The Feast of Unleavened Bread or Hag Matstoth

Like Lot, the Israelites live in a land that is about to receive devastating punishment. Interestingly, their meals included matstsah. “They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread. With bitter herbs, they shall eat it.” (Exodus 12:8) YAHUAH also told the Israelites to memorialize that night with an annual seven-day festival during which they were to eat matstsah. “This day shall be unto you for a memorial. You shall keep it a feast to YAHUAH throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses. For, whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.” (Exodus 12:14-15)

Yahushuah explains the spiritual significance of this instruction. “It is written in the prophets, ‘They shall be all taught of Elohim.’ Every man therefore who has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to me. Not that any man has seen the Father, save He who is of Elohim. He has seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say to you, He who believes on me has everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, which a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:45-51)

Hereby we can conclude that the “bread” is the “flesh body of Yahushuah” … But we’re told to consume matstsah for seven days, i.e. from the time we accept a covenant with Yahushuah, our Passover Lamb, which was slain for us. We are also told to apply His blood on our doorpost … To be studious, let us now ask, how does YAH view leaven i.e. what is its spiritual significance? The answer will help us to know if our houses and our bread are truly unleavened:

Scripture explains the spiritual meaning of leaven. In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1)

Besides religious hypocrisy, Yahushuah also taught that spiritual leaven is evident in man’s teachings and traditions (doctrines, dogmas and canons of religions). “How is it that you do not understand that I spoke not to you concerning bread that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?” Then they understood that He did not caution them against the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. (Matthew 16:11-12)

Paul also told the Corinthians (and us) that spiritual leaven is found in the form of “malice” (from Webster’s Dictionary, “active ill will, the desire to harm another or to do mischief, spite”) and “wickedness” (“morally bad or wrong, acts or deeds with evil intent, depraved, vicious, cruel”). “Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Mashiach, our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

According to Strong’s Concordance, “sincerity” is translated in the KJV from the Greek “eilikrineia” (G1505), which means “clearness.” It’s derived from “ellikrines” (G1506), which is a compound word of “heile” meaning “the sun’s rays”, and “kreeno” (G2919) that means “to distinguish, that is, to decide.” “Truth” is translated from allaythia (G225), which comes from the root word “allaythace” (G227) that means “not concealing.” This proverb provides a picture of these meanings. “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law (Torah) is light; and reproofs of instruction are the Way of Life.” (Proverbs 6:23) So in other words to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread with sincerity and truth means to utilize the light of Yahushuah’s commands in addition to Torah everyday of the festival that no leaven be concealed within us.

Searching Our House for Leaven

So, we learned through Scripture that spiritually speaking “leaven” consists of “hypocrisy, malice, wickedness and the doctrines of men” … But as a side note, let’s also consider further proof that Paul taught the Gentiles (e.g. the Corinthians above and other nations) to keep Torah. His instructions were on observing Torah i.e. keeping it spiritually … Paul teaches that our un-leavening process begins individually, then it extends outward to our ecclesia … “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Mashiach our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast (Chag Matstoth), not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortionists, or with idolaters. For, then you must go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company, if any man who is called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist; with such a one you do not eat. For, what have I to do to judge them also who are without? Do you not judge them who are within? But for those who are without, Elohim judges. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” (1 Corinthians 5:7-13)

While it’s important to note the admonishments of Paul and Yahushuah, it’s equally imperative to remember that “unleavened bread” in a spiritual sense is the sincere, true word of Elohim, that is, “Yah’s teachings and instructions minus the hypocrisy, malice, wickedness and the doctrines of men” … Yahushuah answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of Elohim.’” (Luke 4:4) “Your words were found and I did eat them. Your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For, I am called by your name, O YAHUAH Elohim Tzavuot.” (Jeremiah 15:16) He said to me, “Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this roll that I give you.” Then did I eat it and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. (Ezekiel 3:3) I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take it! Eat it up! It shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey.” (Revelation 10:9)

We are told to eat matstsah for 7-days, not to just be in possession of it. “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.” (Exodus 12:15) “Eating matstsah” (i.e. Elohim’s instructions) means “digesting His Word“ (i.e. doing Yah’s Word, that is, His teachings and instructions minus the hypocrisy, malice, wickedness and the doctrines of men). The word (i.e. Elohim’s instructions) is depicted as food used in teaching the disciples. We are to live by The Word of Elohim just as we live by the literal food we eat … So, to have unleavened bread is to have the unadulterated teachings and instructions of Elohim. However, just possessing it isn’t enough. We must consume it … In the meanwhile His disciples prayed Him, saying, “Master, eat.” But He said to them, “I have meat (food) to eat that you know not of.” Therefore said the disciples one to another, “Has any man brought him ought to eat?” Yahushuah said to them, “My meat (food) is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:31-34)

Searching Your House for Leaven

Let’s revisit Yah’s command with His spiritual definitions included: “During your work days, as well as, your rest day you are to live righteously with sincerity and truth … even the first day you shall put away hypocrisy, malice, wickedness and doctrines of men out of your houses … for whosoever eats hypocrisy, malice, wickedness, and doctrines of men with the teachings and instructions of Elohim from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. (Exodus 12:15)

This verse says that even the “first day” you shall put away the leaven out of your houses. So when is the 1st day? It is the next day after you eat The Passover Lamb, that is, the day after you pick up your torture stake and start following Yahushuah, our Messiah … To put it another way, if we were to follow the example set forth by Yahushuah our Messiah it would be the first day after we’ve entered into covenant with Elohim via Yahushuah. (Think last supper…) It is at this point we are to begin eating matstsah. To state that another way, it is at this time we should begin to deny ourselves, and to follow our good Shepherd Yahushuah. Please consider: Then said Yahushuah to his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For, whoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26) Yahushuah answered them, “I told you and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me: And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:25-28)

