I loved getting my first bread making machine. We would dump in all of the ingredients, set the timer, and wake up to the smell of fresh bread. What could be easier? However, there were a few times when I forgot to add the yeast, and we awakened to a warm brick instead of a warm loaf. Yeast is a fascinating organism that we give little thought to (unless we accidentally leave it out of the bread dough!). Yeast microbes have been used for fermentation and baking for centuries. Researchers believe that they were first used in Ancient Egypt when they were discovered accidentally. They speculate that a combination of flour meal and water was left out longer than usual on a warm day and began to ferment due to naturally occurring yeasts. The resulting light and flavorful bread would have been a nice change from the flat, hard bread they were used to.

During this Passover season, yeast takes on a special significance. According to Leviticus 23:5-6, the Passover meal, on Passover night, was to be eaten with unleavened bread, or bread without yeast. Following the Passover were seven days when only unleavened bread could be eaten. In Corinthians 5:8, referring to the Passover, Paul said “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” (KJV). Leaven was clearly pictured as a representation of sin. Paul corrects the Corinthians for being “puffed up” and he explains that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (I Cor. 5). Interestingly, if allowed to grow unchecked, yeast can cause metabolic changes in food and cause the food to spoil. What a perfect analogy for sin!

Years ago, when our family belonged to a church that rigorously kept the letter of the law, we attempted to rid our homes of all leaven before Passover arrived. I say “attempted” because we never actually achieved it! No matter how hard we tried, leaven would turn up in the least expected places. I remember scrubbing the stove, cleaning out the cupboards and the refrigerator, turning up sofa cushions and lifting carpets to vacuum. We threw out perfectly good food if it contained leavening, or even baking soda (which can become a leavening agent). After days of cleaning, we could partake of the Passover service (actually a communion service) feeling righteous, until, a day or two later, we would find we had forgotten to destroy the vacuum cleaner bag (FULL of our old leaven!). Or we would find ourselves enjoying a doughnut right in the middle of the days of unleavened bread simply because we had forgotten about leavening and had let our guard down. We would usually remember after the first delicious bite, and then have to fight the temptation of “just once won’t matter!” I am so grateful to have had those experiences. Although we have come out from under the burden of legalism, the lessons we learned during that time were priceless. Because of my many failed attempts to get rid of leaven, I have learned that I cannot overcome the power of sin by my own efforts. Yeast occurs naturally in the air, just as sin surrounds us. Our enemy is called “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2). It is as if he is leavening the very air around us with sin, so that even we, as Christians, are susceptible to it unless we are partaking continually of the unleavened bread that is Jesus Christ. “The Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it and said ‘Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you’…” Passover became the first holy day to be fulfilled in history. “For Christ our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (I Cor. 5:7).

Although I don’t adhere legalistically to the rituals of the Old Covenant, I find such a treasure in them. I understand now that the physical rituals given to the Israelites were actually given “as examples” for us (I Cor. 10:6). We are to “purge out the old leaven (of malice and wickedness) …that we may be a new lump…” (I love the Old King James for these verses!) It’s a process of putting away sin whenever we see it, and it’s harder now because the leaven is not in the cupboard, it’s in the heart. And the only place to get rid of our spiritual leaven is to give it to God, who covers it forever with the blood of His son. “By one sacrifice, He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrew 10:14). I think a piece of unleavened bread would taste pretty good right now…