Passover itself is eternally bonded to the Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins on the day the Passover lamb is eaten according to the Scripture,  

⁴ “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. ⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight,^[a] is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.⁸ But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.” (Leviticus 23:4-8 ESV)

The LORD commanded that the Passover lamb be eaten on the night when the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins.

“They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.” (Exodus 12:8-11 ESV)

Israel slaughtered their Passover lambs on Nisan 14 “between the two evenings.” Then each family roasted its lamb and ate it after dusk in the “night.” Since Israel’s days begin at dusk this means that they ate their Passover Lamb on Nisan 15. God gave Israel detailed instructions concerning Israel’s eating of the Passover lamb. Each detail looks forward to particular spiritual realities which we should understand and apply to our lives. We will examine the requirement for using unleavened bread in this article, but first is a brief summary of the specific requirements for keeping Passover.

1. The lamb had to be eaten on the night of Nisan 15
2. It had to be roasted on the fire, not boiled in water or eaten raw;
3. It had to be eaten with unleavened bread, not leavened bread;
4. It had to be eaten with bitter herbs;
5. It was to be roasted whole, with its head, legs, and inner parts. In Exodus 12:46 we learn that none of the lamb’s bone could be broken;
6. No flesh of the lamb could be left until the morning of Nisan 15. Anything left over was to be burned with fire;
7. Each Israelite was to eat his lamb with his “loins girded”;
8. Each Israelite must eat with shoes on this feet;
9. Each Israelite must eat with a rod in his hand;
10. Each Israelite was to eat in haste;
11. No foreigners could eat of the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:43-45)
12. The lamb had to be eaten in one house and none of its flesh could be taken outside of that house (Ex. 12:46)
13. Every member of the nation of Israel was to eat the lamb (Ex. 12:47)
14. Besides women, only a male who had been circumcised could eat it. Strangers who sojourned with Israel who were circumcised could also eat it (Ex. 12:48)

Every one of these strict commands looked forward to their prophetic fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the people who believe in him. First we will consider why God required that Israel eat the Passover lamb with unleavened bread.

Jesus himself taught his disciples concerning leaven. One occasion occurred just after miraculously multiplying loaves of bread.

⁵ When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. ⁶ Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ⁷ And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” ⁸ But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? ⁹ Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? ¹¹ How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”¹² Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but ofthe teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:5-12)

So, Jesus revealed here that leaven in bread prophetically spoke of false teaching, false doctrine. In the following passage from Luke we see that it also speaks of hypocrisy.

12 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3)

Remember Paul’s admonition, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor. 5:7-8 ESV)

Now we should be able to understand the prophetic meaning of leaven in Scripture. Jesus and the apostles use the word to describe the carnal, sinful attributes and condition of mankind. Man is a malicious, evil hypocrite who teaches false doctrine to his fellow man. He treats his brothers wrongfully, he justifies his evil actions, and he leads his brothers into companion pits of hell with his errant teachings. On the other hand, says Paul, we must repudiate our carnal malice and evil and become like Christ, full of sincerity and truth.

Okay, so then what did Jesus mean when he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13:33) Well, I had to ask the prophetess (my wife) this morning before I understood. Does it not seem that Jesus says exactly the opposite of what the other Scriptures teach concerning leaven in this short parable. Yes, in the natural it does. And this is why Jesus spoke in parables, to obscure the truth. Only those who diligently seek him can ever understand his words or his ways.

Do you realize that you and each of us live in a fully leavened, carnal body of flesh? We each have a sinful nature that remains with us until God glorifies us. Those who belong to Christ, who yearn to be part of his Kingdom, all share in this current state of being. But only the overcomers realize it and only the overcomers mourn over their sinful condition and long to become unleavened like their LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. The overcomers are the first (first fruits) to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because they are the first to understand, acknowledge, and repent of their leavened, sinful condition. Thus they become the first to enter into an “unleavened” state of being, a sinless perfection like Christ.

The overcomers will be resurrected (some will still be alive) and glorified at the end of the two thousand year period from the natural life of Jesus. They will then rule with a rod of iron (God’s Law) over the entire planet earth for a thousand years. During that time they will teach the world’s inhabitants the truth about their carnal natures thus bringing to fulfillment Jesus’ parable above. All of mankind who will ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven will by the time of the end of these three thousand years (three loaves = 3,000 years) and at the White Throne Judgment acknowledge their sinful, leavened condition and seek Christ’s forgiveness with humility. Thus we can see leaven as representing a type of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Men must ultimately realize the difference between good and evil and learn to choose the good voluntarily. We must all learn we are “leavened,” come to mourn this condition, and desire to become unleavened like our Passover lamb. It will take 3,000 years from Jesus’ life to accomplish this.

As a parable, then, eating unleavened bread with the Passover lamb pictured all of this.