The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMahtzah) is the fifteenth day of the month
of Nisan, which is the day following Passover.  It is a seven day festival to the Lord (Lev.
23:6-7; Ex. 12:7-8,14-17).  On the fifteenth of Nisan and for the next seven days, God
forbade the people to have any leavened bread in their houses.

PURGING LEAVEN FROM THE HOUSE
(BEDIKAT HAMETZ)

 God gave a ceremony of searching and removing leaven from the house prior to
the festival of Unleavened Bread in preparation for the festival.  In Hebrew, this ceremony
is called Bedikat HaMetz, which means “the search for leaven.”  The ceremony is as
follows:

 The preparation for searching and removing the leaven from the house actually
begins before Passover.  First, the wife thoroughly cleans the house to remove all leaven
from it.  In the Bible, leaven is symbolic of sin.

 Spiritual Application.  Spiritually, the believers in the Messiah Jesus are the house
of God (Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:19).  Leaven (sin) is to be cleaned out of
our house, which is our body (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20; 2Cor. 6:15-18).

 In cleaning the house, the wife is instructed to purposely leave ten small pieces of
leaven (bread) in the house.  Then the father takes the children, along with a candle, a
wooden spoon, a feather, and a piece of linen cloth, and searches through the house for
the ten pieces of leaven.  By nightfall on the day before Passover, a final and
comprehensive search is performed.  At this time, the house is completely dark except for
the candles.  Once the father finds the leaven (bread), he sets the candle down by the
leaven and lays the wooden spoon beside the leaven.  Then he uses the feather to sweep
the leaven onto the spoon.  Without touching the leaven, he takes the feather, spoon, and
leaven, wraps them in a linen cloth, and casts them out of the door of the house.  The next
morning (the fourteenth of Nisan), he goes into the synagogue and puts the linen cloth and
its contents into a fire to be burned.

 Spiritual Application.  Spiritually, we are to cleanse the leaven (sin) from our
houses (lives) by allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal to us, through the knowledge of Jesus
and the Scripture, the sin that is in our lives.  It is only through God’s Word that we are
able to identify sin in our lives as it is written in Psa. 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto
my feet, and a light unto my path.”  So the spiritual understanding of the candle is that it
represents the Word of God.  The feather represents the Holy Spirit.  Even though we
have the Word of God, we need the Spirit of God to  illuminate the entire Bible to us,
including the Torah and the Tanach (1 Cor. 2:11-14).

 Messianic Fulfillment.  The spoon represents the tree that Jesus died upon (Deut.
21:22-23).  The leaven (sin) was swept on the spoon (the tree) as part of the ceremony.
Likewise, our sin was swept or cast upon Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21) when Jesus died upon the
tree.  The leaven (Jesus upon the tree) was then wrapped in linen and Jesus was cast out
of His house (His body) and went to Hades, which is a place of burning (Luke 16:19-24).
Thus He fulfilled the part of the ceremony where the father takes the linen cloth and its
contents and casts it into the fire to be burned.

THE FIFTEENTH OF NISAN - PURGING OUT OF SIN

 The fifteenth of Nisan marks the beginning of a seven day feast period when Israel
was to eat bread without leaven (sin) in remembrance of their baking unleavened bread in
their haste to escape Egypt.  The primary theme of this feast is the purging out of leaven
(sin).  Historically, there are two notable events that happened on this day.

1.  The Exodus journey beginning from Egypt (Ex. 12:41).  In Deut. 16:3, the bread is
referred to as “the bread of affliction.”

2.  The burial of Jesus after His crucifixion, who is the Bread of Life (John 6:35).  In fact,
the place of Jesus’ birth, Bethlehem, comes from two Hebrew words, beit and lechem.
Beit means “house” and lechem means “bread.”  So, Bethlehem means house of bread.
Therefore, Jesus, who is the Bread of God, was born at a place called the house of bread.

 The festivals are fixed appointments of God specifying what He will perform and
the exact time He will perform it.  The Jews had to hurry to put Jesus’ body in the ground
because the sabbath was drawing near.  This sabbath was a high sabbath and the first day
of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15).  This can be found in John 19:31).  This would mean
that Jesus died on the fourteenth of Nisan, the day of Passover.  Jesus was in the sepulcher
the day following His crucifixion, which was the fifteenth of Nisan, the first day of
Unleavened Bread.

THE MESSIANIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE MATZH IN THE PASSOVER
SEDER

 One of the 15 steps during the Passover Seder is a step called Yachatz.  Yachatz is
when the middle of the three matzot is broken in two.  During the Passover Seder, there is
a bag called Matzatosh which contains three pieces of matzot.  The middle piece of matzot
is removed, broken, wrapped in linen, and buried.  This piece of matzah is the afikomen.
During this part of the service, the afikomen was removed from sight (this represented
Jesus being buried) and it remained hidden until later in the service.  Jesus is the bread that
was buried because He is the Bread of Life who came down from Heaven (John 6:35).
Jesus was removed from between the two thieves who were crucified with Him (Matt.
27:38), wrapped linen, and buried in the earth (Matt. 27:59-60).

