The Five W's of Deleavening

March 26, 2017

John Plunkett

Spring is here! 

It may not seem like spring in Montreal; but it really is here!

The Vernal Equinox occurred at 10:28 am GMT on March 20th.  

You probably missed it, because it would have been 2:28am Pacific Time.

But even now, the warmer, sunny days are starting to bring the spring flowers out, and the spring Holy Days are almost here. 

Passover night, can you believe it, is only sixteen days away.

I have two questions:

Are you looking forward to the spring Holy Days? 

Are you looking forward to the "Days of Spring Cleaning"?

Yes, there is a real danger for brethren in God’s church that the days preceding the Feast of Unleavened Bread might have become the Days of Spring Cleaning! 

The very mention of the word "deleavening" conjures up dread in the minds of many a Christian. 

O the thought of all that vacuuming, scrubbing, dusting, and the exhaustion that seems to increase each year as our physical tabernacles grow older, can be daunting.

How often have we put so much into our physical deleavening work, that we have had little energy and alertness left over for the learning of the important spiritual lessons of Passover, the Night to be Much Observed and the Feast of Unleavened Bread?  Including the symbolism of deleavening itself.

Is this what God intended?

Just what deleavening does He want His children to do? 

What has He commanded His people? 

This is what we are going to talk about in the sermon today.

I’d like to offer you some guidelines on deleavening in a review of "The Five W's of Deleavening" – the Why, Where, What, Who, and When  of Deleavening.

This is going to be review for many of you; but I think that it is good to have a review of this every so often.

Let’s begin with …

Why?

Yes, just why should we deleaven?  After all, the word "deleaven" doesn't even appear in the scriptures! 

Let us look at God's original command to His people on this subject in the twelfth chapter of Exodus:

Exodus 12:1:
And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying…

Here we read that it is the LORD – God – who was talking to Moses and Aaron when they were in the final days of Israel's captivity in Egypt.

Continuing in verse 2, God proceeds to give them instructions on how the Passover should be kept. 

We’ll skip over those verses; but when we come to verse 15, He gives this command:

15:  Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16:  And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
17:  And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.
18:  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.
19:  Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.
20:  You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

So the simple answer to the question, "Why should God's people deleaven?" is that the LORD God commands it! 

Yes, Okay.  But why does He command it?  All of His commands are always for very good reasons. Sometimes we may not know what the reasons are for; but they are always for very good reasons.  He gives us some of them here.

Verses 15 and 19 give part of the answer; and that is: so as not to be cut off from God's people due to disobedience.  And that is a very real danger. 

When I think back over the past twenty-odd years (and perhaps even further back than that), there are many people who were once counted amongst God's people who have made this serious mistake.  They have accepted the false teaching that they may safely reject – and even ridicule – this command (and many others), claiming that these commands were only required for Old Covenant Israelites. 

The result is just as God warned – that they are now cut off from His people (although most of them would not, of course, admit this fact).  But they are now cut off from His people.

Verses 17 and 39 give more answers to the question, “Why should God’s people deleaven?”

Exodus 12:
17:  “And you shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever”…
Verse 39:  And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.

The words for "the feast of" in verse 17 are not in the Hebrew; but were added in by the King James Version translators.

God says here that His people are to keep the annual practice of deleavening because He brought His Old Testament “church” – physical Israel – out of Egypt.

We find later that this great and miraculous event was symbolic of Him freeing His New Covenant ekklesia, spiritual Israel, from sin. 

Many scriptures clearly reveal that both Egypt and leaven are symbols of sin. We know this from being in God's church for many years when this fact continued to be hammered home to us every Feast of Unleavened Bread.

These spiritual aspects will, of course, be detailed in messages to be brought to us during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

But did God really intend His people to observe this practice of deleavening forever as we read in verse 17?  Or was it – as some claim – nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ?  

We'll come to this question later.

Where?

Where should we deleaven? 

Again, God gives the instruction through Moses:

Exodus 12:15:  
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses...
Verse 19:  Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses...

