Shabbat Pesach service reading 1/2

Because this Shabbat (Sabbath) falls during Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread), a special reading is inserted into the regular Torah reading cycle.

This special portion will be read in synagogues around the world during the Shabbat Pesach (Saturday Passover) service.

On this weekend as many believers are also celebrating the resurrection of the Messiah, it is fitting to recall the physical redemption of the Jewish People from Egypt.  We know you will be blessed as you discover the Jewish roots of your faith in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach (The Intermediate Sabbath of Passover)

Exodus 33:12–34:26; Numbers 28:16–25; Ezekiel 37:1–14; Luke 24

Handmade shmura matzo used at the Passover Seder especially for the mitzvot of eating matzo and afikoman. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread [Chag HaMatzot].  Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread [matzah], as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Aviv, for in the month Aviv you came out from Egypt.”  (Exodus 34:18)

An Orthodox Jewish boy eats a piece of matzah during Passover.

The Parsha (Scripture portion) for this Shabbat, which occurs in the middle of the Passover week, begins by describing the holy days of Pesach (Passover) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot) which last seven days.

These two special events are most often blended into one and just called Passover, but there is a crucial difference between the two, which we will explore in today’s study.

During the Passover time frame, there are three distinct events that represent three unique spiritual states or conditions of the soul:

1. Passover represents salvation: we are saved from the wrath of God by faith in the blood of the Passover Lamb.

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  (John 1:29)

Jeshua (Jesus) was slain on Passover as the perfect fulfilment of the lamb that saved the Israelites on the very first Passover:

“And when I see the blood I will pass over you.”  (Exodus 12:13)

2. Unleavened bread, also called matzah or the bread of affliction, represents sanctification.

Matzah is flat because it is devoid of yeast (chametz), which represents wickedness, pride and that which causes us to be puffed up or to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

“Your boasting is not good.  Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?  Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.  For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”  (1 Corinthians 5:6–7)

The matzah and wine of the ritual Pesach meal called a Seder (order).

Chametz is closely related to the Hebrew word chamutz, which means sour.  Yeast is a souring agent.  Likewise, sin causes bitterness in our soul.

“Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread [matzah] of sincerity and truth.”  (1 Corinthians 5:8)

 The week of unleavened bread, therefore, represents sanctification accomplished through affliction, trials and testing, and the purging of pride in order to teach us humility and obedience by the things we suffer in our wilderness experiences.

“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”  (Deuteronomy 8:2)

A tour group takes shelter from the sun under a lone acacia tree in Israel’s desert.

3. First Fruits, also called Bikkurim in Hebrew, which occurs the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread (although there is some disagreement as to the timing), represents resurrection.Just as the barley is offered up to the Lord as the first crop after winter, so Jeshua was also raised from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits.

“But now the Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  (1 Corinthians 15:20)

 From these distinct elements within Passover, we can understand that between the events of salvation and resurrection is a process of sanctification.

 

Passover → Unleavened Bread → First Fruits

Salvation → Sanctification → Resurrection

A crop of barley in Israel

 

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Additional reading:

1. Israel God’s people
2. On the first day for matzah
3. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus

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