FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
A Commanded
Feast
Dovetailing
the seder is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Chag ha Matzot, which begins the
same night as Passover.
On G-d's
calendar, the day begins in the evening (Genesis 1: 5).
For seven days, we are commanded to eat unleavened bread, and to be sure
that no leaven enters our homes.
This is the bread of affliction which was eaten as our forefathers came
up out of the
Leaven is representative of sin, so we spend this week
not simply abstaining from leaven, but, according to the commandment, partaking
of the bread which is without leaven.
It is not enough for us to attempt to keep the law--abstaining from sin; if we do not partake of Messiah's
sacrifice for us, we have not really kept anything.
There is no salvation aside from Him.
Traditionally, matzah (unleavened bread) is striped and
pierced.
This was true of Messiah's
own body, striped and pierced on our behalf.
Before we can have His salvation, we must be rid of the leaven in our
lives, confessing our sins and receiving His forgiveness.
When the leaven is found after the Bedikat Chametz (search for leaven), it is burned.
Our sins, too, were dealt with in the fire of G-d's
wrath which was put on Yeshua, and our sins are to be remembered no more before
Him.
Yeshua Himself is the Bread of Life,
born in Bethlehem, which means House of Bread.
He was the bread that came down from heaven, the Word of G-d, upon which
the life and soul of every man depends.
The days of Chag HaMatzot were not
without joy and celebration; the time began and ended with a feast.
It was a party. A life spent
walking with HaShem is not a life without joy, unfulfilled!