Chag HaMatzot Feast of Unleavened bread and its deeper meaning

Chag HaMatzot /Week of Unleavened Bread and its deeper meaning
Also gets spoken of as the Pesach week
A Basic Overview and prophetic implication

Chag HaMatzot or the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the second annual festival event on YHVH’s Spiritual calendar occurring on the fifteenth day of the month of the Aviv until the 21st day of Aviv. The 14th of Aviv is the day that the Pesach preparations are done as also the day on which the Pesach (the lamb that was offered) was slaughtered “between the evenings” (3pm in our time). The Pesach Seder (the Memorial/Remembrance order of service with the elements to help us to remember) then takes place at the end of the 14th of Aviv going over into the 15th of Aviv which is also the start of the First day of Unleavened Bread. Because both events are back-to-back the Jews often refer to Passover and Unleavened Bread simply as “Pesach/Passover Week” or some similar term that places the main emphasis on the Passover event. Even in Scriptures are there instances where Pesach for instance is called a Festival of seven days (Ezek 45: 21) and other places the First day of Unleavened bread is called the Pesach  like in Luk 22:1  “And the Festival of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover (Pesach in Hebrew and Pascha in Greek” etc. but it must be noted that though connected very closely, these two festivals are both very important. Pesach/Passover pictured the slaying of the first-born and the salvation that came to the Yisraelites through the blood of the lamb, their deliverance from the bondage of Mitsrayim/ Egypt. When we are having our Pesach Seders (the Memorial order of ‘service’) there is also the spiritual implication of Yahshua as Lamb of Elohim. When the Temple was still standing, the Hebrews had to go up to Yerushalayim for Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. For all the Festivals there were offerings made at the Temple and for Pesach on the afternoon of the 14th of Aviv, ‘between the evenings’ the pesach (offering lamb) was slaughtered and offered. Each head of a family had to bring their lamb to be slaughtered as an offering, then take it to their place for the lamb to be roasted and then eaten with bitter herbs and unleavened bread that evening when the 15th of Aviv starts, as part of the Pesach Memorial Seder (see the notes on Pesach). It was these lambs that were slaughtered as a pesach while the Temple still stood, that had to be eaten fully by the next morning and what remained had to be burnt the next morning. Since the Temple is not standing, the pesachs cannot be offered and that is why we will just prepare the meat and side dishes for the main meal, and a Seder Plate. The Seder Plate has on it a roasted shank bone which is symbolic of the pesach lambs that were slaughtered and roasted as also the bitter herbs and Matzot (unleavened bread) that are part of telling the story of the deliverance out of Mitsrayim/Egypt. Other elements were also added to make the telling of the story more interesting as an object lesson. To sum it up: now that the Temple in Yerushalayim is not standing, we still have Pesach Memorial services in the form of a Pesach Seder and a special meal to celebrate for which we prepare during the day time of the 14th of Aviv and then when the 15th of Aviv starts, we get together for the Pesach Seder (the Pesach Memorial order of service). This evening that the Seders take place is the evening of the start of the 15th of Aviv which is the First day of the Week of Unleavened Bread. From this sunset of the 15th of Aviv until the next sunset when the 16th of Aviv is going to start, is the Festival Shabbat of the First day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag haMatzot in Hebrew). Because of the fact that there is not a Temple now, some don’t eat lamb at all with their Seders but rather chicken and just have the roasted lamb shank bone on the Seder Plate as a remembrance of the pesach (the lambs that were offered around the Ninth hour (3pm our time) with bitter herbs and unleavened bread and the other symbolic elements, whereas others do eat lamb’s meat in some form with their Seders and also have the roasted shank bone on the Seder Plate to remember the lambs that were slaughtered and offered at the Temple. Some families slaughter a lamb for their family and roast it as an object lesson to eat with their Pesach Seder in which case the roasted shank bone should still be on the Seder Plate to symbolise the pesach (the lamb slaughtered by the Temple which again also symbolizes Yahshua Mashiach who became the Pesach of Elohim; the Lamb who was offered for our deliverance from bondages.