 Toward the end of the Passover Seder, the twelfth step to the service is called
Tzafun.  During Tzafun, the afikomen that was previously buried is redeemed and
ransomed.  At this point in the service, the matzah, previously characterized as the bread
of affliction, is now transformed and redeemed.  This is a perfect picture of Jesus, who
fulfilled the role of the suffering Messiah known as Messiah ben Yosef.  He suffered
affliction while dying on the tree, but was later redeemed when He was resurrected by
God the Father.  In the Passover Seder service, the afikomen is redeemed by the children.
The children who find the buried afikomen receive a gift.  This gift is known as the
promise of the father.  Likewise, when God resurrected Jesus after He was buried in the
earth, those who believed upon Him by faith are given gifts by God.  When Jesus ascended
to Heaven, He gave gifts to men (Eph. 4:7-8).  These gifts included righteousness (Rom.
5:17-18), eternal life (Rom. 6:23), grace (Rom. 5:12,14-15), faith (Eph. 2:8-9), and other
spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:1,4).  Some other gifts include wisdom, knowledge, healing, the
working of miracles, prophecy, the discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of
tongues (1 Cor. 12:8-11), in addition to the gifts of helps and administration (1 Cor.
12:28).

THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD IN THE BIBLE

1.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread was so much a part of Passover that the names of
Passover and Unleavened Bread were used interchangeably or almost synonymously
(Luke 22:1).

2.  The feast was to be kept seven days (Ex. 12:15-19).  The number seven is the biblical
number for completion or fullness.  the believer who keeps this feast is to keep it fully
unto the Lord and set himself aside completely to Him.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread
speaks of complete separation from all things that are leavened (sinful) and feeding upon
Jesus, who is the believer’s bread (John 6:32-36,38).

3.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a high Sabbath day.  A high sabbath in Hebrew is
called a shabbaton.  During Passover, there is an extra sabbath besides the weekly sqbbath.
These sabbaths are called high sabbaths.  The high sabbath of Unleavened Bread can be
seen in John 19:31.

4.  Unleavened bread is used for consecration and separation.  It is also anointed with oil.
The believers in Jesus are to be consecrated and separated to do the work God has called
us to do and to live a life that is holy to Him.  If we do this, the anointing of the Holy
Spirit of God will rest upon our lives.
 a.  The bread represents consecration (Lev. 8:1-2,26-27; Ex. 29:2-23).

 b.  It was included in the sacred vow of separation of the Nazarites (Num. 6:1-21)

 c.  It was the food for the priests in the meal and peace offering (Lev. 2:1,4,14-16;
 6:14-18; 7:11-12).

 d.  It marked Israel’s divine separation from Egypt’s (the world’s) life of slavery
 and bondage (Ex. 12:17,30-34).

 e.  All leaven was to be put away (Ex. 12:15,19-20).  When leaven or yeast is
 placed in an unleavened batch of dough, the leaven puffs up the dough.  Likewise,
 when we allow sin into our lives, it will puff us up in pride and arrogance.

HOW TO KEEP THE FEAST

 Spiritual Application.  Spiritually, the feast is kept in sincerity and truth.  Sincerity
involves purity and serving God with a pure heart.  It involves putting away the sin in our
lives, and separating ourselves from all evil that has a corrupting influence in the life of the
believer in Jesus.  Historically, Israel learned that keeping the feast meant a complete
separation from Egypt’s religion, bondage, food, and slavery, as well as its worldly glory,
wisdom, and splendor.

 The children of Israel took the dough before it was leavened because they could
not tarry in Egypt.  There was not time to let the leaven get in and work up the dough
(Ex. 12:34,39).  As believers, we are to flee the world’s ways and philosophies that are
contrary to the Word of God.  Sincerity (1 Cor. 5:7-8) involves purity and sanctification,
which means holiness and separation.  The Bible uses water and washing to instruct us
concerning sanctification and separation (Josh. 24:14; Eph. 5:26; 6:24; Phil. 1:10; 1Pet.
2:2).  To sanctify means to make holy, to purify, or to consecrate.  The believers are
sanctified by obeying the entire Word of God, including the Torah and the Tanach (John
17:17,19; Acts 20:32; 2 Chron. 30:15; 35:1,6; Ex. 19:10,14; 28:39-41; Lev. 8:30; 11:44;
20:7; Heb. 10:10,14; 1 Cor. 1:2).

 In 1 Cor. 6:11, sanctification is connected to washing (Acts 22:16).  Historically,
after Israel celebrated the Passover, they were immersed (washed) in the water of the Red
Sea (1 Cor. 10:1-2).  Likewise, after we accept the Messiah into our lives, we must
immerse ourselves in studying the Bible and, by so doing, enable the knowledge of the
Word of God to transform and change our lives.