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pt. 8 By Keeping Unleavened Bread

ReNEWed COVENANT Ministry

SABBATH BIBLE STUDY

13-22

(2019)

IF we have sown unto you spiritual things,
Is it a great thing if we shall reap from you carnal things? 1Corinthians 9:11

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com


In connection to the series that I had offered “why do we keep the feasts?”, this next series is offered, to help further support and encourage the Israel of God in her return to YHWH’s ordained worship according to the Scriptures.
I’d like to add that last year around this time I had offered as series on

THE LORD’S SUPPER
Christian Pascha
Sacrament of the Faith of Jesus Christ

As well as, just a few months back, I had more so established a systematic reason for keeping the feast as Christians under the New Covenant in the series:

“Why Do we Keep the Feasts?”.

How Do We Keep the Feasts?
Part. 8

By Keeping Unleavened Bread

2Pe_1:2-8 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesu(s) our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, for they make neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesu(s) Christ.

 

Summary:
In finalizing the discussion of the day of YHWH’s Passover on the 14th day of the 1st month of Abib, named after the new ears of Barley or at the time the stalk stands upright, on that Passover day a male lamb of the first year is to be slaughtered between the evenings to be eaten that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, bitter herbs are un specified in scripture as to what herb is to be used, the only requirement that is mentioned is that it is bitter to symbolize the hard bondage of Israel under the hand of the Egypian- Mitzraim.
Our Congregation often used dandelion leaves and spring garlic and onion, dock and make a salad from that medley, all of which one can find wild in nature if celebrating the paschal meal in the local month of Abib or thereafter in the 2nd month if the first Passover day has not been kept as mentioned last message).
Most importantly and another evidence to show that it was intended for the disciples of Christ to eat the bread and the cup of Red wine which symbolized the blood of the bleeding Christ who died on that Passover day is connotatively instituted into the elements of the Passover meal as our spiritual libation, the cup of the New Covenant, this along with the broken body represented in the unleavened bread eaten, it was at the time our Lord’s broken body was entombed, we entomb the sacramental elements of this meal within our own bodies by eating as we have been commanded- in remembrance of him; it is good to consider that by eating the bread and drinking the cup, the apostle Paul tells that we do this “to show the Lord’s death till he come.”, admonishing our partaking of this bread and cup with the paschal meal at the time of the Lord’s death, and to do so till he come. This should be done in the 1st month foremost, but in the events of certain happenings the 2nd month is acceptable as well when Abib cannot be accomplished, and it is my opinion that for those who have not kept the first moonth observance that the 2nd moonths Passover is appropriate as well.
This summary statement will conclude the specifics of the Passover day and of its meal in the night immediately following (with exception to the periphery).
Moving on:
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
Lev 23:8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

And before discussing this section let us first focus on the 7 days of unleavened bread which starts with the evening of the 14th day blending or evening into the 15th day at the time just before the eating of the Paschal meal on the holy convocation that night.

Exo_12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exo 12:16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an 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.
Exo 12:17 And ye shall observe unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
Exo_12:18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even ( בערב) , ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even ( בערב).

Focus:
In the celebration of this feast of unleavened bread there exists the ability to learn and be instructed by the intrinsic nature between Christ who is in fact the Word of God, and that Word made flesh in the man Jesus Christ, as the son of God and son of Man; this Word existed perfectly in the bosom of the Father as a perfect Law of logic of justice and of instruction in righteousness, this level of perfection and personification is in every sacrament of God’s Holy Law.
This property of sanctification is fully in existence in the feast of unleavened bread.
To realize the spirit and truth of every Word which proceeds from the mouth of YHWH will always bless one who is Elect and Called according to God’s own purpose; without this level of faith in recognition of the origin of any biblical ordinance one can never understand the feast’s sincerity and truth.
The Word cannot be taken away from the work of Christ as a man, and the son of man cannot be separated from the body of the Word of God, by taking the one from the other something in the lesson of faith will always be lost, both are needed to teach the lesson, together as the Word is engrafted upon the believers earthly heart- as the will to be done as in heaven where they have forever been.
The WORD which spoke the law of unleavened bread to Moses was carried to him on the spirit-breath that proceeded from the mouth of God: This is the meaning of inspiration, and the feast of unleavened bread should never be shelved as not possessing this same spiritual quality.

