Post by R' Y'hoshua Moshe on Apr 5, 2007 22:48:59 GMT -8
The Matzah Of Sincerity And Truth
[/u]For Chag HaMatzah
By Reuel D.[/center]
Chag sameach chaverim,
Why do we have a seven day festival focused on the absence of leaven, leavened products, and with cracker like bread? And furthermore, what is Chametz? Leaven is an ingredient used to make most of our bread and various other products. Basically, the leavening ingredients cause gases to be released which causes the bread or food product to rise, to become puffed up. Many people are familiar with the Hebrew word “Chametz” which they used to describe “leaven”. But, the actual Hebrew word for leaven is “se’or” and the actual leavened product is “chametz”. In the days of old “se’or” was an old lump of dough that was allowed to become highly fermented which then was worked into a new lump of unleavened dough or unfermented dough which caused the rising process of the bread to accelerate. Today an example of “se’or” would be baking yeast, or powder. So, What is the difference between “se’or” and “Chametz”? Chametz is eaten and Se’or is not meant to be eaten. The Se’or’s purpose is to ferment or rise the dough that is eaten.
So, what is wrong with “chametz” in our house during the days of Unleavened Bread? We see in Devarim (Deut.) 16:3-4 the following…
“You shall eat no leavened bread (chametz) with it; seven days shall you eat matzah therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. There shall be no yeast (se’or) seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.”
And, we see it again in Shemot (Exo.) 12:15, but with the consequence…
“Seven days shall you eat matzah; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Yisra'el.”
From this we see that the reason God’s children are cut off is because of partaking of the chametz, the bread with the leaven (se’or) in it. God takes this whole business of getting rid of the leaven very seriously. The “se’or” was to removed from the house to avoid being worked into the bread that would cause it to become “chametz”. And, just like when the “se’or” is worked into the flesh of the dough it manipulates and corrupts (ferments) the dough, so too spiritual se’or (leaven) manipulates, corrupts, and sours our soul. I believe this is the lesson that our Father in Heaven wishes to teach us during this observance of Chag HaMatzah (Unleavened Bread). He wishes to teach us that the se’or (leaven) in our households, if allowed to enter our soul, and enter into our flesh…it will corrupt us and will indeed puff us up into something we were not intended to be. But, this lesson is not just isolated to these seven days alone. Indeed, our spiritual offerings are to be unleavened as we see with the minchah (Meal/grain) offerings offered up at the Mishkan (Temple / Dwelling place of God)…
“No meal offering, which you shall offer to YHVH, shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to YHVH.” - Vayikra (Lev.) 2:11
Of course Yeshua HaMashiach, Yeshua The Messiah, He was the perfect sacrifice and offering that did not contain any “se’or”, and was not “chametz”. And, because of this, it is His sacrifice of His shed blood that we can have confidence in before God. Because in Him no sin, or “se’or” was found. But, it is our Master’s will that we also become unleavened and that we do not allow the se’or in our lives to corrupt us and make us into “chametz”.
Rabbi Sha’ul (Paul) also has something to say about this….
“Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump? Purge out the old yeast (se’or), that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Pesach, has been sacrificed in our place. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the matzah (unleavened bread) of sincerity and truth.” – 1Corinthians 5:6-8
And, what is this matzah of sincerity and truth? What is truth? Yeshua was very interested in His disciples being set apart, being sanctified by this truth as we see in Yochanan (John) 17:1-21 ….
“Yeshua said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah. I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed. I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. I have given
them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.”
Yeshua continually prays above to The Father in Heaven that we would be sanctified by the truth. This truth is what keeps us unleavened in Messiah. Yeshua describes it as His Father’s Word. What is this Word that Messiah speaks of. What was the “Word” that He and His disciples read from? What is Truth that is to keep us unleavened? The Tehillim, the very Psalms which are traditional to read during this time of Sfirat HaOmer, the counting of The Omer have the answer….
“Your Word is pure and Your servant loves it. I am small and despised; I do not forget Your Precepts. Your righteousness is forever, and Your
(law) is truth.”- Tehillim (Psalm) 119:141-142
There is a well know saying that goes like this, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book”, let not the latter part of this saying describe us.
“Behold, how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn't know us, because it didn't know him.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.
Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure. Everyone who sins also commits Torahlessness (lawlessness). Sin is Torahlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.”
– 1Yochanan (John) 3:1-5
As we remove the se’or (leaven) and the sin out of our lives, let us purify ourselves as we draw closer and closer to our Heavenly Father’s
. Let us all deflate ourselves and allow Adonai to permeate every area of our lives.Chag HaMatazah Sameach (Happy Festival Of Unleavened Bread to you) !
