NOTE: All comments in brackets [ ] or in parentheses ( ) as well as highlighted text (bolded and/or in blue) are from the author of this study.
Bible quotations are in maroon.
The Bible warns Christians to beware of a spiritual condition which it called being “puffed up.” Yearly, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the ministry focused their preaching on the subject of leaven as a symbolic representation of sin and on the feast as being a reminder to true Christians that they have to spend their whole lives coming out of sin to the best of their abilities which is their part in the salvation process.
“Leaven” in the Bible has different meanings depending on whether we are reading about Old Testament (OT) Israel or God’s New Testament Church. The differences are due to the fact that as a general rule, the Old Testament is physical and material while the New Testament is spiritual. However, as any long time student of the Bible knows it is often necessary to constantly go back and forth from one to the other to get the full and correct understanding of the doctrines and teachings of the Bible.
Old Testament Israel amply demonstrates how it is impossible for man to know and be able to make the choice to obey God without God’s Spirit. Unless called men are blind to the existence of God and His law and it is completely impossible for them to choose to obey Him or not. Choice is only possible when there is a known alternative. If I do not know that God exists, I cannot choose to obey Him or not.
Mankind was cut off from God’s Spirit when the first man, Adam and his wife followed Satan’s suggestion to decide for themselves right and wrong and be like God. He and his wife were expelled from the Garden of Eden and were, them and their descendants, cut off from God’s Spirit. Mankind, but for a few specially chosen individuals for a purpose preparatory to the establishment of the Kingdom of God (God’s saints) would be cut off from God’s Spirit until the 2nd Coming of Christ.
Ancient Israel
Israel was a descendant of Abraham and an inheritor of the promises made to Abraham. The promises were transmitted from generation to generation onto Jacob who was a descendant of Abraham. Jacob whom God renamed Israel would have 12 children and they would become the 12-tribed nation of Israel of which Judah is but one of the tribes constituting the nation of Israel. The Jews are only a small part of Israel, they are not all of Israel.
The OT nation of Israel was given God’s Holy days one of which is the Days of Unleavened Bread. Unleavened bread to them was a reminder of their hasty departure from Egypt on the 15th of Nisan or Abib at twilight at the very beginning of the 15th day of the month (Num 33:3). They left so fast that they brought their bread dough without leavening in it since they would have no time to bake it and the dough if leavened would spoil; the baking process stops the effect of the leaven. During the night of the Passover the firstborn of man and beast throughout Egypt had died and the whole nation was in turmoil. All were grieving the death of their firstborn and were burying their dead when Israel left Egypt at twilight at the beginning of the 15th of Abib.
Egypt was in shock and no longer wanted the Israelites to remain among them and were anxious to have them leave Egypt fearing even greater plagues might come upon them should they not leave. They gave the Israelites all they needed for them to be able to leave Egypt for as slaves they were without the means to travel.
While Egypt was overcome with grief from the death of their first-born, Israel left hastily before the Egyptians could recover their senses. This is especially true for Pharaoh who was only informed days later of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Israel had already been journeying for 3 days (see Ex 13 & 14) when Pharaoh was told of Israel’s departure.
Exo 14:5 And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
Actually, Israel left on its own without Pharaoh having officially given them the permission to leave. This is why Exo 14:5 clearly says that the people fled. They would not have had to flee if Pharaoh had finally given them permission to leave. The Israelites stayed up all night all dressed and ready to take advantage of the shock created by the death of Egypt’s first born, spoil the Egyptians and leave (flee) in great haste before the Egyptians could recover their senses. This is why they were able to get 3 days’ journey from Egypt before Pharaoh found out that they had left; he didn’t know they had left Egypt until being told they were gone. Had he given them permission to leave, there would have been no need for anyone to tell him they had left.
The unleavened bread that Israel ate for seven days was a reminder of their miraculous escape from slavery in Egypt. They were the slaves of Pharaoh which was so powerful that they could never have had any hope of ever regaining their freedom. Pharaoh is a type of Satan the devil whose power is to deceive the whole world and whose power of deception is so great that only God can remove man’s spiritual blindness.
OT Israel could not understand the spiritual aspect of their keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread for it, like the rest of the world, was a carnal nation and God’s truth requires the in–dwelling presence of God’s Spirit for it to be understood by man. Even with the Logos, the pre-incarnate Christ, leading them through Moses, they never knew or understood who was the being or entity that had effected their liberation from Egyptian slavery. As soon as Moses was no longer among them for 40 days, they continued their idol worshiping imagining God to be a golden calf. Many of them had left Egypt carrying their idols with them. Basically, they remained ignorant of who was God and to this day, their physical descendants as well as the whole of mankind don’t and cannot know God.