What unleavened bread is:
When we speak of unleavened bread, it has been in part shown that we are particularly speaking of bread or loaves that are not raised by what we now call sour dough, in the LXX and NT this feast and the food it comprises are called A-zumos or A-zumon, this word for fermentation of dough in the idea of making gas which leavens the bread and adding the negative prefix to it ‘not puffed’ not leavened or un-leavened. This concept in speaking is a negative article added to the natural state of bread dough when left to its own fermentation process, this simply is caused by allowing dough to sit around and fermenting or sour.
Yet the Hebrew of this concept in speaking is not a negative addition to the natural state, rather SAR is the Hebrew word for leavened bread and the Hebrew logic pulls the idea of unleavened from a 2 fold concept:
1. the state the crop in the field, particularly in the early stages of the kernel or ears development, in Hebrew you will often find the poetic form of speaking in the relevance of a particular matter in reality, and so the crops of cereal grain which western man is accustomed to eat by diet has in the Hebrew form taken into account the first availability of the crop to be consumed by men in the stage when the needed structure of the bread made therewith cannot be up held by the fermentation process of the grain itself if it is eaten during this feast, the name for the Abib barley in this state is M’TzUTh /מצות H4682 , today we call this the milk stage.
2. in speaking to the crop of grain for making bread in general from the year prior as well, that which was in the store house from the prior year’s harvest, just as how we purchase our grain today from the grocery store in the spring it is from the prior year’s harvest.
The Hebrew concept brings the idea of sweetness into the bread eaten in opposition of the sourness of sour dough.
In the Agricultural meaning of the term M’TzUTh /מצות it is reckoned with the Abib (early eared barley, when the stalk is hardened); as when speaking of the other 2 festivals: the feast of weeks being called the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and Tabernacles being called the feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. These are agricultural names easily seen in English, but in speaking of M’TzaTH / מצות H4682 . This Agricultural point is not expressed in preference to the focus upon the ‘unleavened product of bread’ made from the M’tzath itself, which in the follow messages we may l consider more of…

Keeping the remembrance:
When we speak of Keeping the feast of unleavened bread we are speaking of what we keep in eating from the positive command “thou shalt or you must”, besides this ordinance is not lacking in the negative command “though shalt not”, it is nevertheless secondary in ordination, placing the primary focus upon the keeping, or eating and remembering thereby specifically, thus the feast is not the feast of not keeping leaven or not eating leaven bread, rather it is the positive ‘feast of unleavened bread’.
Both of the positive and negative Law may be seen in :
Exo_13:7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.

As well beside these laws:

The positive:
…seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. Lev_23:6 , And ye shall observe unleavened bread… Exo_12:17 , …ye shall eat unleavened bread Exo_12:18
And in these laws of
The negative:
Exo_12:19-20 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth 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. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

