is to be removed from houses, and no leaven is to be found in the houses or eaten for seven days.  Then, in 1 Corinthians, we have Paul teaching a spiritual application of the physical act of cleaning out the leaven: 

"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." I Corinthians 5:6-8 (ESV)

Leaven is often a symbol of sin in the Scriptures.  It's not just about physically cleaning our houses. But when we do the actual cleaning, it can teach us much about ridding our lives of sin. 

Every year before Passover and the Week of Unleavened Bread, I clean the leaven out of our house. Here are some things I have learned while cleaning out the leaven:

It takes work. Cleaning out the leaven is no easy task. It takes a lot of hard work. If you've done thorough spring cleaning before, you know what I'm talking about. There is sweeping, vacuuming, washing, wiping, and a lot of scrubbing involved. Dismantling the couch to vacuum the crumbs out. Moving furniture, appliances, and rugs to clean underneath them. Emptying cupboards and drawers.  Bending, reaching, and getting on your hands and knees are usually necessary. 

The same goes for getting the sin out of our lives. It takes a lot of work and self examination on our part, and getting on our knees before God is necessary. 

Our perception is not always accurate.  There is one job that I especially dread when I am cleaning out the leaven. The oven. I use my oven almost every day, so it can get pretty dirty. I dread cleaning it to the point that I procrastinate and usually leave it as the last thing to clean. I've found a pretty good recipe for a homemade non-toxic oven cleaner, and it works great, but I know there will still be a lot of scrubbing involved, and a huge mess, and it will take a very long time. My back will be killing me by the end of the process, and that oven still won't be all the way clean. I can't even tell you how much I dread this. But when I finally went to clean my oven this time, it really wasn't all that bad. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, and it wasn't as difficult to get clean as I thought it would be. I had built it up in my mind to be this insurmountable task, and it really wasn't. My perception was not accurate at all. 

Maybe there is something in your life that you know shouldn't be there, but you can't even imagine ever being able to overcome. Your perception may not be accurate.   

Leaven shows up in unexpected or forgotten places.  There are many obvious places where leaven will be found, like the aforementioned oven, the refrigerator, cupboards where food is kept, and other areas of the kitchen. Then there are areas that sometimes get forgotten or overlooked, like the toaster. It seems obvious. There are a lot of crumbs in there. But there have been times when I haven't realized that I didn't clean out the toaster until after the holiday was over!  And there are also a lot of areas where you usually wouldn't expect leaven to be.  Areas in your home where you don't even remember ever bringing anything that would leave crumbs of leaven, like hallways, bedrooms, or even the bathroom. But these areas still need to be examined and cleaned, because just when you least expect it...there's the leaven. 

Every single area of our lives must be examined, because just when we least expect it, something pops up that shouldn't be there.

The more often it's cleaned out, the easier it is.  Every time I am cleaning out the leaven, I say to myself, "How did I let this get so bad? Why don't I clean this more often?" The whole process would be so much easier if I would just do it more often, instead of just once a year! Once a year is better than not at all, but regular cleaning would be so much easier. 

Regular attention to making sure the sin is out of our lives would make things so much easier, too.  Easier for us and easier on the people around us.

Cleaning out the leaven cannot be done in the dark.  Crumbs are difficult to see in the dark. Cleaning out the leaven is best done on bright, sunny days when there is enough light to see what needs to be done.  

God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). When we spend time regularly in His word, it shines light which reveals the way we should go, and also the leaven - the things that we are allowing to block the path.

We never get all of the leaven.  Every time (it never fails!) I find some leaven that I failed to clean out.  Sometimes it is something painfully obvious, like a loaf of bread in the freezer or the millions of crumbs in the toaster. Other times it isn't so obvious, like crumbs I didn't quite get in a corner, or leavening in the ingredients of something in the pantry that I forgot to check.  There's always something. I just never get it all. 

We don't ever get all of the sin out of our lives on our own. And in that sinful state, we are in no condition to even approach our Heavenly Father. Which is why Yeshua gave himself for us. We must depend on him to get rid of the sin. We can't do it without him.


These are just a few of the things I've learned from cleaning out the leaven. There are so many lessons to be learned! I learn something new every time, and the experience of physically doing it helps reveal the spiritual concepts to me, and helps me remember them. If you have never prepared for and kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I highly recommend doing it and experiencing it for yourself!