Chapter 3
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
חַג הַמַּצּוֹת
Chag HaMatzot · KHAHG hah-mah-TSOHT
Key 3: Set Free to Be Made Holy
At a Glance
- Meaning
- The Feast of Unleavened Bread
- When
- 15 to 21 Nisan
- Duration
- Seven days, with holy convocations on the first and seventh days
- Key Scriptures
- Exodus 12:15-20; Leviticus 23:6-8; Deuteronomy 16:3-4
Preparing live dates...
Dates follow Israel observance, with times at Jerusalem astronomical sunset.
What Scripture Says
Leviticus 23:6-8 (NKJV)
"And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread."
The feast begins the day after Passover and lasts a week. The first and seventh days are holy convocations, with no customary work.
Exodus 12:15-20 (NKJV)
"On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses."
Leaven was not only forbidden to eat. It had to be removed from every home in Israel for the whole week.
Exodus 12:39 (NKJV)
"because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait"
The first unleavened bread was baked in haste. Israel left Egypt so suddenly that the dough had no time to rise.
Deuteronomy 16:3 (NKJV)
"the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste)"
Moses called this bread the bread of affliction. Each bite recalled both the hardship of slavery and the speed of deliverance, so that Israel would remember the day they came out of Egypt all the days of their lives.
Exodus 13:8 (NKJV)
"This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt."
Each generation was to tell the story as its own. The Exodus was not only something God did for ancestors. It was something He did for me.
In the Tabernacle and Temple
During the seven days, the priests offered additional sacrifices every day: two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs as burnt offerings, with their grain offerings, and one goat as a sin offering (Numbers 28:17-25). Unleavened Bread was the first of the three pilgrimage feasts at which all the men of Israel were to appear before the LORD (Deuteronomy 16:16). By the first century, the names Passover and Unleavened Bread were often used for the whole season (Luke 22:1).
Leaven was never burned on the altar: "No grain offering which you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven" (Leviticus 2:11). The two loaves of the Feast of Weeks were baked with leaven, and they were waved before the LORD rather than burned (Leviticus 2:12; 23:17).
In the Days of Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus was crucified at Passover and buried before the Sabbath began, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. His body lay in the tomb through the opening days of the feast.
Jesus used leaven as a picture of spreading influence. He warned His disciples to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees" (Matthew 16:6), and they understood that He meant their teaching (Matthew 16:12). Luke records Him calling it hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). He also used leaven positively, comparing the kingdom of heaven to leaven that works through a whole batch of dough (Matthew 13:33). Leaven pictures something small that spreads, for good or for evil.
Jesus called Himself "the bread of life" (John 6:35), and He was born in Bethlehem, a name that means "house of bread" in Hebrew.
Jewish Observance Today
In Israel the festival lasts seven days. The first and seventh are full holy days, and the days between are intermediate days.
Searching for leaven
On the night before Passover, the home is searched by candlelight for any remaining leaven.Burning the leaven
The next morning, the leaven that was found is burned.Selling the leaven
Leavened products that cannot be removed are often sold to a non-Jew for the week through a rabbi and bought back afterward.Matzah all week
Only unleavened bread is eaten. Matzah is made from flour and water and baked within eighteen minutes so that it cannot rise.The Song of the Sea
On the seventh day, tradition remembers the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) is read in the synagogue.
Fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth
Each connection is labeled: what the New Testament states directly, and what Christians interpret from the patterns of Scripture.
Keep the Feast with Sincerity and Truth
Stated in the New Testament
"Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Paul calls believers to keep the feast "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:8).
Without Sin
Stated in the New Testament
Hebrews says Jesus was "in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15), and Peter says He "committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22).
Unleavened in the Tomb
Theological interpretation
Peter applies Psalm 16:10 to Jesus: "Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption" (Acts 2:27, 31). Many Christians see His sinless body, resting in the tomb during this feast, as the true unleavened bread. Peter’s use of the psalm is stated; the connection to the feast is an interpretation.
Born in the House of Bread
Theological interpretation
The meaning of the name Bethlehem is a fact of the Hebrew language. Seeing it as a sign that the Bread of Life was born in the house of bread is an interpretation.
The Key to Humanity
Set Free to Be Made Holy
Passover lasts one night. Unleavened Bread lasts seven days. God did not rescue Israel and leave them unchanged. Deliverance was followed by a full week of cleansing, a picture of a whole life lived differently. The pattern holds for every human being who comes to God: rescue first, then transformation. Paul says Christ "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people" (Titus 2:14). Unleavened Bread is the key that shows humanity what freedom is for.
Seventh-day Adventist View
Seventh-day Adventists understand the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a ceremonial type pointing to the sinless life of Christ and to the holy living He makes possible in His people. They do not keep it as an annual feast, but they apply its message: the believer, freed by Christ, is called to put away sin and live in sincerity and truth.
Hebrew Words to Know
חַג
Chag
A pilgrimage feast.
מַצָּה
Matzah
Unleavened bread.
חָמֵץ
Chametz
Leavened food; anything that has risen.
חוֹל הַמּוֹעֵד
Chol HaMoed
The intermediate days of a feast.
Questions for Reflection
- 1.Leaven spreads quietly through a whole batch of dough. What small habit or attitude has been spreading in your life?
- 2.Israel searched every corner of the house for leaven. What would it look like to ask God to search your heart (Psalm 139:23-24)?
- 3.Rescue came first, then cleansing. Why does that order matter?
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.