Exodus 12:15-17

As redeemed by Christ, every believer is to get rid of the old yeast of malice and wickedness.

Exodus 12:15-17 (ESV): Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly … And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.

Immediately after Passover, the Israelites were to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, in which they had to remove yeast from their houses because God had brought them out of Egypt on the very day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

In the New Testament, the word “yeast” meant “hypocrisy”. (Luke 12:1b – Jesus warned His disciples to guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.)

Leaving or exiting from Egypt signified the Israelites departing from the land of oppression and receiving God’s salvation upon them. They were no longer subjected to pain and humiliation inflicted by Pharaoh; they were delivered from Egypt’s bondage; they had been set free to worship God, the only true Lord; and they could claim the land of Canaan as promised by God.

In the New Testament, the word “yeast” meant “hypocrisy”. (Luke 12:1b – Jesus warned His disciples to guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.)

Paul once compared the life of a believer to that of unleavened bread. As redeemed by Christ, every believer is to get rid of the old yeast of malice and wickedness. (1 Cor 5:7-8 “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.”)

On the day of Passover, Jesus Christ, the Word became flesh, offered Himself as a living sacrifice for our sins, delivered us from the bondage of sin, removed the pain and shame of sin from us, and set us free, so that we could worship Him and receive from Him the fullness of life.

The Israelites marked the first day and the last day (i.e., the seventh day) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread with a sacred assembly. Now similarly, during this 7-day “journey”, we must not have any leavened thing. Dear brothers and sisters, let us keep our lives holy, and let us remove any yeast of malice and wickedness, so that we can be full of sincerity and truth in our journey of faith.