The nature of the command and the admonition will be able to best be seen in the directive to eat, not in the prohibition of what to avoid, in what one does not eat.
The remembrance which the people of God are called to is known by the positive action of ‘keeping’ and ‘eating’ and remembering and it is only by first considering this un-usual command, that is that God is commanding us to take from our selves a thing that is commonly allowed, we will see what YHWH wants us to understand.
Leaven usually is not in a class ‘unclean’ and it is even found as a commanded gift to be given to the holy priests for their food, the 2 wave loaves made of leavened bread on the feast of weeks. Leaven is not unholy in and of its self though it is never allowed upon the altar of YHWH in the Law, and Mat_13:33 says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven placed in dough. Leaven is not always a bad thing, it does not always symbolize wicked pride or some such sin intrinsically as swine’s flesh is unclean, we do not look upon leaven as if it is innately wrong as this would imply that every week of the year except for one we are allowed to be wicked.
This ordinance, rite and ceremony of this feast is particular to the remembrance we are to be in mind of as God’s people; the feast is a tool to remember, yet it is an ordained tool not to be taken lightly.
In YHWH’s revealed logic on this subject it is that: “… thou eat unleavened bread…the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. Deu_16:3
And after the manifestation of Christ we even more have a remembrance to consider in the great and sundry uses of the festival times starting with the day of our Lord’s broken body, enveloped by His resurrection, and being the very feast wherein he was begun to be seen in his glorified body.
Consider how this time of the year for the Christian Israel of GOD carries with it a great remembrance in the eating of the bread not just in the avoidance of leaven.
Even in the I Corinthian Epistle what is common to unrestrained man is the leaven of malice and strife which puffs up, but it is the keeping of holiness as separation which allows the feast to be kept with sincerity and truth.
Our focus should be on remembering to eat the unleavened bread for 7 days, not the restraint of eating for 7 days. This is a feast wherein every meal contains the elemental bread of bondage that comes with deliverance from Bondage as well as the broken body of our Lord whose flesh is meat indeed in the body broken for us also represented in that bread we eat. The feast is not kept by not eating the puffed up falsehood of pride, but by eating the bread of sincerity and truth, the word come down from heaven.

Timing:
Exo_12:18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even ( בערב) , ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even ( בערב).

As it is my goal to draw attention to particulars of study that will aid in learning for those listening, notice this last verse 18, at even ( B’ORB/בערב) this is the literal phrase dealing with ‘In’, or ‘Upon or At’ the evening, it is entirely differentiated from BIN eH’ ORBIM /בין הערבים of verse 6 regarding when to Kill the Passover between the 2 evenings thus, representing the 24 hour day or the whole day from one evenig to another.
This is important as it is dealing with the time of the start of the feast as being ‘In’ or ‘upon’ the time of Evening, meaning right as the one day is ending it flows gently into the next day, so when we see that this first day starts with the evening called the 14th day at evening we see what very small amount of time is given to this reference, as well as how it is carried over into the same sitting of the until the one and twentieth day of the month at even ( בערב), this is referencing in the same way this very small segment of time leading into the 22nd day not mentioned, but implied just as the reference to the 14th day is implied.
Is the 22nd day part of the festival being the enumerated 7th day of the lunar week? Yes, I believe it is, but it is not part of the days of unleavened bread, but rather the ending like a punctuation.
The cHaG is observed until the 7th day and until the 21st at evening making them synonymous in regard to the 22nd as being the seventh day of the week and that working in hand with the ending of the festival.
There exists in the Law a differentiating between the two 7th days mentioned throughout this text, the 7 days of unleavened bread and the 7th day of the week, as mentioned in Lev_23:2-3 as there seems to me to be this distinction (some LS Brothers disagree and only recognize the 22nd as the seventh day), I on the other hand am not confident of that rendering, But I feel confident that 7 days unleavened bread is eaten and at the end of that 7 days the Sabbath and holy convocation will encase the cHaG. So in siding with Josephus who observed this observance with the appropriated sacrifices I would as well say the Holy convocation in reference comes directly after the 7th day of unleavened bread, sharing the evening and possibly even implying that 22nd day with the at evening mention, and so a distinction of this idea I think is seen in Lev_23:8
1.) …ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days
2.) in the seventh day (sabbath of 22nd) is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work.
The first part of this verse in speaking of the 7th day of the sacrificial offerings which directly corresponds to the days of eating unleavened bread by the people and the second part, is speaking of the 7th day of the week as the Sabbath and holy convocation.
Also in Exo_12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses… from the first day until the seventh day… It is most likely stated in this way because of the way the bread was leavened (remember there was no yeast packages), bread had to sit and develop culture before it would leaven or raise a loaf of bread, and if no leaven bread, that would include the culture which is either a batter of bubbly flour or an old piece of leavened bread placed in another loaf to cause a chain reaction in imparting it’s leaven to the new lump, or a dried piece of leavened bread in any form which could be mixed into new batter to accomplish the same end in leavening a loaf, so in that mindset, if you were so anxious to eat leavened bread again that you left some dough out to culture after evening of the 21st day, as I understand that it would be ok. All that can be positively said is that of the absolute duration of the festival in the eating of unleavened bread for 7 days, and by counting the 22nd Sabbath day as a day of unleavened bread it would create 8 days thou shalt eat unleavened bread.
However, an interesting Historical account where the feast of unleavened bread is referred to as an 8 day feast is in Josephus’ Antiq. Bk.2, Ch.15 v.1, where he says,
“…we keep a feast for eight days, which is called the feast of unleavened bread.” In this he seems to import the idea of the Sabbath of the 22nd day into name of the feast of unleavened bread, where it could not be referring to Passover day on account of it not being the day of its ordering, but of the day of its preparation, if in this text the phrase ‘feast of Passover’ where used as it sometime is in the NT I would not have brought this historic point out as evidence to the 22nd’s day as incorporated in the name of the feast. And so it is my observance that by default the day of the 22nd as a Sabbath is reckoned among the days of the feast as it’s punctuation for the days of unleavened bread due to the way leavened bread was only made at this time (there was no yeast packets.).

