Introduction
   Could the two loaves offered at Pentecost (Lev. 23:17) be symbolic of the Holy Spirit? Or, more specifically, that leaven is symbolic of the Holy Spirit? This is often thought to be the case for those who believe they should have leavened bread for Passover. This, however, is easily refuted (Exod. 12:8; 1 Cor. 5:4), but the question nevertheless “arises” (no pun intended).
   They will bring up that it was at Pentecost in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit was first given, and these two leavened loaves are the first-fruits offering! While we don’t have a problem with the two loaves representing the first-fruits offering, even being symbolic of a saved people (likely, the two houses of Israel), nowhere in the Scripture does it say that leaven is the Holy Spirit or that His people are to be “leavened.”
   We are the salt of the earth (Matt. 5:13). Dan Israel, in his book, Christianity Unmasked, points out that “Salt resists the action of leaven.”

Leavening
   Leaven is an active agent or catalyst that puffs up and expands bread and is descriptive of things that can slowly grow and expand. However, the connection that is made between leaven and Yahweh’s Spirit is a dangerous one since according to Scripture, “unleavened” bread is used as the Passover symbol for Messiah’s body.
   Making “symbolic” or “revelation” reasoning of plain, “Though Shalt Not” prohibitions forbidding the use of leavening for Passover (Exod. 23:18, 34:25) is foolhardy.
   Consider jumping from grape juice to regular water for the Passover cup. Sound foolish? It shouldn’t, that is, if we implement the same reasoning that has been used to make the jump from using unleavened bread to regular bread for the emblem of Yahshua’s body.
   There are “living waters” which we know refer to the Spirit, but we do not, therefore, say it is His blood and that we should have it in the Passover cup, do we? Of course not. Yet, isn’t that the same as equating “living bread” with the bread of the Passover?
   There is a “grasping for straws,” so to speak, by trying to pull more out of John 6:51 than what is there. It says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (The King James Version 1900 is used throughout, unless otherwise noted.)
   Isn’t there the same connection for the “living water,” as well? Doesn’t He say His “blood is drink” (John 6:55), and if the “living water” is what He is offering, then shouldn’t we drink of regular water as a symbol of His blood? Obviously, NO, we should NOT. But let’s put three Scriptures from John in a particular order, first starting with the woman at the well who couldn’t understand why a Jew was asking a Samaritan, such as she, for a drink of water:
   Yahshua answered and said unto her, “If thou knewest the Gift of Elohim, and Who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give me to drink;’ thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water,” John 4:10.
   For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed, John 6:55.
   In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Yahshua stood and cried, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink,” John 7:37.
   Let’s not be deceived, just as there are Scriptures to show that “regular water” is not what we should put in the Passover cup, there are Scriptures to show that “regular bread” is not to be taken as an emblem of the Messiah’s body.
   Satan works in the spiritual realm, too. The natural man cannot receive those things which are spiritual, because spiritual things are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). So then, “living water” and “living bread” are terms that must be spiritually discerned, and are as common bread and water.

Scripture Confirms Scripture
   Let’s examine Matthew 13:33:
   Another parable spake He unto them: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”
   We read in this parable of a woman hiding leaven in three measures of flour. On the surface, it looks like this is a good thing. What it was, however, was a bad thing.
   First, let’s look at the woman. The woman could be good, but in this case, she’s bad. (Not all women found in the Bible, symbolic or otherwise, are always good women.) This woman in Yahshua’s parable could be likened to the woman, Jezebel, mentioned as a teacher among the Assembly in Thyatira (one of the 7 Assemblies, Rev. 2:20) or metaphorically, that wicked woman referred to as the “mother of harlots” in Revelation 17:1-7 who made others drunk with her immorality.
   Second, we read this damaging statement. The woman was “hiding” or “hid” the leaven in the flour. This is not normal. A woman, when putting yeast in a recipe, does it openly. Let’s think about how it might look as the parable describes it. She looks around, and when no one is looking, she “hides” yeast in the flour. Why is there a sense of deception here?
   Now, we come to the third word, which we want to examine closely. The Greek word for “measures” is Strong’s #4568 saton or more correctly, sata. This word is taken or translated from the Hebrew word #5429 seah, which is a measurement in Hebrew meaning 1/3 of an ephah.
   1/3 seah + 1/3 seah + 1/3 seah = 1 ephah. An ephah of flour is a common thank offering or what is called a meal offering. According to the Torah (Lev. 2:11), a meal (grain) offering has NO LEAVEN added to it.
   The ephah meal offering, set forth as a commandment, represents the future Kingdom. Note its significance in the following passage from Ezekiel that references the Feast of Tabernacles, a figure for the seventh millennial kingdom:
   And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah with a bull, an ephah with a ram, and a hin of oil with an ephah. In the seventh [month], on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall provide like this, seven days for the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the oil, Ezekiel 45:24-25, NASB. (See also, Ezekiel 46:5, 7, 11.)
   Matthew, Chapter 13, provides us with six “kingdom of heaven” parables, each introduced by, “The kingdom of heaven is like[ned] …” (Matt. 13:24, 31 33, 44, 45, 47), though their timing is understood “at the end of the age.” The children of the Kingdom are the representatives of this coming kingdom but are placed at the “end of the age” when corrupt things are happening.

