PASSOVER/UNLEAVENED BREAD
We live in a world today that is far distant than from the thousands of years ago when the Passover took place. In fact, we live not only a long way from the way they used to live, we also live in a whole different culture, one that doesn’t understand the sacrificial system at all. The reason I bring this up is that it can lead us into having a difficult time understanding the need for Passover at all, and even more important, how it relates to us today.
The truth of the matter is in modern day churches today, most do not really even mention the Passover, or the unleavened bread and what it means or is supposed to mean to us. Most people today have heard of communion or if you come from a more liturgical back ground it would be called the Eucharist. That is when the bring out the juice and the bread and partake of it there. In most churches, they use 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, which was a meal that Yahshua held just before the day of preparation for Passover, and Yahshua used that meal to explain the meaning of Passover. You see Yahshua would not be at the Passover meal because He was to be the Passover Lamb.
This teaching actually starts way back in Exodus chapter 5 and goes through Exodus 14 where Israel is safe on the other side of the Red Sea and they are singing a worship song before Yahweh praising Him for the victory that He gave to His people. This event started off with a Lamb that was slain and the blood of that lamb was placed on the door posts of the house so that the angel of death would pass them over.
You see all of our deliverance stories start off with the blood of the Lamb being applied to our hearts, giving us life not death and freedom from the enemy who brings death, but also it gives us freedom to not let the leavened of this world into our lives as we live out this life in Messiah. The unleavened bread represents our lives without the sins of this world mixed into our lives, and that is how Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, identified as malice and evil.
One of the traditions on the day of preparation or the day before Passover was for the father of the house hold to go through the whole house and meticulously remove all of the leaven out of the house, except he would leave a small portion hidden somewhere. Then he would have the family go through the house again with him so when they found the small amount left, he would have an opportunity to teach the family how important it was to get all of the leaven out.
Paul was talking about us in our lives and us being that meticulous about the leaven in each of our lives. Think if we were that meticulous about self -examination as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 11 it would be awesome for each one of us.
So, as we enter into this time of self- examination let’s allow Him to search our hearts, with an attentive hear to what He is saying so we may enter this time with proclamation of glad tidings. He is a list of our gatherings for this Passover:
Friday, March 30 Sunset Passover celebration at home; High Sabbath begins (the 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread) coinciding with the beginning of the weekly Sabbath
Saturday, March 31 11 am High Sabbath gathering (worship and oneg; no meeting at 10:30 or 2:30)
Saturday, March 31 Sunset High Sabbath ends
Thursday, April 5 Sunset High Sabbath begins (the 7th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread)
Friday, April 6 5:30 pm High Sabbath gathering (worship); the High Sabbath and the Feast will end at sunset as the weekly Sabbath begins
Saturday, April 7 11 am Weekly Sabbath (worship and oneg; no meeting at 10:30 or 2:30)
Blessings,
Pastor Rick