6 – Remove all leaven on Abib 14

We’re continuing our study on the Passover – and we’re at the hunt for the leaven.

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

Exodus 12:15

What happens if you happen to have some leaven – such as in a warehouse down the street?

A “shetar harsha’ah,” an authorization, is drafted, which gives the rabbi power of attorney. Those persons who wish to sell their leaven sign their names under this agency appointment and authorize the rabbi to act on their behalf. The authorization empowers the rabbi to sell the leaven they own, and the place where it is stored, at terms that the rabbi sees fit. The rabbi keeps the authorization and sells the leaven to a non-Jew by means of a “shetar mikheera,” which contains all of the terms of the sale. At the conclusion of Passover, one buys it back. [In reality the leaven is often not removed from the premises.] While this transaction is not intended to be a real sale, nevertheless, since all the formal requirements of a legal sale have been met, it satisfies the requirement of the law forbidding the possession of leaven during Passover.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/leaven-hametz/

So this is a new commandment – Abraham was not warned about leaven. And yet when we look at the New Testament, virtually every dated festival is abrogated:

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

Romans 14:5

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

Colossians 2:16

Paul pretty much gets rid of this – and hundreds of other commands – effectively. However, he talks about the spiritual application of leaven. Jesus talked about the leaven of the Pharisees as well:

How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

Matthew 16:11

But Paul talked about the leaven of the Corinthians:

[6] Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
[7] Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye 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.
[9] I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

1 Corinthians 5

Here in 1 Corinthians 5 he discusses fornication in the church of the Corinthians and in the context of Passover urges them to practice judgment within the church

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

1 Corinthians 5:12

Then he returns to internal judgment in 1 Corinthians 11

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

1 Corinthians 11:31

in the context of the memorial of Passover, the Lord’s supper!

[22] What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
[23] For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
[24] And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
[25] After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
[26] For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
[27] Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
[28] But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
[29] For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

1 Corinthians 11

Now looking ahead to the eschatological future –

In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

Ezekiel 45:21

Interestingly the unleavened bread shall be ate, but there is no explicit command to purge the leaven. Is that because the Passover Lamb once shed for all – has not only taken away the bitter herbs but also the power of the leaven of sin?