Imperfection
    As already mentioned, the two leavened loaves probably point to the two houses of Israel, symbolically the leavening may actually represent imperfection. (Read our study on The Hope of Israel.)
   Thou shalt be perfect with Yahweh thy Elohim, Deuteronomy 18:13.
   Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, Matthew 5:48.
   But though Israel followed after the law of righteousness, they had not attained to righteousness (Rom. 9:31). And neither have we, thus the commandment:
   And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Elohim, Romans 12:2.
   The process is ongoing, and Satan accuses the brethren along the way (Rev. 12:10). Does he accuse the brethren without cause? Are the brethren perfect? Are you perfect?
   Could it be that the unleavened showbread (Exod. 25:30), symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel, and refreshed every Sabbath upon the Table, represents what we should be? Paul urges us, Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be (for this is what we should be) a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us, 1 Corinthians 5:7.

Yahshua Is/Was Perfect
    Yahshua was perfect and without sin; He was without corruption; He was without false teachings; He was without malice, and He was without any other negative or wicked attribute (Heb. 4:15, 9:28; 1 John 3:5). We follow His footsteps knowing He was right in everything that He did because He followed the Father’s lead in everything (1 Cor. 11:3; 1 Pet. 2:21-22; John 5:30).
   In 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul is rebuking those who allowed a sin-sick individual, one who was having relations with his stepmother, to be among them in the congregation. Paul stressed the point with the brethren.
   It is reported commonly that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not so much as named among the Gentiles – that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Master Yahshua Messiah, when ye are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Master Yahshua Messiah, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Master Yahshua. Your glorying is not good. Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 1 Corinthians 5:1-6, NKJV.
   We should strive for purity in all facets of our life; we should make sure the doctrine we teach is correct. To do otherwise, is to miss the mark. We have often lived a way contrary to Scripture but now, we are away the old “leavened” man and become a new “unleavened” man in our thoughts, words, and actions.
   As we strive to overcome the world, we prepare to be changed from being mere mortal to becoming immortal when we are changed into spirit-beings at Yahshua’s return (1 Cor. 15:52) – without the slightest hint of leaven, a spiritual priesthood completely free from error of any kind and truly perfected as Messiah is, and as Yahweh has always wanted us to be.
   This is an unmistakable hope that we have, that Yahweh looks at the heart and accepts imperfect people. And we are confident of this very thing: He which has begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Yahshua the Messiah (Phil. 1:6). Indeed, He will perfect those things concerning us (Psa. 138:8) so that at the last trump, we may be raised up and changed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52).
   Paul said of himself – and of us, I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Messiah Yahshua saved me for and wants me to be, Philippians 3:12, NLT.

Hope for the Imperfect
    One can be sincere, and yet be sincerely wrong. The “symbolic” meaning of leaven in the two-loaf, first-fruits offering is profound. It teaches us that brethren who may “ignorantly” teach or who have been misled by a false doctrine will have the opportunity to enter into the Kingdom – but only, if they can be corrected and instructed in the Way more perfectly.
   Yahshua is recorded in Matthew 5:19, saying, Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
   The one who may be mistaken on a doctrine can make it into the Kingdom – again, if he can be corrected and instructed in the Way more perfectly – as he who is schooled in, and received, sound doctrine.
   In the Master’s parable of the sower (Mark 4), He makes allowance for the diversity of rewards commensurate with every man’s several ability (Verse 20). For there are degrees of rewards reserved for Yahweh’s people, commensurate to the diligence each gives in making his calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:10). Revelation, Chapters 2 through 3, clearly teach that they who “overcome” the world and Satan’s destructive ways and “endure to the end” will be given different rewards, including eternal life (Rev 2:7, 10-11, 17, 26-28, 3:5, 12, 21).
   The parable of the talents also suggests different levels of rewards (Matt 25:14- 30). The one who doesn’t get anything is the one who does nothing, thus confirming that one reaps what he has sown.

Conclusion
   We must be careful when discussing “symbolism,” as it can draw a person away from true Scriptural teachings.
   We are not perfect, but we strive toward perfection. The two “leavened” loaves offered at Pentecost are representative of Yahweh’s people who by faith proceed toward that day at the sounding of the last trump, when they shall become changed – unleavened, and accepted in the Beloved (1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16; Eph. 1:6). But for now, the closer we are to Yahweh, such as the twelve loaves in front of the Holy of Holies, the less leavened we will be.