Purging the Leaven

Purging the Leaven

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Deuteronomy 16:1-4:   "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. Therefore, you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name. You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.”

In scripture, leavening (yeast) is a picture of sin.  One bit of leavening spreads throughout all the dough just as one bit of sin affects each and every area of our lives.  One custom of Passover is to cleanse both our homes and our hearts from leaven.

  During the few days before Passover, observant Jews all over the world set to spring house cleaning in order to purge their homes of any sort of mold or yeast.  The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the day after Passover and lasts for seven days.  During that time, religious Jews eat only unleavened bread.

Seven in the number of divine completion.  From our Lord’s serving the Passover meal to His disciples, we learn that the unleavened bread pictures the completeness of our His anguish on the Cross.  The price for sin has been paid in full. It is finished.

On Palm Sunday we remember our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  What we don’t often realize is that He was coming to Jerusalem to fulfill the prophetic picture of the sacrificial Passover lamb.  After His entry into the city, Jesus prophesied that the city would be destroyed because the people did not know the time of their visitation from the Son of God. (Luke 19:41-44)

The incident must cause us to reflect upon our own lives.  How much sorrow and desolation have come into our lives because we either have not known or have ignored our need for the Lord and/or His desire to bless us and deliver us.

The next incident is the Lord’s cleansing of the Temple.  Luke 19:45-46: “Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, `My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a `den of thieves.' ''

Jesus did some spring house cleaning.  He cleaned His own house, the Temple in Jerusalem.

Likewise, Passover is a time for all Christians to do some housecleaning.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:16: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

Not only are believers the temple of God, we are also the Bride of Christ. He is coming back for a Bride without spot or blemish (Ephesians 5:27).  John the Revelator said that the Bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19:7).  Therefore, we all have some Temple cleaning to do.

It is important to note that just as Jesus cleaned His own house, it is the responsibility of each of us to clean our own temple.  I am not to take my mop next door to clean yours.  I am not even to peep through the window to see whether or not your house needs cleaning.

A miracle of the purging is that the Lord will show each of us what needs to be cleaned.  May the following be our Passover prayer:

Psalm 139: 23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”

Jesus is the Passover Lamb.  Because of the finished work of the Cross, we may walk in the peace of Passover.   We may walk in the the way of the Prince Peace.  Purging the leaven from our lives is a step forward in achieving that peace.

Pesach Sameach. (Happy Passover)