Never Forsaken: Resetting the Leaven in Our Life

 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.  Exodus 13:8-9

 For a long time, I enjoyed the benefits of sourdough in my kitchen. I had a starter that I fed regularly, and I used it for all manner of bread products from pancakes to sandwich bread. I learned a lot during that season that informs how I see the directive God gives in Exodus 13. Sourdough isn’t like commercial, packaged yeast. It is a living, microbial culture. It takes on the characteristics of the local area, from your kitchen to your backyard. Over time, it can mutate and evolve into something quite different from where it started, but thankfully, there will always be wild yeasts and bacteria in the air that can start it anew.

 In case you didn’t know, yeast is an actual, living organism. Yeast are tiny, microscopic creatures. They consume the sugars in a dough and expel carbon dioxide and ethanol. These yeast “farts” are trapped by the gluten in the warming dough and create bubbles that inflate it or cause it to rise. How did the Israelites get the yeast in the first place? Well, they didn’t order it online! No, yeast is a naturally occurring part of our environment. It lives in the air, on the plants, everywhere around us. In order to begin a fresh sourdough starter, they would combine flour and water, “waking up” the natural yeast that was living on the wheat. 

 This living microbiome would evolve over time. Yeast from the air, the cooking tools, and even people’s hands would add in to the culture. Air temperature and humidity can affect the sourdough, as well as how often it is fed and what the components of the water and flour used are. Just like we often start off the year with good intentions and “resolutions”, a sourdough culture can start off great and then head in a less friendly direction over time. Often people will fight this bacterial drift, adding in special food for the yeast, changing up the proportions of flour and water, or changing its feeding schedule. But, through this directive, God provided the Israelites with a natural, annual yeast reset. This kept their sourdough viable and healthy year after year.

 Thing about how this aligns to us. We, like sourdough, are very influenced by our surroundings. The people, the media, even the temperature and humidity. By putting into place the annual Feast of Unleavened Bread, God gave both the sourdough, and the people, a reset. A time to come back and focus on Him. To change up their daily routines and do things a little different. We’ll see in future chapters in Exodus how God did this on a more regular basis with the Sabbath, but here He’s centering on a yearly time of remembrance – an acknowledgment of what God had done in bringing them to where they were at which could empower their trust in Him for their future as well.

Here’s the Thing: We humans are fickle creatures and prone to forgetfulness. I just have to walk into the next room to forget what I was doing, let alone moving forward through months and years. Having regular times of remembrance – perhaps through Holy Week and Easter - keeps us grounded and relying on God instead of ourselves or the world. So, how’s your starter? Are you creeping into the acidic range, maybe producing a little too much hooch? Perhaps it’s time for a reset!