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The Feast of Unleavened Bread by Fran Regan
01/08/2011
The Feast of Unleavened Bread – how do you understand it?
Leaven, as sin, must be removed from our homes and our lives. It is a time of self-examination, soul searching, confession and making ourselves right before Yah. Is it not? “If we confess our sins, He is trustworthy and righteous to forgive us the sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1John 1:9 We have just come from Passover, celebrating our redemption and freedom from bondage to sin, having been reborn a new creation in Him. What is the first thing Yah does with His newborn children? He immerses them/washes them in the water of Torah. He brings them through the waters and resurrects them on the other side, filled with unleavened bread (Torah). (Titus 3:5) “He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His compassion, through the washing of rebirth, and renewal by the Set-apart Spirit, …” (Ephesians 5:25-26) “As Messiah also did love the assembly and gave Himself for it (Passover) in order to set it apart and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,…” (Unleavened Bread) (John 15:3) “You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you.” But could this festival have an even deeper meaning? Is there more to it than we have previously seen? “And Moses said to the people, “Remember (2142) this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. For by strength of hand Yah brought you out of this place, and whatever is leavened shall not be eaten. And it shall be, when Yah brings you into the land….which He swore to your fathers to give you…..that you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a festival to Yah. Unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days, and whatever is leaven is not to be seen with you, and leaven is not to be seen with you within all your border*. And you shall inform your son in that day, saying, ‘It is because of what Yah did for me when I came up from Egypt.’ And it shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes, that the Torah of Yah is to be in your mouth, (6310) for with a strong hand Yah has brought you out of Egypt. And you shall guard this law at its appointed time from year to year.” (Exodus 13:3, 5-10) It is the phrase “that the Torah of Yah is to be in your mouth” that caught my attention. What exactly does this mean? The Unleavened Bread (which is to be in our mouths) represents Torah (which is to be in our mouths). The Messiah (who is the Lamb of God, which is to be in our mouths) takes away the leaven of the world. He is sinless. He is Torah. He is the Unleavened Bread. (John 6:48, 50-51,56) “I am the Bread of Life. ..This is the bread which comes down out of the heaven, so that anyone might eat of it, and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of the heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And indeed, the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood stays in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:62,63) “What if you see the Son of Adam going up where He was before? It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh does not profit at all. The words that I speak to you are Spirit and are life.” Leaven represents sin, the flesh, Torahlessness and death, as according to 1John 3:4, “…sin is the transgression of the Torah.” If Unleavened Bread is the pure Word of Yah, which is Spirit and life, then leavened bread is the mixed word of the serpent, a poisonous mixture of good and evil, a fleshly, carnal word. To have this word in our mouth is poison and leads to death. ‘To eat’ is a Hebrew idiom meaning ‘to receive knowledge’. Let’s look at some other passages where Yah’s Word is said to be ‘in the mouth’ or ‘eaten’. Ezekiel 2:1 – 3:11 “And He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand on your feet, so that I speak to you.” And the Spirit entered into me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet. And I heard Him who was speaking to me. And He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me, until this day. And the children are stiff of face and hard of heart to whom I am sending you, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus said the Master Yah.’ And they – whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are a rebellious house – shall know that a prophet has been in their midst. And you, Son of man, do not be afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though thistles and thorns are with you and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or discouraged by their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak My words to them whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. And you, Son of man, hear what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house, open your mouth and eat what I am giving you. And I looked and saw a hand stretched out to me. And see, a scroll of a book was in it, And He spread it before me, and it was written on the inside and on the outside. And written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, eat what you find, eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’ And I opened my mouth, and He fed me the scroll. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, feed your stomach, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I am giving you.’ And I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and you shall speak to them with My words. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and of difficult language, but to the house of Israel, Not to many people of foreign speech and of difficult language, whose words you do not understand. If I had rather sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel is going to refuse to listen to you, for they refuse to listen to Me. For all the house of Israel are hard of head, and hard of heart. See, I shall make your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I shall make your forehead. Do not be afraid of them, nor be discouraged at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. And go! Come to the exiles, to the children of your people, and speak to them and say to them, ‘Thus said the Master Yah,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.” Then in Revelation 10:7-11, we read where John says: “but in the days of the sounding of the seventh messenger, when he is about to sound, the secret of Elohim shall also be ended, as He declared to His servants the prophets. And the voice which I heard out of the heaven spoke to me again and said, ‘Go, take the little book which is opened in the hand of the messenger standing on the sea and on the earth.’ And I went to the messenger and said to him, ‘Give me the little book.’ And he said to me, ‘Take and eat it, and it shall make your stomach bitter, but it shall be as sweet as honey in your mouth.’ And I took the little book out of the messenger’s hand and ate it, and it was a sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And he said to me, ‘You have to prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and sovereigns.” In Jeremiah 1:4-10, “Now the word of Yah came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I did set you apart – I appointed you a prophet to nations.” And said I, ‘Ah, Master Yah! See, I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth.’ And Yah said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ but go to all to whom I send you, and speak whatever I command you. Do not fear their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ declares Yah. Then Yah put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and Yah said to me, ‘See, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the reigns, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found and I ate them and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For Your Name is called on me, O Yah Elohim of hosts.” Then David in Psalms 119:102-105 “I have not turned aside from Your right-rulings, for You Yourself have taught me (purpose of Unleavened Bread?). How sweet to my taste has Your word been, more than honey to my mouth! From Your orders I get understanding; Therefore I have hated every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. “ Psalms 81:10-11 “I am Yah your Elohim Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I fill it. But My people did not listen to My voice and Israel would not submit to Me.” How sure is the Word of Yah? Isaiah 55:11 “ so is My Word that goes forth from My mouth – it does not return to Me empty, but shall do what I please, and shall certainly accomplish what I sent it for.” Jeremiah 1:12 “And Yah said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to do it.” Mouth in Hebrew is Pey, spelled pey, hey. The pey is a mouth and is the organ Yah gave us to communicate, to speak His Words. Hey is breath - Yah’s Spirit that He breathed into us that made us a speaking soul. We cannot speak without breath. Torah, which He puts in our mouths, is spiritual (Romans 7:14). Again, a picture of the Spirit and Word working together. We are told to ‘remember’ this festival each year. Remember means ‘to speak and act on behalf of’. Whenever the word ‘remember’ is used, there is something that needs to be verbalized. The Feast of Unleavened Bread includes something which needs to be spoken. As stated earlier, for the Torah of Yah to be in our mouths or ‘to eat’ is a Hebrew idiom for receiving knowledge. This appears to be a time we are to be taught of Yah. “It has been written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by Yah.’ Everyone then, who has heard from the Father, and learned, comes to Me.”(our Redeemer) John 6:45 Passover and Unleavened Bread speaks of our Redeemer. Romans 10:8-10 tells us: “…The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart – that is, the word of belief which we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth the Master Y’shua and believe in your heart that Elohim has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, and so is saved.” “However, not all obeyed the Good News. For Isaiah says, ‘Yah, who has believed our report?” So then belief comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Elohim.” Romans 10:16-17 This speaks of our individual responsibility to speak our belief. We must confess Him as our Redeemer. We must speak of all He has done. We must confess our sins to be forgiven. This is the first step that prepares us to receive His Word to take to our brothers who have not yet confessed Him. This is a very verbal feast. As noted in each passage above, when Yah put His Word in the prophets’ mouths, He told them to go and speak it. If it is Yah’s Word that we are to have in our mouths or that we are to receive during this time, then how important are the words we read, listen to and speak during this time? What reading material do we have in our homes? What television shows, radio programs, movies, CD’s, music, etc. do we listen to? How do we speak to one another? Is this also part of the ‘leaven’ that must be cleaned out during this time in order to receive Yah’s pure, unleavened Word? Unleavened Bread, as a festival, is a type of Sabbath and as we are told by Isaiah (58:13) “If you do turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Sabbath a delight, the set-apart day of Yah, esteemed, and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in Yah.” Unleavened Bread is a time of separation of ‘words’ and an intense study of Torah, a renewal of our spiritual beings. Will we have our own words in our mouth or Yah’s Word? Will we receive the knowledge/nourishment He has to give us? Will we speak His Word without fear or discouragement? What