4 types of spiritual leavening and how to avoid them (Lessons from Passover)

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What is the big deal about unleavened bread during Passover time? If it was only about the practicality of eating on the go during Israel’s exodus from slavery in Mitzraim (Egypt), why does matzah show up in the offerings of God’s House, the teachings of Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ) and in apostle Paul’s writings to early believers?

The apostle Paul tells us in 1Corinthians that the unleavened bread of the Passover represents sincerity and truth. What does leavened bread symbolize? The Tanak warns us that we are not to be like leavened bread which represents sexual degeneracy, spiritual arrogance, abuse of power and syncretism. When we read the Scriptures, we presume that God simply says what He means and means what He says but as we learn today, He can even use sarcasm to make His point known and teach us lessons on how to live a righteous life.

The first part of this two-part Bible study on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread looks into two major lessons from four types leaven. The second part looks into the lessons behind the first-born in the Bible, particularly what the donkey represents.

Degeneracy: Bread of haste vs. bread of leisure

One obvious point is that unleavened bread is bread made in haste. This is not like regular bread, which is made from sourdough or leavened with yeast. Bread made with sourdough or yeast takes time to mix all together and to carefully set aside until they are ready for baking.

As we study through the redemption of the first born, we will see that first born sons are redeemed but the first born of clean animals are brought to the Temple but the most unusual reception of all is the redemption of the first born of donkeys, which are not a clean animal. Donkeys are a valuable service animal but they are unclean, yet as we read in today’s torah portion, they are to be redeemed.

Donkeys play a significant role in both the Tanak and the New Testament.

When the children of Israel left the land of Egypt, we are told that they fled quickly but they were also driven out by the Egyptians quickly. This is why they mixed their flour and water quickly but they didn’t have time to let the bread properly set and rise before baking it for food.

“The Egyptians urged the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, “We will all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulders.” (Exodus 12:33–34 NASB)

So we have the Egyptians urging the children of Israel to get out of their land quickly, because they’re afraid.

So there is a separation being created here. Israel is driven out of and separated out from Egyptian society. And although they would normally eat leavened bread, they are not able to do so as they are being driven out of Egypt.

The children of Israel are leaving the physical leaven of Egypt behind.

However, they are also leaving behind the spiritual leaven of Egypt as well. What is that leaven?

Leviticus 18 shows us what it was about Egyptian culture that God had to separate His people from them. God loved the Egyptians. But their culture was abhorrent. God did not want His people to conduct themselves they way the Egyptians did.

I’m not talking about the arrogance and pride that was embodied in their Pharaoh. I’m talking about how the aristocrats and even the regular people of Egypt lived.

“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘I am the LORD your God. ‘You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. ‘You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the LORD your God. ‘So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 18:1–5 NASB)

God goes on to mention the kind of sexual sins that were common in both Egypt and Canaan that He didn’t want the Israelites to practice. If the Israelites start to practice these things, then there’s no difference between the Egyptians, Canaanites and Israelites and the Israelites would no longer be a unique people and the Exodus would be for naught.

“‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. ‘But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ‘For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ‘Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the LORD your God.’”” (Leviticus 18:24–30 NASB)

We see here that God is not just interested in what we think but how we act.

What is leaven in the Apostolic Age?

We also see the same sins mentioned in the New Testament.

This is discussed in detail in 1 Corinthians 5. Meaning that even though you understand the difference between moral and immoral behavior on an intellectual level, and even though you accept Jesus as the Messiah, this doesn’t change the fact that you still have to watch your conduct.

This particular sin that Paul discusses in 1Corinthians 5 is discussed and rebuked several times in the Torah, yet Paul has to repeat it here.

“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 5:1–5 NASB)

You recall that there was an incident with Jacob and his eldest son Reuben in which Reuben had some sort of relationship with Jacob’s wife Bilhah. Reuben lost his status as first born son as a consequence of this sin.

There was also the horrible incident with Absolom, when he tried to take David’s throne in which he publicly ravished 10 of his father’s concubines publicly in front of all the citizens who remained in Jerusalem.

I will note that God says that this type of sins as common among the Greeks and the Canaanites, but based on Paul’s rebuke in 1 Corinthians 5, this kind of sin was rare in Greeks and Romans culture.

We see that although Paul addresses the individual man who is sleeping with his step-mother, Paul orders that the man and the woman be disassociated from the community.

Paul says that it’s better for them to be punished in this life than in the next. It is better for them to be punished in this life so they will have the opportunity to be saved on the Day of the Lord.

However, Paul spends much more time addressing a deeper issue. Paul was more appalled and alarmed at the reaction (or non-reaction) of the congregation than the man who did the wicked thing.

The people of Corinth were proud of themselves for their forbearance, the tolerance and forgiveness of this man’s sin.

The intent is not to just to dish out grace to every person, regardless of their repentance of their sin and pretend that if you just forgive someone of their sin without calling that person to repent of their sin and to stop doing it, that everything is ok and that we’re all one big happy family. That’s no how any of this works.

It’s a good thing to extend forbearance and forgiveness to someone who is trying to do something good and they make a mistake and do something wrong.

If you don’t repent, if you don’t stop doing what is wrong and strive to do what is right, you are just living in your sin. That’s not the intent, or the desire of our God because that would be unjust. His desire is for us to live our lives with good and proper conduct.

Just as God wanted to separate Israel from Egypt quickly, Paul wanted to separate the Corinthians from the conduct of his man and his step-mother.

