14This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread. ~ Exodus 12:14-20
After the Passover lamb was slaughtered and the people of Israel partook in the Passover, the next day they were to remove the leaven from their homes. Anyone who did not would be cut off from Israel. Why? Because the Passover lamb foreshadowed Jesus and partaking in Passover foreshadowed accepting His free gift of salvation. So, what about removing the leaven? The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. They had been influenced by the Egyptian culture and religion as they had no leader, judge, king, or law to guide them during these years. So, they began to take on and participate in the sins of their slave masters, the Egyptians.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a reminder of the LORD bringing the people out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. God was saying, I am physically removing you from slavery, now remove the leaven from among you so that I might foreshadow that one I will remove you from spiritual slavery. Leaven is a representation of sin (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). When the Passover lamb was slaughtered and the Israelites partook in the Passover, they were spiritually partaking in the taste of the salvation that has come through Jesus Christ, our final, perfect Passover Lamb.
There is nothing in the Bible that the LORD has done or said arbitrarily. Each and every thing was done with a purpose. It was done to foreshadow the good things to come. It was done to foreshadow the terrifying things to come. Each and every moment, no matter how insignificant it may seem, was done in order to prepare us for what has come and what will come.
Dear LORD, thank You for making a way for us to come to You. Thank You for all Your many blessings upon me. Please help me to not just partake in the Passover meal, but to remove the leaven from my home as well. Help me to crucify my own flesh, so that Your will might be done in my life. Help me not to make Your sacrifice null and void because I refuse to remove the leaven. Help me to live for You, LORD Jesus. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.