Feast of Unleavened Bread / Chag HaMatzot

At a glance

is the Hebrew name for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day biblical festival closely joined to Passover and the Exodus. The places it from 15 through 21 Nisan, immediately after the Passover sacrifice. Israel eats unleavened bread and remembers the haste with which God brought His people out of Egypt.

Passover and Unleavened Bread are distinct in the Torah and deeply intertwined in the biblical story. By the New Testament period, the names could also be used closely together for the festival season.

For Christians, Paul gives the imagery a direct pastoral application in 1 Corinthians 5: Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, so the life of the church should be marked by sincerity and truth.

Start with Scripture

Read Exodus 12:14-20, Exodus 13:3-10, Leviticus 23:4-8, Deuteronomy 16:1-8, Luke 22:1-20, and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8.

The first passages establish the Exodus setting and seven-day feast. The New Testament keeps the Passover/Unleavened Bread season close to Jesus’ final days and uses leaven as an image for the kind of corruption a Christian community must bring into the light.

From deliverance into a changed life

Passover remembers the decisive act of rescue. Unleavened Bread carries that remembrance forward across seven days.

Israel leaves Egypt in haste. The old place of slavery is behind them, but a new life with God lies ahead. That gives the spring sequence a strong spiritual movement for Christians: redemption is received, then freedom begins to shape how we live.

If you are beginning here, read the companion Passover / Pesach guide first.

Living Jewish context

Jewish Passover practice removes —leavened food made from specified grains—and uses , unleavened bread prepared for Passover. Jewish law contains careful definitions and household practices around searching for, removing, selling, and avoiding chametz.

Those practices belong to living Jewish covenant life and should be learned with respect. They also help Christian readers understand how seriously remembrance is embodied in a household across the full festival week.

Jesus and Paul’s leaven imagery

The Gospels place Jesus’ final meal, arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection in the Passover and Unleavened Bread season. That historical setting matters before we draw applications from it.

Paul then makes an explicit Christian application in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. Addressing serious tolerated sin in the church, he draws on Passover and leaven imagery and calls believers toward the “unleavened bread” of sincerity and truth.

Paul’s image is searching because a small amount of leaven works through dough. Tolerated deceit, exploitation, sexual sin, bitterness, or hypocrisy can likewise spread through a life or community when nobody is willing to address it.

Bring what needs changing into the light

Ask a plain question before Jesus: What have I been excusing that needs to change?

Invite the Holy Spirit to bring specific conviction with clarity and mercy. Where He does, respond concretely—confess, apologize, make restitution, seek help, break an unhealthy pattern, strengthen a boundary, or remove easy access to something that keeps pulling you back.

Then receive grace. Repentance is a turn toward God and into freedom. The goal is a truthful life with Jesus, not spiritual anxiety about finding hidden failure everywhere.

Practice it together

Children: bake or share simple unleavened bread and retell how quickly Israel left Egypt. Keep the story centered on God’s rescue.
Teens: read 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and talk about how tolerated habits can spread through a life or group. Choose one honest change that can be supported openly.
Adults: ask whether an apology, financial repair, boundary, confession, or practical change has been repeatedly postponed. Take the next wise step.
Elders: tell a story of repentance that led to freedom, restored trust, or a changed course, keeping the focus on God’s mercy.

A household can simplify one meal, read Exodus 13, thank God for deliverance, and pray together: “Jesus, make us truthful people. Show us what needs to change, and give us grace to obey.”

Scripture concordance

Exodus 12:14-20 — seven days of unleavened bread
Exodus 13:3-10 — remembrance of the Exodus
Leviticus 23:4-8 — Passover and the seven-day feast
Numbers 28:16-25 — festival offerings
Deuteronomy 16:1-8 — Passover and unleavened bread
Luke 22:1-20 — Passover/Unleavened Bread setting of Jesus’ final meal
Acts 12:3 — New Testament reference to the days of Unleavened Bread
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 — leaven, sincerity, and truth

Carry freedom into ordinary life

The Feast of Unleavened Bread keeps the Exodus story in view for a full week. Remember deliverance, look to Jesus, practice sincerity and truth, and let freedom become visible in repentance, repaired relationships, and a life increasingly open to God.