He spoke to Ezekiel and John and Jeremiah and Isaiah and David, He speaks to us today. Jeremiah 15:19 “Therefore thus said Yah, ‘If you turn back, then I shall bring you back. Before Me you shall stand. And if you take out the precious from the worthless, you shall become as My mouth. Let them return to you, but do not return to them.” We must take out, as much as is possible and is within our control, any words that are not Yah’s words during this time. We are to intensify our study of Torah, as an assembly, in our families and individually. How important are words? “For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. The good man brings forth what is good from the good treasures of his heart, and the wicked man brings forth what is wicked from the wicked treasure. And I say to you that for every idle word men speak, they shall give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be declared righteous, and by your words you shall be declared unrighteous.” (Matthew 12:34b-37) This is a time to wait on Yah, a time of spiritual growth. It is His appointed time. If Yah set the appointment, you can be sure He will be there. He is faithful. The question is, will we? “Wait on Yah and guard His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the earth – “ (Psalms 37:34) We must wait on Yah with expectation and excitement during the time of Unleavened Bread. What’s on the menu? I can hardly wait! It is truly a feast! And Yah tells us: “Behold I stand at the door (of your heart) and knock. If any man hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20 This is a time to dine with our Abba! Let’s open the door to Him and our mouths to His Word! Passover or redemption/deliverance, (shall we say ‘grace’), MUST come first. Even that, however, requires obedience. For if the Israelites had not obeyed and put the blood on their doors, they would have died also. “And to whom did He swear that they would not enter into His rest, but to those who did not obey?” Hebrews 3:18 For life to be sustained, obedience to His Words MUST follow. If they had not gone through the waters of the sea – been immersed in His Torah – again, they would have died or been taken back to Egypt (slavery and eventual death). Torah is our life. Deuteronomy 32:47 “For it is not a worthless Word for you, because it is your life, and by this Word you prolong your days on the soil which you pass over the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 8:1-3 “Guard to do every command which I command you today, that you might live, and shall increase, and go in and shall possess the land of which Yah swore to your fathers. And you shall remember (speak and act on behalf of) that Yah your Elohim led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you guard His commands or not (isn’t that what we do during this time?). And He humbled you, and let you suffer hunger, and fed you with manna (unleavened bread?) which you did not know nor did your fathers know, to make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of Yah.” Yes, we are to literally clean the leaven out of our homes and we are to literally eat unleavened bread for seven days. It is a time of examining our lives, confessing and riding ourselves of sin, humbling and preparing our hearts before Yah to be ready to immerse ourselves in the Torah for seven days, as this is Yah’s appointed time to put His Torah in our mouths, as His prophets and priests. The number seven takes us back to creation with what Yah did on each day, giving us guidance and emphasis in our study. The children of Israel, themselves, were a new creation. Yah had just brought them out of the bondage and servitude to the world system. He had just covered and cleansed them with the blood of the Lamb. Yah had to give them an intense, crash course in Torah. These seven days of Unleavened Bread should begin and end with the assembly, as a whole, studying the Torah together (Exodus 12:16). Yah brought ALL of His divisions out of Egypt. And He brought ALL of His people through the sea. Therefore, the first and last day of this feast is for ALL of Yah’s people to assemble together in recognition of all Yah has done, is doing, and will do for us as His people. This is about His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. This is about His people. This is a time to rejoice and delight ourselves in Yah and in the Words of His mouth. Isaiah 51:16 “And I have put My Words in your mouth, and with the shadow of My hand I have covered you, to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people’”. The same Word that planted the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth says to Zion, “You are My people”. Zion is His people as sure as there are the heavens and the earth. In fact, this verse seems to say, Zion or His people are from creation. Day One looks back at and commemorates when man walked the earth in perfection in the garden before the fall, with Torah ‘in his mouth’ daily, as Yah walked with him in the cool of the evening. We know this ideal environment was spoiled by another word which brought death and darkness. So this first day also commemorates Yah bringing light and order out of the darkness and chaos by speaking His Word. He still does this. The last day looks forward to and anticipates when Messiah will bring in the new heavens and the new earth and “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the esteem of Yah, as the waters cover the sea!” (Habakkuk 2:14) When “no longer shall they teach, each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Yah’, for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yah.” For I shall forgive their crookedness, and remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) It anticipates the Kingdom of Yah where His Will shall be done (again) ‘on earth as it is in Heaven’ on Day