New Testament Israel
With God making of His Spirit available to His New Testament (NT) Church (those whose abiding attitude is to obey God to the best of their abilities after their calling) the Feast of Unleavened Bread has a different meaning.
For 7 days OT Israel was to eat unleavened bread and so be perfectly unleavened, physically-speaking, 7 being God’s number of completion or perfection symbolically speaking. But NT Christians can never in their lives be without sin.
1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But we are to be an unleavened lump as Paul says in the following Scriptures which if leaven represents sin, it becomes impossible for a Christian to be an unleavened lump.
1Co 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: [How are they to be a new lump? By having no sin in their lives as ancient Israel had no physical leaven in their bodies after having abstained from eating leaven for 7 days? But God says true Christians will remain sinners until their death despite their best efforts and anyone saying he has no sin is a liar and the truth is not in him (1 John 1:8).]
1Co 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. [Keep the feast as you have been taught in obedience to the instructions I have given you which were given to me by Christ and therefore God.]
Please note that in 1Co 5:8 the word “bread” is in italic which means it is not part of the original text but was added in by the translators. New Testament Christians are to keep the feast with the unleaven of sincerity and truth not with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. NT Christians do not worship God or keep His feasts through physical rituals instituted for Old Testament Israel which was a carnal-minded nation that could not know, understand or be subject to God’s spiritual truth. NT Christians are to worship God in spirit and in truth having in them the Spirit of God.
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
In John 4:23, God says the hour is coming and now is i.e., has come when true worshippers i.e., those called and chosen, those of God’s NT Church which started on the day of Pentecost, shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth i.e., there will no longer be any need to worship God through physical rituals as ancient Israel was commanded to do.
The only possible way for ancient Israel to demonstrate its obedience to God was by observing the physical rituals and ceremonies given them by God through Moses. Ancient Israel was blind to the spiritual truth of God that can only be known by revelation from God and God’s Spirit was not yet made available but in exceptional circumstances to men chosen to write the books of the Old Testament or to be God’s prophets to Israel such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, etc.
In New Testament times, true Christians worship God by studying God’s Holy Bible and believing the truth as God reveals it to them i.e., by letting their minds be renewed by God’s truth and living their lives accordingly. As a result, true Christians no longer think that the world is not such a bad place after all.
1Jn 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Following their conversion, they do not look back at it longingly as Lot’s wife did and lost her physical life as a result. True Christians who continue to love the world out of which they have been called to be separate, will, like Lot’s wife, lose their life. Only this time it will not be their physical life; it will be their eternal life.
The hour when true Christians are to worship God in spirit and in truth came when Christ was resurrected (John 7:39) and ascended back to His Father (Joh 16:7).
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
God’s Spirit from that point on was made available to those who would be called from the day of Pentecost on up to the beginning of the Millennium. During the Millennium (Joel 2:28) and the Last Great Day (John 7:37) all will be called as God pours out of His Spirit upon all flesh.
What was then the unleaven mentioned by Paul which true Christians are to have? What was the leaven that they were to purge out of their lives so as to be a new unleavened lump? If leaven is sin and true Christians will always have sin in their lives then they can’t ever be a new, unleavened lump.
Let’s see what Christ tells us is represented by “leaven.”
The Leaven of the Pharisees
As we have often been taught, Christ is the revelator and the Bible, which is Christ in writing, gives us the correct meaning of its symbols. God in New Testament (NT) times speaks to true Christians through His Holy Bible and not by prophets. Christ is the Word and the Bible is Christ in writing.
Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
The sure way for us to know what leaven represents for NT Christians is to search the Scriptures as the Bereans did.
And so it is that we read in the gospel of Matthew that Christ told His disciples that the leaven of the Pharisees was the sin of the Pharisees and that when He was speaking about the “leaven of the Pharisees,” He was not talking about bread as they thought He was.
Mat 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mat 16:11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Mat 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Luk 12:1 In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
We know that the Pharisees and Sadducees were teaching the truth of God given them by God through Moses but that they did not live their lives accordingly. They did not accept God as the absolute authority in their lives.
Mat 23:2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
In Luke 12:1, we read that the leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy i.e., they knew the truth and made an outward show of following it but in their personal lives they weren’t doing so.
Luk 12:1 In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
They had an outward show of obedience to God to look good before men but their hearts were far from Him; they were not obeying Him in their personal lives. Christ likened them to whitened sepulchers which looked really good on the outside but which inside were full of unsightly, disgusting and repulsive dead men’s bones.
They knew and taught the truth but did not themselves, follow it. Why?
