We are in chapter twelve of Exodus with our word. מַצָּה unleavened bread, unfermented bread. It is used 53 times in the Old Testament, 6 times in our chapter. Our word is used to identify bread that has no yeast usually because there is not enough time to make it with yeast. Genesis 19:3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking וּמַצּ֥וֹת bread without yeast, and they ate. Here we see that the unexpected guests were urged to stay with Lot for their safety so the bread was made quickly for them. Every other usage of our word is tied to our event in our chapter as part of the narrative or the feast that commemorated it. Let’s look at our word in our chapter. Exodus 12:8, 15, 17-18, 20 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with וּמַצּ֔וֹת unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it… Seven days you shall eat מַצּ֣וֹת 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… And you shall observe הַמַּצּוֹת֒ 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. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat מַצֹּ֑תunleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening… You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat מַצּֽוֹת unleavened bread.
We find in the New Testament that yeast is used to make a comparison for the influence of ideas or perspectives that tend to start small and then spread. Jesus uses it to show how the Kingdom of God has this dynamic to it. Matthew 13:33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” On the other side of things Jesus compares yeast to the destructive influence of sin. Matthew 16:6, 11-12 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”…How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Holy Spirit then ties this idea of bread without yeast to show the need to remove the influence of sin from the church body. Galatians 5:4, 7-9 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace…You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” The Holy Spirit also ties this same thinking into our event in our chapter which I will close with. 1 Corinthians 5:5-8 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