Seven or Sukkot. Messiah told us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” It was so in the beginning (Day One) and it will be so again in the end (Day Seven). The Kingdom consists of all Yah’s people, thus we meet together to celebrate His Kingdom and His Torah, our Messiah and King. The days in between, are to be spent in study individually and as families, for if each individual member of the body is not right, neither will the whole body be, as Paul tells us in Romans 12 and 1Corinthians 12. Having prayed for His Kingdom to come and His Will to be done, how is His will defined? Psalms 40:8 Messiah speaking: “I am come to do thy will, O My Elohim, Thy Torah is within My heart. Isaiah 51:7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is My Torah: do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings.” Psalms 37:29-31 “The righteous shall inherit the earth, and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of right-ruling The Torah of his Elohim is in his heart. His steps do not slide.” “What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, …” Matthew 15:18 “…the Torah of Yah is to be in your mouth” and so in our hearts. He also told us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (dare I say, unleavened bread?). Each day of the seven, we are to listen for Yah’s voice as we immerse ourselves in Torah. We are to prepare our hearts and wait on Yah so we can receive the Word He has especially for us, to feed us, during this time. Day One, we look for how His Word brings light and order into our lives out of the darkness and chaos around us. We celebrate as a congregation His Kingdom and His will (Torah). We celebrate our Deliverer Who brought us out of bondage and delivered us with a mighty hand. Day Two is a division of the waters – a division of the pure word of Yah and the mixed word of the serpent. The division represents discernment and separation between the two which we must have. Yah’s commands or man’s traditions? – Truth or falsehood and lies? - We must know the difference. Torah is truth. Day Three is when life began. Torah is our life. How much do we really understand and believe this? Psalms 119:93 “Let me never forget Your orders, for by them You have given me life.” Day Four is recognizing the ruling, guiding light and authority of Torah – both now and forever – collectively and individually, as His people. (Psalms 119:130-131,133) “The opening up of Your words gives light, giving understanding to the simple. I have opened my mouth and panted, for I have longed for Your commands….Establish my footsteps by Your word, and let no wickedness have rule over me.” (Psalms 119:105) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Is the Torah truly our ruling, guiding authority? Day Five is when Yah sends His messengers (birds and fish = us) to scatter His Word (seed) with power – His power. We are His messengers. To have His Torah in our mouths is to receive His Word to bring to those who need to hear. Every time He gave His Word, He also gave the command to ‘Go’, and speak it. Peter tells us that we “are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people for a possession, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people, but now the people of Elohim;…” (1Peter 2:9-10a) Then in Malachi 2:7, “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and they seek the Torah from his mouth, for he is the messenger of Yah of hosts.” We are His priests. His Torah is to be in our mouths, (Exodus 13:9) for we are the messengers of Yah of hosts. Day Six is sacrificial, unifying love for all our brothers which will bring in Day Seven, His Kingdom. This love is the kind that will lay down its life for his brother – and maybe even his enemy. It is kind, forgiving, patient. It is of Yah, as Yah is love. (John 15:12-13) “This is My command, that you love one another, as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that one should lay down his life for his friends.” (1John 4:7-8) “Beloved ones, let us love one another, because love is of Elohim, and everyone who loves has been born of Elohim, and knows Elohim. The one who does not love does not know Elohim, for Elohim is love.” Day Seven is the Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven, His Will again being done as at the first. (Revelation 21:3) “And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, “See, the Booth of Elohim is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and Elohim Himself shall be with them and be their Elohim.” What do you think would be the results if all of Yah’s people turned aside for seven days, cleaned out the leaven, immersed themselves in Torah and waited on Yah to put His Word in their mouths? And then obeyed? It might literally bring in the Kingdom of Yah! *“…whatever is leaven is not to be seen with you, and leaven is not to be seen with you within all your border.” (Deuteronomy 13:7) is another picture of the Kingdom, as we are told in Revelation 21:27: “And there shall by no means enter into it (the New Jerusalem/Kingdom) whatever is unclean, neither anyone doing abomination and falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” This is describing leaven or sin. There can be no leaven in the Kingdom. The Torah of Yah (Unleavened Bread) will be in our mouths, which explains “…if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether sojourner or native of the land. Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.” (Deuteronomy 12:19-20) If you choose to eat leaven, you have rejected the Words of Yah and chosen your own. That one will not be in the Kingdom. Hosea 4:6 “My people have perished for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being priest for Me. Since you have forgotten the Torah of your Elohim, I also forget your children.”
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