Our first day Unleavened Bread begins when we partake of a covenant meal with Yahushuah (the Passover Lamb)…that is, after we begin to pick up our torture stakes and follow The Lamb Of Elohim … whereby Yahushuah’s disciples will find rest during His millennium … If we truly follow Yahushuah we will find ourselves losing our lives even as He lost His, but in doing so we’d also find ourselves finding eternal life, even as He has. “As it is written, ‘For your sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’” (Romans 8:36)

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men. For, they will deliver you to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what you shall speak. For, it shall be given to you in that same hour what you shall speak. For, it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you. And the brother will deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.” (Matthew 10:16-21)

They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Adonai, holy and true? Do you not judge and avenge our blood on them who dwell on the earth?” White robes were given to every one of them; and it was said to them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. (Revelation 6:10-11) “I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now is come salvation, strength, the Kingdom of our Elohim, and the power of His Mashiach.’  For, the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our Elohim day and night. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.” (Revelation 12:10-11)

“The third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of Elohim, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. The smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever. They have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they who keep the commandments of Elohim, and the faith of Yahushuah.’ And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write, Blessed are the dead who die in Adonai from henceforth.’ Yes, says the Spirit that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. (Revelation 14:9-13)

Living Sacrifices vs. Dead Sacrifices

Let’s revisit Yah’s Exodus command with these additional spiritual definitions: “During your work days, as well as, your rest day you are to live righteously with sincerity and truth … even after you pick up your torture stakes and start following the Lamb of Elohim you shall put away hypocrisy, malice, wickedness and doctrines of men out of your houses … for whosoever eats hypocrisy, malice, wickedness and doctrines of men with the teachings and instructions of Elohim after you pick up your torture stakes and start following the Lamb of Elohim, until the time you become fully sacrificed even as Yahushuah was ... (Exodus 12:15) “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to Elohim, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world. But, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Elohim.” (Romans 12:1-2)

Let’s return to the reading of Yah’s instructions about Chag Matstsoth. “In the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.” (Exodus 12:16) From Strong’s Concordance, “holy” is translated from the Hebrew word “kodesh” (H6844), which means “a sacred place or thing.” The word indicates something consecrated and set aside for sacred use only. It wasn’t to be put into common use, for if it was, it became profaned and common. That said, anytime you want a clear conception of what constitutes be “holy” just consider the holiest thing in most people’s house, that is, the toilet bowl brush!  The toilet brush epitomizes holiness in that it is used for one thing and one thing only i.e. to clean toilets, when you do likewise, that is, when you live for one reason and one reason only and that reason is to serve Elohim then you too will be holy.

You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For, in this selfsame day I brought your armies (servants) out of the land of Mitsrayim (Egypt). Therefore you shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever. (Exodus 12:17) The present day spiritual application of this verse is that upon your 1st day i.e. after you’ve picked up your torture stake and began following The Sacrificial Lamb of Elohim to the altar, you’re to begin eating matstsah along the way … This unleavened bread typifies Yahushuah’s commandments …

There’s one catch! BYA can only follow Him in the spirit! He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins. For, if you believe not that I am He; you shall die in your sins. (John 8:23-24) “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give to them eternal life. They shall never perish; neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28) “I have given them your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14) Yahushuah answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Yahudim but now my Kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36)

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law (Torah). Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Elohim. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:16-23)

With all this following and walking, perhaps I should mention where it is that BYA is going.  Well, YAH led Israel into an uninhabited wilderness, which was in the world, but not of the world … And their flesh constantly got them in trouble with YAH … And seeing that HE’S no respecter of person where do you think He’ll first lead us? Quite likely, our path, as we journey through this world, will likewise be one long and lonely wilderness trail.

“In the first moon (month), on the fourteenth day of the moon at even, you shall eat matstsah, until the one and twentieth day of the moon at even.” (Exodus 12:18)  This verse includes a numerical message. In scriptural numerics, the #14 means “Salvation” and the #21 means “exceedingly wicked.” Therefore, we can conclude that this verse speaks to the time of The Pesach of Elohim to the time of exceeding wickedness, that is, the great tribulation. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5) Yahushuah answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walks in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world.” (John 11:9)

Let’s read this verse again, this time with Yah’s profound message. “In the first moon (month), on the day of your salvation, that is, after you have entered into covenant, and have picked up your torture stake, and start following the Lamb of Elohim, you shall eat unleavened bread, until after the great tribulation.” (Exodus 12:18)

 

“Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses. For, whosoever eats that which is leavened; even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations, you shall eat matstsah. (Exodus 12:19-20)

Let us consider these two verses with all the scripturally defined terms that were discussed earlier in this article. “During your work days, as well as, your rest day, you are to live righteously with sincerity and truth. For, whosoever perform that which is hypocrisy, malice wickedness or the doctrines of men, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Yahushuah, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. You shall perform nothing hypocritical, malicious, wicked or of the doctrines of men. In all your habitations, you shall perform the unadulterated teachings and instructions of YAHUAH. (Exodus 12:19-20)

“Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is Adonai from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Elohim; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. (1 Corinthians 15:46-50) Hereby we learn first the natural then the spiritual; soon we’ll be doing these things naturally. But then comes the spiritual, Therefore while we naturally do these things, let us also endeavor to do them spiritually as well…

Baruk Yahushuah ha’Mashiach! Shalom Aleichem, from Pastor ObadiYah