Whether or not you believe in Jesus, your conduct still matters. Your conduct is still relevant. Watch what you do because it matters, not only to yourself but to those who see you, even if you don’t know they are seeing you.

If you live a righteous life but go out of your way to surround yourself with wicked friends, as Solomon pointed out,  you are known by your associates. If you don’t know a man, knows his friends.  You know his friends, you know the man.

If you appear to condone wicked behavior, it will inevitably rub off on you. Eventually you will start wearing down.

It’s no different than an army that attacks a well designed fortress. Given enough time,  the fortress will eventually be torn down no matter how good your defenses are.

Arrogance: When the Law is used to oppress others

Yeshua discusses another type of leaven in Matthew 16:5-12. Yeshua warns His disciples about the “leaven” of the Pharisees and the Saduccees.

This is not an issue of sexual immorality as we read in the Exodus story or even with the Apostle Paul.

The leaven that Yeshua is concerned about here is the total opposite of the leaven that Paul spoke about with the Corinthians.

There’s a way which you can go down into the gutter, so to speak. And then there’s the opposite extreme where you fall into the trap of lifting yourself up.

The Pharisees and the Saducees were leavening themselves and puffing themselves up, bragging about how righteous they were. They gave themselves and each other glory.

I’m not talk about the glory that God gives to His people, that is God’s glory, God’s gift. I’m talking about the kind of glory that men give themselves and to those of like-mind in which they look for the praise of men to make themselves look high in the sight of others.

We go from the leaven that leads people to brag about their tolerance of sin in their community to the type of leaven of lifting someone oneself up in the eyes of other men so if enough people look up to them, they have dominance and power over them.

There is always that danger of self-exaltation if someone or a group of people look up to us because they think we are wiser or more knowledgable than they are. We see this kind of arrogance in politics all the time. Politicians in particular want to lift themselves up in the eyes of others and to be lifted up. This is the glory of men. It’s not the glory that God is after or wants from us, it is a kind of leaven.

We have two extremes of leavening. One is the “Hey, I forgive everybody, therefore, I’m great,” and the other end is the “I do everything perfect, therefore I’m great.” Well, neither one are actually great.

How syncretism oppresses others

But there is a third type of leavening to discuss, which we read about in Amos 4.

We have discussed the “leaven” of dangerous sexual misdeeds and corruption, the “leaven” of forgiving everyone who makes mistakes and has no desire to repent and “do better”  under the guise of “tolerance” and the “leaven” of spiritual arrogance and believing in ones spiritual superiority over others.

Amos 4:1-5 discusses a different kind of “leaven” which is when the wealthy oppress and suppress the poor to feed themselves.

God is not above sarcasm, He uses to make a point frequently. In Amos 4, He is calling these wealthy oppressors out when they go above and beyond the Torah’s instructions in bringing certain types of sacrifices to the Temple, while violating other parts of the Torah and then using these abundant sacrifices as good PR for themselves. They also use this PR to cover up how they are oppressing and destroying those who are in need.

These “cows of bashan”  have a form of holiness but they were not holy at all.

They have the appearance what is right, but they aren’t right. They want other people think or perceive that they are teaching the right things  or acting in the proper way, but they are not. They have ulterior motives behind their behavior. Their motive is to lift themselves up while pushing others down.

Leaven of Heaven

We now know what kind of leavening God doesn’t want from us:

1. He doesn’t want us to corrupt our bodies with sexual immorality
2. He doesn’t want us to brag about our “tolerance” while justifying our own immorality or the immorality of others.
3. He doesn’t want us to use His law as a way to glorify ourselves.
4. He doesn’t want us to mix His laws with our own laws and use these false standards as a way to lift ourselves up while oppressing and degrading those who are below us on the socio-economic ladder.

Now, let’s take a closer look at what kind of leavening God does want in us.

In Exodus 13:6-10 that the law of the Lord should be in our mouths. What does that mean? Remember, during passover, we eat unleavened bread. What Moses is telling us is that unleavened bread is synonymous with the Law of the Lord.

We are to “eat” and live off is the Law of the Lord. When God divided Israel (who are to be unleavened) from Egypt (who are leavened), He was weaning them away from eating the Law of Egypt with its arrogance and degeneracy and to eating the Law of God.

The Apostle Paul associated the Law of God with “sincerity and truth.” That is how we are to live. We are to be truthful and sincere with everyone.

Sincerity and truth must also be brought into alignment with the Law of the Lord. For example, people who are attracted to sexual degeneracy may be “sincere” and “truthful” in their desire to pursue sin and pursue others who will join them but anything that violates God’s law is not authentically sincere or authentically truthful.

People can have a form of sincerity and truthfulness yet have no goodness in them. They can enjoy living in their sin. That is possible, but it is impossible to enjoy living in sin and have the Law of the Lord in one’s mouth at the same time.  Wickedness can’t live in God’s presence.

Solomon tells us that you can know a person by his friends. If we surround ourselves with people who wallow in sin, transgression and iniquity, we, in our human nature, will be brought down to their level. The evil in them can wear us down.

Messiah Yeshua, was able to befriend many tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners without becoming corrupt Himself because He was without sin. He is greater than we are. That is why He is our High Priest. He receives and removes our sin without sinning Himself.

We can’t make someone who is unholy and evil and corrupt, into someone who is holy and good. Only Messiah Yeshua can do that.

Our conduct matters to God. We are called to live from every word that comes from God’s mouth and that His word is our food.

The law of God = unleavened bread = sincerity and truth.

Summary: Tammy