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Spring Cleaning

 Exodus 12:19 – “For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses…”

Several years ago I met this gentlemen who lived alone.  He had been married, but had lost his wife to illness.  He was blessed with several sisters who loved and cared for him.  They would come and clean his house each week, but several times a year they would come and give the house a good spring-cleaning.


            What is spring-cleaning?  It is cleaning the house from top to bottom.  It usually occurs when the season changes and the weather gets warmer.  One thought is that it originated with the Jewish people when they would give their homes a thorough cleaning leading up to Passover.  


In the days before Passover the family will clean the house and remove any leaven (a substance like yeast or baking powder).  In Exodus chapters 12 and 13 Moses instructed the people to eat unleavened bread for seven days and to remove leaven from their homes and property.  


            Leaven can represent any corrupting influence.  The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the church at Corinth, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).  


             The Jewish feast of Passover is celebrated in spring of the year around the same time as Easter is celebrated on the Christian calendar.  During this holy season we should have a spiritual house cleaning.  As we enter into this season why not ask the Lord to search our hearts and lives.  May our prayer be that He will forgive us of our sins, and remove any corrupting influences from our lives?  1 John 1:9 offers this encouragement, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

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