The single Hebrew word from which the English phrases, out of your houses and in your houses were translated in these verses is bayith, which also can be translated as homes, households, or families. 

The LORD God expands on this in the following chapter:

Exodus 13:7:
Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with you, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all your quarters.

The English words with you in all your quarters were translated from the Hebrew gᵉbuwl which can mean borders, coasts, bounds, landmarks, space, limits, territory, and region.

Taken in a national sense, the LORD did not want leaven to be seen anywhere in the territories of His Old Covenant peoples.

As with many of God’s Laws, the people of His church today in our modern-day Israelite nations, have no way of enforcing this nationally.  But one day – in the World Tomorrow – it will be enforced again.

But for the time being, in our increasingly godless Israelitish nations, these instructions show that we – His New Covenant peoples – are to deleaven all of the areas that we are individually responsible for.

As we have seen, that includes our homes.  But what about our cars, our garages, our yards, and our workspaces?  Should we deleaven them?

Many years ago, Galileo wrote these wise words: "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use."  Yes.  Very true!  Our great God expects His people to be sensible.  He should not have to spell out every single detail – especially for long-time members of His church.  He does not expect us to deleaven areas where there has been absolutely no chance of leaven getting into. 

Think about it!  Is it possible that leavened products have made their way into your downstairs bathroom, or into your tool cupboard?  Over the past year, has no one eaten in your car?  Or carried groceries in the trunk?  Has no one eaten in your office space over the past year?  

Are you sure?  If you have little children, all bets are off and there can be no guarantees!  J

But if you are absolutely sure that no leaven has been taken into a certain area of your sphere of responsibility, then don't deleaven it! 

Our time at this period of the year is so valuable.  Why waste any of it?  The time would be better used in spiritual preparation for the Passover, and for the searching of spiritual leaven.

What?

What is leaven?  Exactly what is it that we should put off our property for the duration of the seven Days of Unleavened Bread? 

In recent years, I’ve heard a little bit of what I would consider to be watering down... brethren saying things like, “It’s only leavened bread that we have to get rid of.  Not leavened crumbs or leaven dust.  And old crumbs are not even leavened any more."  

That is what people might say.  But what does God’s Word say?  Yes, we just read Exodus 13:7 in which the LORD said that “there shall no leavened bread be seen with you.”

OK.  But His instruction continues, “Neither shall there be leaven seen with you in all your quarters.”

Back in Exodus 12:15, He instructs, “You shall put away leaven out of your houses”

And in Exodus 12:19: “There shall be no leaven found in your houses”

What is leaven?  What are leavening agents and leavened products? 

I don't know about you; but I had never even heard of leaven until I came into contact with God’s church in the 1960’s.

There are two main Hebrew words for "leaven" in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Exodus.  They are: 

Sehore which means leaven or swelling by fermentation.  It can be a noun or a verb.

Chametz (noun) and chamets (verb) can mean leaven, leavened bread, the thing leavened, to ferment and, interestingly when we think of the symbolism of leaven, it can also mean cruel, grieved, sour, embittered, oppress and ruthless. This is very interesting and significant when we think of the symbolism of leaven.

In the New Testament Greek, the noun is zume and the verb is zumoo.

The kind of leaven to be put off our properties is the type used to swell – by fermentation.  This includes baking powder, baking soda and yeast and products that these leavening agents are used to make, e.g. regular bread, cakes, biscuits and cookies.

Brewer’s yeast and drinks containing it are permissible and may remain in our homes.  Brewer’s yeast is not used to swell by fermentation.  Also, as has often been said over the years, it is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, not the Feast of Unleavened Beer!

I have heard it said that all household dust does not necessarily contain leaven.  However, some years ago, a church friend of ours who is an experienced and excellent baker told us that some kinds of traditional sourdough bread rise due to the working and action of the leaven that is inherent in the air.  

There is actually a really obvious and interesting spiritual aspect of this fact:

Ephesians 2:2:
Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

We all know very well that Satan is working feverishly to try to spiritually leaven every one of us.  This being the case, we have to take care not to become pharisaical over our deleavening; but we also must beware of falling into the other ditch – the ditch of laxness and carelessness! 