The Week of Unleavened Bread’s purpose on one level is to commemorate the rushed exodus of the Yisraelites from Mitsrayim/Egypt, fleeing to freedom with its spiritual implications of the leaven that has to be put out of our “houses” incorporated into this truth. The first and seventh days of this week-long event are “days of rest” (‘Festival Sabbaths/Shabbats’ – no servile work – only the making of food allowed: Exo 12:16  ‘And on the first day is a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day you have a set-apart gathering. No work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by every being, that alone is prepared by you’) and we see YHVH also commanded his people to hold a “set-apart” convocation/meeting on these days (the first and the seventh).
What, you may ask, is the purpose of putting leavening out of one’s home and eating unleavened
bread products such as the matza in the Motzot boxes that one can purchase from a supermarket or that you bake yourself for one week? Once again, YHVH was/is teaching his people an object lesson, for this was the next step in his plan of redemption, which will make perfect sense once explained. Yisrael had just left Mitsrayim/Egypt and we know that Mitsrayim/Egypt represents the world and the bondages of Satan. It may be easy to “get out of Egypt,” but now begins the arduous process of “getting Egypt out” of the life of the new Believer. The old sin habits die hard and lie waiting to be exposed and cast out from the recesses of one’s mind, will and emotions—one’s spiritual houses. This is not an easy process, not unlike ridding our physical homes of leavening products, such as bread crumbs, which find their way into the nooks and crannies of our homes. In Scripture, leavening usually represents sin, pride, hypocrisy and false doctrine.
The ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’ (‘Chag haMatzot’) lasts seven days. Seven in YHVH’s spiritual economy represents completion or perfection. YHVH has given man 7000 years on this earth to get rid of sin completely and totally in preparation for admission into his eternal kingdom as revealed in Revelation 21 and 22. For 6000 years YHVH has left man to his own sinful devices. The seventh thousand-year time period, called the Messianic Age or Millennium, will be different than the previous 6000 years, for Yahshua will be physically ruling over the earth with a rod of iron as King of kings and Master of masters, haSatan will be bound in the pit for this time period and all flesh on earth will be taught the Torah-truth of YHVH Elohim without the evil influences of the devil and the world as we know it today. During the Messianic Age the earth will be at peace and rest, men will learn to love YHVH with all their heart, mind and strength and their neighbour as themselves. This time of peaceful rest is the seventh thousand-year time period of man’s tenure on this earth, which corresponds to the seventh day of the week—the Sabbath (Shabbat is the Hebrew word). It will be a Shabbat on this earth for 1000 years. The Days of Unleavened Bread picture this, for the first day is a Day of rest representing the first Day of rest/Shabbat when YHVH rested after creating a perfect, paradisiacal and sin-free world. The last day or seventh day of the Unleavened Bread festival is also a Shabbat, a day of rest which corresponds prophetically to the Messianic Age/the Millennium—when a far more sin-free (leaven-free) paradise on the earth will be in the process of being finally restored.

On an individual level, when one makes the exodus from one’s spiritual Mitrayim/Egypt at the time of one’s acknowledging that one needs the Lamb of Elohim as Mediator between man and YHVH, then one enters into the spiritual “rest” of Yahshua (Heb. 4:1-11). One takes on the yoke of Yahshua, which is light and easy (Matt. 11:28-30- it is believed that this yoke speaks of the Torah of YHVH), and experiences the “joy of YHVH” (Neh. 8:10; Yoch/John 16:24; Rom. 5:11) and the peace or shalom of YHVH that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7). This corresponds to the First day or the Festival Shabbat of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (first of seven days). Then comes the next five days (the next five days until the end of the sixth day) of walking through the wilderness of life eating the bread of affliction (Debarim/Deut. 16:3). Despite our salvation from Mitsrayim/Egypt and the receipt of joy and peace each must struggle to enter the Seventh day with the ultimate peace/shalom or rest of the Promised Land (this last or Seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a festival Shabbat again – No work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by every being, that alone is prepared by you (Shemot/Ex 12:16)) Shaul/Paul talks about working out one’s own salvation (Phil. 2:12) and the struggles to defeat the carnal man (Rom. 7), to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit and to enter into the Spirit of life in Yahshua Messiah (Rom. 8:1-2). Yahshua talked about the persecution and tribulation that Believers would have to endure to enter the ultimate rest of his kingdom (Matt. 5:10-12). Paul said that all who live righteously will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12), and that the metal of our lives must be tested and purified by the fire of trial (1 Cor. 3:12-13). Yakov/James says that we are to count it all joy when we are tried or proven (Yakov/James. 1:12). Will the fires of persecution separate us from the love of Yahshua, Paul asks the Romans (Rom. 8:35)? Will we forget our first love as the Ephesians did (Rev. 2:4) and lose faith and long for the delicacies of Mitsrayim/Egypt as the Yisraelites did falling into doubt and unbelief and perishing in the wilderness (Heb. 3:8-19)? Or will we persevere and overcome the world as the Author and Finisher of our faith, Yahshua, did (John 16:33) to enter into the Promised Land, bring down the walls of Yericho/Jericho, and to possess rewards of the Kingdom of Elohim (Matt. 5:10, 12; 1 Yoch/John 5:4; Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:5, 12, 21; 21:7)? We are to resist sin (leavening) in our lives even to the point of paying the ultimate price, if necessary, as did Yahshua (Heb. 12:1-4) as well as many of the prophets (Heb. 11).

