Unleavened Bread

From the 15th to the 21st of the first month, Israel eats unleavened bread and removes all leaven from its houses. Leaven, which swells the dough while its agent stays unseen, is Scripture's constant figure for corruption that spreads silently.

Paul connects the feast directly to the believer's life: "Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The body of Messiah — the unleavened bread, without sin — was laid in the earth precisely as this feast began, and saw no decay (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:31).

The first day and the seventh are holy convocations: festival days of rest.