Unleavened Bread in the Bible

Unleavened bread holds a rich place in Scripture, beginning as a vivid sign of redemption from Egypt and culminating as a picture of purity and sincerity in the Christian life. Made without yeast and baked quickly, this simple bread carried profound meaning for Israel and continues to instruct believers today about the holiness God desires in His people. The origin of unleavened bread is tied to the Exodus. In Exodus 12:15 God commands Israel to eat unleavened bread for seven days, removing all leaven from their houses, and Exodus 12:17 establishes the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a perpetual ordinance because on that very day God brought their hosts out of Egypt. Exodus 13:7 reinforces the command that unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days and that no leaven shall be seen among them in all their territory. The haste of the departure—dough with no time to rise—was woven into a yearly remembrance of God's mighty deliverance. Leviticus 23:6 fixes this feast in Israel's sacred calendar, beginning on the fifteenth day of the first month immediately after Passover. The New Testament unfolds the deeper spiritual significance of this symbol. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul urges believers to cleanse out the old leaven that they may be a new lump, as they really are unleavened, for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Leaven becomes a picture of the pervasive influence of sin, especially malice and evil, which must be purged from the life of the church. Then in 1 Corinthians 5:8 Paul calls Christians to keep the festival not with the old leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Thus the physical bread of the Exodus becomes a call to moral and spiritual purity. Unleavened bread reminds us that those redeemed by the true Passover Lamb are called to lives cleansed of sin, marked by sincerity and truth, in grateful response to so great a salvation.