With deleavening, as with many – perhaps all – other areas of our Christian lives, we must strive for proper balance.

We must remember the symbolism!  No matter how long we vacuum and how hard we scrub, it is physically impossible to get rid of every single scrap of leaven from our homes.  It would take God Himself, or an angel at the very least, to reduce Himself to a microscopic size and to work His way through every inch of the nap of our carpets in order to do what even the most efficient vacuum cleaner cannot do. 

Likewise with the expulsion of spiritual leaven from our lives, we must be doing our part and working very hard at it.  This should not just be done pre-Passover and pre-Feast of Unleavened Bread, but all year long.

With both physical and spiritual deleavening, if we are doing our very best, then God's grace will make up for the shortfall.  We cannot do it all ourselves. God is the only one who can extract that spiritual leaven out of us.

Who?

Who should do the deleavening? 

Throughout the year, in many – or perhaps most – households, "poor ol' Mom" usually carries the main load of the housework. 

But should the lady of the house also do the lion's share of the deleavening?

To answer this question, please remember what leaven pictures.  Ask yourself, "Can Mom repent of and get rid of all of my sins?  Even if she could, would I really want her to know all of my sins, in order for her to repent of them?"

To properly picture the putting away of sin, all family members – including the children – should get involved and do their part.  Here is what God commands regarding teaching our children about their involvement in the Feast of Unleavened Bread:

Exodus 13:
8:  And you shall show your son (child) in that day, saying, “This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. 
9:  And it shall be for a sign unto you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD'S law may be in your mouth: for with a strong hand has the LORD brought you out of Egypt." 

Even very young children quickly learn the lesson and meaning of the deleavening process. 

Our children have enjoyed – or at least, seemed to enjoy – the annual deleavening project.  They used to write and place Post-it Notes on the unleavened areas, proudly proclaiming "No leaven here!" or "Un-puffed!"  They always seemed to look upon deleavening as a positive family activity as well as a memorable prelude to the spring holy days.

Nevertheless, it is true that not every church member, however zealous, is able to enjoy deleavening.  Increasing numbers of our aging church population are in increasingly poor health.  If this is the case for you, please do not hesitate to ask your fellow local church members for help. 

Once again, please think about what the process symbolizes and remember that none of us can do it alone.  We all need help to put out our spiritual leaven too.  The apostle Paul said that he was a helper of the Christian joy for the brethren.  He honoured Pricilla, Aquila and Urbane for being willing helpers.  Solomon wrote that a threefold reed is not quickly broken.  We all really do need to help each other.  

And again, thinking about it in a spiritual way, on an ongoing basis, we all need some help to put out our spiritual leaven.  This is something for us to meditate on.  This does not mean that we are to be busybodies, nor that we are to go around correcting others.  But rather, we are to be helping one another; and asking for help whenever we feel we need it.

When?

There are a few different aspects of the “When” question.

The first one, which we've touched on already, is “When was/is the deleavening requirement in force?”  In other words, as some believe, “Was it not done away with the Old Covenant – nailed to Jesus’ cross along with the Old Covenant?”

A few weeks ago, one of our professing Christian neighbours told Trish that she believed that, because the four gospel accounts all took place before the death and resurrection of Jesus and are therefore technically in the Old Covenant era (true!), the instructions for a New Testament Christian’s duty begin with the book of Acts.  That was an interesting statement,  And what that lady said is true… partially!

But she followed it up with another statement – an illogical and unscriptural one – that the fact that our Christian duty does not begin until Acts 2 in effect negates the requirement for us to keep the Holy Days.

If this were true, why did the apostles and early church continue to keep the Holy Days?  (Acts 2:1; 18:21; 20:6; 27:9; I Corinthians 5:6-8; 11:20-21; 16:8)

Did God really intend His people to observe the Holy days, including this practice of deleavening, forever, as we read in Exodus 12:17?  Or was it, as some claim, nailed to Jesus’ cross.

