Cleaning Out the Junk Drawer

Have you cleaned out your junk drawer lately? I spent some time a few days ago giving our kitchen junk drawer a much-needed decluttering. I found all sorts of interesting things. An assortment of rubber bands. A jelly container from Cracker Barrel. Business cards. A lonely dime. Keys, and I have no idea what some of them open. I even found my son's ruler from 5th grade, along with binder clips, glue, magnets, and a host of things that made their way to the garbage can. 

The kitchen drawer is now clean and tidy. Until it gets cluttered up again.

My Thursday Morning Bible Study Group has been studying the 7 Feasts found in Leviticus 23. This week we are studying the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which begins the night after Passover. My kitchen drawer provided a good illustration.

In the Bible, leaven is often a symbol of sin. The leaven used in baking bread reminds us of the permeating power of sin in our lives. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is a reminder to examine the sin that so easily works its way into our hearts. Just like the clutter that works it’s way into the kitchen drawer. The Feast was a reminder to clean out the leaven, which is a picture for us of confessing our sins and seeking God's forgiveness.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in the New Testament:

"Cleans out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed." (1 Corinthians 5:7 ESV)

Once leaven (yeast, for example) has been added to dough, it can't be removed. The only way to get rid of it is to throw the batch out and start over with a new batch (or a new "lump", to use Paul's words.) That has taken place because of the Cross. Because Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed to pay our sin debt. That makes us a “new lump”.

It does not mean we will live perfect, sinless lives from now on. Far from it. Because we still have a sin nature. And so we need to continually "get rid of the leaven". We do that when we confess our sin and seek God's forgiveness.

Otherwise, just like my kitchen drawer was cluttered and overrun with unneeded, unwanted "stuff", so too our lives get overrun with unconfessed sin. Unless we confess our sins and seek forgiveness. Not just once in a lifetime. But daily. Maybe even more frequently. 

Today might be a good day for a clean up.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9 ESV0

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit." (Psalm 51:10-12 ESV)