The Feast of Unleavened Bread By: Richard Cortes We ... - Finalweb

The Feast of Unleavened BreadBy: Richard CortesWe just experienced the Passover meal and now it we areentering our second phase of our spiritual change. This is the secondbiblical feast in the calendar of YHVH, and it is celebrated on the 15 thday of Aviv. We read in Leviticus 23:6-8 and Exodus 34:18Leviticus 23:6-86 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast ofUnleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavenedbread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shalldo no customary work on it. 8 But you shall offer an offering made byfire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holyconvocation; you shall do no customary work on it.Exodus 34:1818 “The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days youshall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed

time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came outfrom Egypt.The feast of unleavened bread is celebrated for 7 daysimmediately after the Passover. God commanded All Israel tocelebrate this feast as well as all of the rest of them. Let us read inLeviticus 23:1-2Leviticus 23:1-21 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children ofIsrael, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shallproclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.As we just read; the feasts are not Jewish feast but rather theyare God’s feast. Each of these feasts represents the work of ourMessiah in our lives. In other words, they represent what He did forus, and how we are to be transformed. Passover is a requirementbefore we can attempt to be transformed. Unleavened bread is thesecond step to our spiritual growth. After accepting the Passoverblood we must die to sin. Let us read what Paul wrote:Romans 6: 1-41 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace mayabound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer

in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized intoChrist Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buriedwith Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raisedfrom the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walkin newness of life.Romans 6: 5-65 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowingthis, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sinmight be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.Romans 6: 15-1615 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but undergrace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you presentyourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey,whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading torighteousness?Paul is not talking about some future event, but rather he isinstructing the people how to walk in their present lives. Look at whathe writes here:

Romans 6: 17-1917 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet youobeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you weredelivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves ofrighteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness ofyour flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves ofuncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so nowpresent your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.Notice that Paul uses the word “Now” in verse 19 signifying apresent moment. It is for us to walk now not after you die. When weaccept the Passover Lamb (Yeshua The Messiah), we die to the law ofsin and death. In other words, we no longer serve the law of sin anddeath, but rather we become bonded with the Law of Righteousnessleading to life. Let us read:Romans 7: 4-54 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the lawthrough the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—toHim who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit toGod. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which werearoused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit todeath.How do we know which law Paul is talking about?

Romans 8: 22 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free fromthe law of sin and death.In here Paul is contrasting the Law of Spirit of life (The writtenLaw of Moses) vs. the law of sin and death (No Law period). Unlikethe law of sin and death the written Law of Moses is alwaysassociated with:1) LibertyPsalms 119: 44-4544 So shall I keep Your law continually,Forever and ever.45 And I will walk at liberty,for I seek Your precepts.2) LifePsalms 119: 50-5150 This is my comfort in my affliction,For Your word has given me life.51 The proud have me in great derision,Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.Psalms 119: 9393 I will never forget Your precepts,For by them You have given me life.

3) TruthPsalms 119: 142142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,and Your law is truth.4) PeacePsalms 94: 12-1312 Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O LORD,And teach out of Your law,13 That You may give him rest from the days of adversity,Until the pit is dug for the wicked.Psalms 119: 165165 Great peace have those who love Your law,And nothing causes them to stumble.It is in the feast of unleavened bread that we bury our oldnature, and look forward to a new person. To properly understandthis let us look at the foundation of the word unleavened. TheHebrew word for unleavened is:H4682מּצהmatsts hmats-tsaw'From H4711 in the sense of greedily devouring for sweetness;properly sweetness; concretely sweet (that is, not soured or bitteredwith yeast); specifically an unfermented cake or loaf, or (elliptically)the festival of Passover (because no leaven was then used): -unleavened (bread, cake), without leaven.

Properly said the word means bread without bitter yeast. Bitteryeast represents sin, and everything that advocates it. Yeshua (Jesus)spoke regarding this in the Gospels. Let us turn to Matthew:Matthew 16:66 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of thePharisees and the Sadducees.”7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because wehave taken no bread.”Matthew 16:11-1211 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to youconcerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees andSadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them tobeware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Phariseesand Sadducees.Luke 12:11 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people hadgathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began tosay to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,which is hypocrisy.These are the things that we are supposed to be burying duringthis feast. We are supposed to look inside ourselves, and find theleaven that needs to be buried. Look at what YHVH commanded us todo during this feast. We read in Exodus 12:

Exodus 12:1919 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, sincewhoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off fromthe congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of theland. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shalleat unleavened bread.’”The spiritual meaning of the feast of unleavened bread is our oldnature dying. YHVH commanded us to celebrate this feast because itrepresents what our Messiah has done for us. Just as He was buriedwith our sins we must learn to bury ourselves with Him daily. Yeshuacame to abolish sin and death not the Law of Moses (i.e. Law of God).Let us read:2 Timothy 1: 9-109 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according toour works, but according to His own purpose and grace which wasgiven to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but has now beenrevealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hasabolished death and brought life and immortality to light through thegospelTitus 2: 13-1413 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our greatGod and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He mightredeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His ownspecial people, zealous for good works.

“Lawless deed” means without law. As we have learned in thePassover teaching, law is Hebrew word torah (H8451), which meansprecepts and statutes. These precepts and statures are the teachingand instructions of YHVH. The antonym of the word law is lawless. Soin other words, Yeshua came to redeem us from our lawless nature,the nature that rejects the teaching and instructions of YHVH.The apostle Paul concludes by endorsing the celebration of thefeast of unleavened bread to the church of Corinth (a Gentile church).Let us read:1 Corinthians 5: 6-86 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leavenleavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, thatyou may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeedChrist, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. [c] 8 Therefore let us keepthe feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice andwickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.Finally, we read in Acts 20 about the feast being celebratedamong believers.Acts 20: 66 But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of UnleavenedBread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed sevendays.In conclusion, the feast of unleavened bread is for ALL believersin Messiah. As we read this feast marks the end of our old nature, andprepares us for the new nature. The entire biblical feasts are YHVH

not Jewish. They represent the work of our Messiah. We mustapproach these feasts with a circumcised heart, and an open mind.Let us rejoice with what our God has given us to walk on. We willcontinue our next stage of spiritual growth with the feast of Firstfruits. May the LORD bless you and keep you.Shalom