Paul gives us the answer in 1 Cor’ns 5; 2; 8 (see below) where he is reprimanding some members of the Corinthian churches for being puffed up, a mixed metaphor where the effect of physical leaven on bread dough is used to illustrate the effect of spiritual leaven on Christians. Leaven puffs up dough i.e., it causes a lump of dough to increase several times its original size by the formation of air bubbles in it which results from the fermentation process caused by the yeast. Basically, the increase in size is all air and not substance; there is not more bread, it is the same amount of bread that is made to look bigger by the leaven added to the bread dough.
1Co 5:2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Spiritual leaven causes a Christian to rise up, to become puffed up but of course not in a physical sense. The “rising up” and the “puffing up” is in terms of putting ourselves above God as the supreme authority in our lives. We refuse to allow God to rule us; we refuse to submit to Him in all things; we still want to have our own way in certain matters; we find ourselves disagreeing with God and choosing to follow our own mind because we don’t think God has it right and we do.
Being puffed up is not a specific sin, it is an abiding attitude of mind where one sets himself up as the criterion for determining right and wrong after having come to the knowledge of the truth. The determination of right and wrong then for them becomes a personal decision.
Experience in God’s Church has demonstrated that having a bit of knowledge about the Scriptures caused not a few to think all of a sudden, they were great teachers of the truth; others who had been given a bit of authority over congregations came to see themselves as having the same authority as the ordained ministry and, in the days of the apostles, local leading men took over congregations. The ultimate puffing up is of course with respect to God where converted Christians come to think of themselves as knowing better than God what is right and wrong and go back to living their lives according to their own self-devised criteria as they did before their conversion.
As Paul states, knowledge causes one to be puffed up i.e., for some, now that they have been given to understand some of the truth of God, they think they understand it all and even know it better than those (God’s apostle and the ministry) who originally taught it to them when God first opened up their minds to understand it.
Being “puffed up” or “being a leavened lump” means we are essentially saying to God, “I know better than you do; I will follow my own understanding of what I should do; I will not accept that your authority in this matter is higher than mine.” The specific puffing up of which Paul was speaking in 1 Cor’ns 5 was that the members of the Corinthian churches were tolerating among themselves a prospective member that was having sex with his father’s wife contrarily to Paul’s command that any such person should be excluded from their congregation. But the members thought they knew better than Paul and didn’t put the sinning individual out of the congregation as Paul had instructed them to do in such cases. They elevated themselves over Paul in authority; they were puffed up against Paul and, in the process, God. What was the leaven puffing them up? They thought they knew better than Paul what should be done with that particular sinner which caused them to refuse to submit to God’s Word and authority conveyed to them through Paul in this matter.
Being “puffed up” spiritually-speaking is basically a refusal to obey God by voluntarily rejecting His authority in our lives. Instead, we appoint ourselves as the supreme authority in our lives. This is usually not done for all things but only with respect to certain teachings which we find particularly objectionable as they come in sharp conflict with some of our strongly held but false beliefs that we had before our conversion. When we refuse God’s authority in our lives, we sin as we are refusing to obey God thinking ourselves to know better; we elevate (puff up) our personal authority over God’s authority regarding certain doctrines, teachings, points of God’s law that we find objectionable because they go against some of our most cherished beliefs which we had developed before our conversion. We refuse God’s correction which all must submit to if they are to be saved. Before our conversion we did not know the truth but upon being taught it we must submit to it no matter how difficult it is for us to abandon our former beliefs which we thought were so right. This has caused many in God’s church throughout the centuries to stumble.
So, leaven, in the NT is a material symbol for pride against God or lack of humility before God which results in sinfulness i.e., a willful decision not to obey God in certain matters which is an unpardonable sin which leads to loss of salvation. Sinning willingly i.e., sins committed as a result of the weakness of our flesh are covered by grace but sins committed willfully i.e., in rebellion against God are not forgiven whatever they may be.
The unpardonable sin of the Pharisees, the leaven of the Pharisee, the way in which they knowingly rebelled against God, was their hypocrisy. They knew who Jesus was and opposed him at every opportunity.
Leaven is not a specific sin; it can be any sinful behaviour of which we are justifying ourselves. Leaven spiritually speaking is willful opposition to what we know to be the truth.
What makes a Christian an unleavened lump i.e., a Christian to whom God does not impute sin, is his attitude of wanting to obey all of God’s law.
When we start exempting ourselves from certain aspects of God’s law because we don’t think it is applicable to us, because times have changed, we’re not the kind of person that can follow this particular law, I was born this way and cannot change, etc. we are no longer under grace, our sins are no longer forgiven, we are no longer an unleavened lump and we have lost our salvation.
Someone who is an unleavened lump is not someone without sin in his life but rather, it is someone who is not in opposition to any aspects of what he knows to be the truth of God.
