In the biblical calendar the 14th of Aviv is when the Passover lamb is slain and the diligent search for and removal of all leaven (chametz) must begin—before the seven days of Unleavened Bread start on the 15th. “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread… from the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses” (Exodus 12:15).
Paul, writing as a Torah-observant Notzerim, understood this exactly. Our Passover Lamb has already been sacrificed, yet the command remains:
“For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)
The physical week of Unleavened Bread is a prophetic shadow of the suspended 70th week of Daniel 9. After the 69th week, Messiah was “cut off” when Israel’s leaders rejected Yeshua (Daniel 9:26). The Davidic kingdom timeline was suspended right there—between the 69th and 70th week—creating this present “unleavened dispensation” of nearly 2,000 years. During this gap the kingdom is not yet leavened with its fullness; we are commanded to purge every trace of the old leaven so the loaf that rises in the 70th week will be pure.
On Shavuot the Spirit was poured out as a first-fruits foretaste (Acts 2), yet the full harvest still awaits. Jeremiah foretold this very age of a greater exodus:
“Therefore behold, the days are coming, declares Yehovah, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As Yehovah lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As Yehovah lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country…’” (Jeremiah 16:14-15; 23:7-8).
Our present struggle is exactly what Paul warned: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). The leaven we must remove is not only personal pride but the inherited doctrinal teachings that cause puffing up—especially the presumption that masquerades as faith. This presumption flows from man’s own deep desires and “sincerity” that has never been tested by obedience to Yehovah’s appointed times. It is exposed by our rebellion: refusing to remove the very teachings that throw off the timing of Yehovah alone.
This is the same leaven that blinded Judas Iscariot. Contrary to popular teaching, Yeshua did not eat a Passover meal with the disciples. That is why the Greek text records them eating artos (regular leavened bread) at what is called the Last Supper. It was a Kiddush and covenant meal before the actual Passover. Judas had eaten the very last of the old leavened bread and still expected an immediate Davidic kingdom. He did not betray Yeshua out of pure evil intent, but because he wanted Yeshua to overthrow the corrupt priesthood, the Sanhedrin, and then Rome—right then. Leaven = timing. Because he never removed the spiritual leaven of mistimed expectation, he distorted the two comings of Messiah and missed the suspension of the 70th week entirely.
Yeshua warned the disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6, 12)—their outward ritual and mistimed doctrines. Paul echoes the same call: keep the Feast with unleavened sincerity and truth.
Today every branch of Western Christianity is proudly puffed up in what each group insists is “the truth.” This is not faith—it is presumption. The same inherited teachings that distort Yehovah’s calendar, ignore the Aviv barley and new-moon reckoning, and throw off the timing of the appointed feasts are exactly the leaven still rising in the lump. Until we remove it, we cannot “keep the Feast” as Paul commanded.
This Passover, let us do what the outward ritual was always meant to teach:
- Search every corner of heart and doctrine for pride and presumption.
- Remove every inherited falsehood that distorts the timing of Yehovah.
- Walk in sincerity and truth—unleavened—until the 70th week resumes and the greater exodus begins.
“Purge out the old leaven… for you really are unleavened.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)
The Lamb has been slain. Now let us keep the Feast
