Unleavened Bread 

Jewish Calendar: Nisan 15 - Nisan 21
Gregorian Calendar: March/April
Scripture Reference: Leviticus 23:6 and Deuteronomy 16:8
Significance: Unleavened Bread speaks of sanctification. Jesus was set apart. His body would not decay in the grave.

According to Scripture, on the fifteenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan, YHVH appointed another festival. This feast would last seven days and be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On the first night, and again on the seventh, there was to be a time of convocation (meeting) between Yahovah and man.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:16) is often called Passover because only unleavened bread was eaten during these seven days immediately following Passover (Exodus 12:15-20; 13:6-8; Deuteronomy 16:3-8). Unleavened bread reflected the fact that the Israelites had no time to put leaven in their bread before their hasty departure from Egypt and it was also connected to the barley harvest (Leviticus 23:4-14).

A common Jewish tradition in preparing for the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to sprinkle leavened (yeast) bread crumbs throughout the house and then subsequently sweep them all up and collectively burn them outside. You might be asking yourself, Why would they do this? Well, in the Bible, leaven symbolizes error or evil. It is the substance that causes fermentation. The Lord said to His disciples "Beware of the leaven (false doctrine) of the Pharisees" (Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15). In addition, the apostle Paul warned the Church at Corinth that "a little leaven (yeast) leaveneth (ferments) the whole lump" (I Corinthians 5:6). Paul was simply saying that if you turn a blind eye to that 'little' sin, it will grow and infect everything and everyone around them.

Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel, was crucified on the cross at Golgotha on the day of Passover. He was then buried in a newly hewn tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea, his unlce. However, unlike all other corpses, the body of Yeshua did not decay in the tomb. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a testimony of the sanctification, the setting apart of Yeshua by Yahovah. It is a celebration that believers in Yeshua can not only celebrate, but learn how to set themselves apart for the work of the Messiah.