Leaven spiritually speaking is not a specific sin or sins but rather an attitude of rebellion against the truth of God which makes us a leavened lump as our sins are then no longer forgiven. Leaven in the Old Testament was simply physical yeast used to make bread dough rise; it had no connotation of being sin in any way.
Proverbs 11:2 gives us the different outcomes of pride and of being humble (not puffed up) before God.
Pro 11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.
What this verse is saying is that it is shameful for a converted Christian to oppose himself to God once He has revealed Himself to him and indeed, with those who submit to God, who humble themselves, who are lowly (don’t raise themselves up “puff themselves up” above God as the supreme authority in their lives) is wisdom i.e., they have the truth of God guiding them and they prosper. God’s wisdom, truth or revelation is only with those who humble themselves to obey Him; who submit to His authority in all things even the ones they disagree with trusting God to be right.
Pro 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish [truly converted individuals who oppose themselves to one or more aspect of God’s law] is a rod of pride [their pride will result in their being punished as it will lead to them breaking God’s law intentionally]: but the lips of the wise [they tell God they want His rulership in their lives] shall preserve them. [keep them from experiencing the bad consequences of acting contrarily to God’s law because they follow it.]
Pro 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Refusing to follows God’s truth comes before destruction in the Lake of Fire; and refusing to submit to God, before ultimately losing all the truth we had been given and again becoming blind; a blindness that will not be removed a second time.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread in NT times is the feast that teaches the Christian’s part in the salvation process which is that he must self-willingly and without coercion of any kind subordinate his will to God’s will in all things, even the ones he disagrees with, after he has been given to come to the knowledge of the truth at the time of his conversion. This is what makes him an “unleavened lump.” Whenever he is resisting God, he is elevating himself (puffing himself up) above God’s authority in his life; he is rising up against God’s authority placing himself in authority over God; he refuses to humble himself before God and to accept His authority in his life. His sins are then no longer forgiven.
Spiritual leaven manifests itself in different sinful ways in a Christian’s life but essentially, it always has to do with submitting or not to God’s authority in all things; to allowing or not, God to be the supreme authority in our lives. Being “leavened” and to be “puffed up” spiritually speaking is to refuse to submit to God’s authority in our lives because we think we can better determine right from wrong than God can and because it serves our purpose of not wanting to let go of some of the sinfulness in our lives.
In Conclusion
We can see that the problem in true Christians’ lives is not so much sin which of course we must seek to overcome as much as we can, as it is making sure we have removed all remnants of our past opposition to God [spiritual leaven) when we were unconverted and are maintaining an attitude of obedience to God in all things which prevents us from committing the unpardonable sin for which there is no sacrifice i.e., elevating ourselves over God by again setting ourselves up as the highest authority in our lives as we did before our conversion. We are then no longer under grace; our sins are no longer forgiven.
The first man, rejected God’s authority over him and set out to live his life in accordance with what “he” thought was right even though God had warned him that if he took it upon himself to decide right and wrong rather than relying on Him, he would surely die. He was not to elevate his authority over that of God.
There is a way that seems right to a man but the ends thereof is death (Pr 14:12; 16:25).
Adam made himself the supreme authority in his life rather than God.
This was the case for all of us before our calling. After our calling we must be vigilant to ensure God remains the supreme authority in our lives; that we do not again become puffed up against Him and in the process commit the unpardonable sin of sinning willfully against Him by once again, establishing ourselves as the supreme authority in our lives instead of God and of going back to relying on ourselves rather than God to define good and evil for us.
The Days of Unleavened Bread is a reminder of one of the key steps in God’s master plan of salvation for mankind. It is a yearly reminder that we must maintain throughout our lives our unleavened spiritual state of mind of not opposing ourselves to God in any way; to maintain the intense and sincere desire to obey God in all things which we had at the time of our conversion so as to remain under grace, to be an unleavened lump and inherit salvation. We must keep our minds free of spiritual leaven i.e., we must never allow back into our minds any remnant of our former attitude of rebellion against God when we made ourselves the highest authority in our lives and refused God’s authority over us.
During the Days of Unleavened Bread we examine ourselves to make sure there are no areas of our lives where the spiritual leaven of placing ourselves above God as the supreme authority has crept back into our lives.
Christians must accept God as the supreme authority in all aspects of their lives so that the sins we commit despite our most sincere desire to obey God after our conversion are forgiven.
If we allow ourselves to again become puffed up against God as we were before our conversion, and start on our own deciding right and wrong rather than having God do it for us, we will lose our salvation. This is the unpardonable sin which is our going back to being the god in our lives that we follow rather than the one and only true God.
We must remain an “unleavened lump” from the day of our conversion right on up to the end of our natural lives.
This is the message of the Days of Unleavened Bread that all must take to heart.
God's Spiritual Nation 