We know that Jesus kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and we know that His loved ones – the disciples, His friends and His neighbours kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  But perhaps more importantly for our example in the New Covenant Church of God, here are three scriptural records of brethren keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in the early church, and in some cases many years after Jesus’ crucifixion.

Acts 12:3:
And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)

Acts 20:6:
And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days.

I Corinthians 5:
6:  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7:  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened.  For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
8: Therefore 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.

The early New Covenant Church of God kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Although the third of these three scriptures does state that those early church brethren taught that Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread should be kept, it is true that the first two scriptures do not actually state that they kept them.  But, if they didn’t keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread – if they no longer kept it – if they had stopped keeping it – why would they even mention it?

The second “When” question is: When should we begin our deleavening?  And, perhaps more importantly, when should we have our deleavening finished? 

I find this sometimes-controversial scripture (and its parallel scriptures) interesting in this regard:

Matthew 26:17:
Now the first [day] of the [feast of] unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto Him, “Where will you that we prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

It doesn’t make logical sense that they would be preparing for the Passover (Abib 14th) on the First Day of Unleavened Bread (15th).  The First Day of Unleavened Bread comes the day after Passover.

The words “day” and “feast of” were added in by the King James Version translators, and the word “bread” is optional.

I like Fred Coulter’s version: “the first of the unleaveneds.”  It sounds a bit unwieldy to the ears of us English speakers; but I think it gets the point across.

We can be sure that Matthew was referring here to the daytime portion of Abib 13.  This is made clear if we compare this verse of Matthew's with Mark’s and Luke’s accounts, both of which mention the Passover being killed – obviously after that sunset that ended Abib 13 and began Abib 14  (See Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7-8).

Thinking about that specific Passover, we are not told what kind of accommodations that Jesus and the disciples lived in.  We don’t know how spacious their accommodations were.  I would think that their houses were probably smaller than most of our houses today.  (See Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58).  They met for that Passover in what is called a large, furnished, upper room (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12).

But I wonder if, in addition to preparing the Passover meal and meeting room, this 13th day of Abib was perhaps also the day that they did the lion’s share of their deleavening.  With this in mind, let us go back to the twelfth chapter of Exodus:

Exodus 12:15:
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

What?  Does God really want us to be doing deleavening work on the Holy Day of the First Day of Unleavened Bread?  No. Of course He doesn’t!  The following verse clarifies this:

16:  And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.

This "first day" is specified as the first holy day of God's annual holy day season.  He commands His people to hold special services, and to do no work other than that involved in the necessary food preparation.  Even for ancient Israelites living in tents, this forbade deleavening work on the Holy Day. 

The phrase "the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses" might, therefore, be better translated, "you shall have put away leaven out of your houses by the first day." 

Verses 18 and 19 make this even clearer:

18:  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. 
19:  Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

All leaven must be off our property by the sunset that closes Abib 14.  This is the Night to be Much Observed and the beginning of the First Day of Unleavened Bread. 

Many brethren, however, choose to have their deleavening work completed a little earlier so that they can spend more time in spiritual preparation for Passover and physical preparation for the Night to be Much Observed and the First Day of Unleavened Bread.  But not to the extent of observing eight, nine, ten or more days of Unleavened Bread.  Just seven days are commanded by God.

No leaven should be permitted on our property until after the sunset that closes Abib 21, which is the Last Day of Unleavened Bread. 

When should we begin our deleavening? 

We know brethren who begin in February!  Everybody is different, but is such an early start really necessary?

Of course, our circumstances differ and a hard and fast rule cannot be made for all church members. Here are a couple of additional points to be thinking about:

So, there they are: The Five W's of Deleavening – the Why, the What, the Where, the What the Who and the When.

This might be new for some  of us.  Or they might be just timely reminders for most of us

Let us look forward to the upcoming Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

Let us be striving for proper enthusiasm and balance in our preparations. 

Let us put our accent on the spiritual meaning behind the physical, symbolic act of deleavening.   

JHP/pp/jhp