This is the walk of the wilderness, but we press on in faith for the hope that is set before us (Heb. 6:18), the hope of eternal rest in the Promised Land of the Kingdom of Elohim. This is what the last festival Shabbat or seventh day of the Days of Unleavened Bread represents. Seven is the number of perfection or completion. For six days we work—work out our salvation (Phil. 2:12). Yes, we are saved at the time of our conversion and have passed from death and condemnation to everlasting life (John 5:24), but salvation and being set-apart from the world, flesh and the devil for service to YHVH (the old word that we used was “sanctification”) are also a lifelong process which will culminate in the transforming of our mortal bodies into esteemed, immortal and spiritual bodies at the resurrection. At this point in time we will have arrived at the completion or perfection of our hope the number seven epitomizes in Scripture.

The same implication as above can be derived from the history in Yehoshua/Joshua 5 and 6. In Yehoshua/Joshua 5:10 we see that at the threshold to the Promised Land, the Yisraelites kept Pesach/Passover again after they kept it only once (in the second year) since the first time when they left Mitsrayim/Egypt during the 40 years in the Wilderness. After this Pesach in Yehoshua 5, they were commanded to march around Yericho/Jericho for seven days. On the final day the walls of Yericho collapsed. Is it possible that they marched during the seven days of Unleavened Bread and the final day of the feast is when Yericho was destroyed? If this is the case, does this prophetically picture when YHVH’s people on the verge of inheriting the Millennial kingdom will see the collapse of Babylon the Great, the one enemy of Yisrael and obstacle from its possessing its spiritual/Millennial domain and inheritance?

The initial instruction in Shemot/Ex 12
For the whole Pesach week (Pesach memorial and the 7days of Unleavened bread) we are commanded to eat unleavened bread and to not consume any product with leaven in it and also to remove the leaven from our homes

(Emphasis added)-Shemot/Exo 12:15 ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed on the first day you cause leaven to cease from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that being shall be cut off from Yisra’ĕl.
Exo 12:16 ‘And on the first day is a set-apart gathering, and on the seventh day you have a set-apart gatheringNo work at all is done on them, only that which is eaten by every being, that alone is prepared by you.
Exo 12:17 ‘And you shall guard the Festival of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I brought your divisions out of the land of Mitsrayim. And you shall guard this day throughout your generations, an everlasting law.
Exo 12:18 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.
Exo 12:19 ‘For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra’ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land.
Exo 12:20 ‘Do not eat that which is leavened – in all your dwellings you are to eat unleavened bread.’ "
Question: Must we eat only unleavened bread and no other food? No, but it seems though like we should definitely eat unleavened bread 
during the course of the seven days if we look at verse 15 and verse 20. Most probably because by doing that we are aware, all the time of the fact that leaven in our lives must “go” and to remind us of this truth all the time. We can of course it Matzos (unleavened bread) as we can buy it nowadays (see example of one brand of Matzos in picture on the left), or we can bake our own unleavened bread.  You can Google unleavened bread recipes. In verse 20 we see that we should not eat which is leavened; so that means that we can eat other things normally too, but just not ANYTHING with leaven in it.

             We can also bake our own unleavened bread>

Apart from the initial Torah instructions in Shemot/Ex 12, YHVH also tells His people that they must explain to their sons why they eat unleavened bread for seven days:

Exo 13:6  “Seven days you eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a festival to יהוה.
Exo 13:7  “Unleavened bread is to be eaten the seven days, and whatever is leavened is not to be seen with you, and leaven is not to be seen with you within all your border.
Exo 13:8  “And you shall inform your son in that day, saying, ‘It is because of what יהוה did for me when I came up from Mitsrayim.’
Exo 13:9  “And it shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes, that the Torah of יהוה is to be in your mouth, for with a strong hand יהוה has brought you out of Mitsrayim.
Shemot/Exodus 13:6-9 shows us that the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag haMatzot) is a sign and memorial to the Yisraelites, for on the first Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the Yisraelites left Mitsrayim/Egypt by YHVH’s strong hand. Once again on another more physical level what then does day seven, which is another Festival Shabbat, of the Feast of Unleavened Bread signify? If the first day is a memorial looking back to the momentous event when the Yisraelites victoriously fled the bondage and slavery of Mitsrayim/Egypt, could day seven represent when the same victorious Yisraelites would finally enter the Promised Land after defeating those who would prevent them from doing so?
So, eating unleavened bread is on the one hand a memorial, remembrance or reminder (Exod. 13:6-9) of our coming out of our spiritual Mitsrayim/Egypt, for the Yisraelites left Mitsrayim early in the morning (somewhere after the midnight hours) as they were making their morning bread and because they left in haste the bread was not able to rise (Shemot/Exod. 12:34). Therefore, they were forced, by circumstances, to leave their leavening or sin behind in Egypt, so to speak. On the other hand eating unleavened bread and food is also for Believers a reminder that we have left our old sinful ways behind us in 'Mitsrayim' as we press onward to the Promised Land or Eternal Kingdom of YHVH Elohim.

References to the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Apostolic Scriptures/Second Writings
See Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:1; and Acts 12:3; 20:6. In 1 Corinthians 5:8 Paul urges Believers to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and how they should apply it.

Compiled by I Crowther for Beit El Messianic Congregation