Sacrifice and offerings on the 7 days upon the tabernacle altar:

In the text …ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days
The sacrifices are here mentioned which are throughout the Tabernacle law. This Sacrificial law of what burnt oblations are to be given throughout the week of unleavened bread, the order and specifics are mentioned in Leviticus 23:6-8 as well as in Num_28:17-25 more specifically.
In both Numbers 28:6 as well as Leviticus 23:5 entirely devote the 14th day as YHWH’s Passover, while the remainder of the feast week is devoted to unleavened bread and offerings made by fire. It is important to remember as we visualize the happening of the feast surrounding the tabernacle that these offerings being made are taken from a so called public expense, that is gathered from the peoples tithes and brought to the Levites from the Heads of the fathers families from the house of their respective fathers literally, that tithe is given to local Levites that take this offering to the tabernacle priests who are in their vocational course who estimate and esteem the tithe worth to be upon the altar during this week and part of the offerings to be given daily, sabbatical weekly and new monthly. Yet free will offerings were given beside this, and vows of the people who did appear in worship. Yet the focus of these verses is to specify what the priests on duty in the tabernacle were to offer every day of this feast.
It would be wrong of me to say this does not matter to us anymore, because this is the word of YHWH God, yet it is at this point of worship throughout the feast that we offer the calves of our lips, and the sacrifice of praise unto our mediator our great high priest who is in the heavens for us in the heavenly tabernacle at this time when the Father’s house is not upon the earth in accordance with his will. It is our part as God’s people to keep our perpetual and generational ordinances, in the remembrance of unleavened bread and of worship, in knowing Jesus Christ has offered the appropriate offering for us in time and forever.

In application:

This is a time of celebrating in the eating of unleavened bread as the people of God who know what is being done for us in the heavenly Jerusalem as we make unleavened bread fresh every day for these 7 days and eat it these 7 days with the children and family God has given you. By this memorial law obtain what you may learn by keeping this commandment in mind, do not vaunt to find the exception to the rule but consider the meaning of the feast to your edification while we live amidst a crooked and perverse generation.
Consider the sanctification of faith we may learn from all the separations YHWH has imposed upon our hearts and minds not just in only restraint of what the world around us does not and perhaps cannot consider, which is a horrid way to set one’s self apart by saying “Every one else gets to eat whatever they want whenever they want, while we feast keepers are held back”, This is nearly the worst mentality and heart condition one can find himself in, rather when the delight of God’s Law comes into your heart and you consider it in your mind this sacrament of the feast is an enjoyment, consider that if you are in this mind set while reading and walking in these good works that come by God’s Law alone, you have been counted worthy to believe the scripture, that is that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. Rom_5:5
This is a gift to receive this engrafted Word and to couple it with Christ and the life you are called to, it is our sign upon thine hand, and for a remembrance before your eyes, that the YHWH’S law may be in thy mouth (Exo 13:9), to understand that this love is not given to all begs the question as to why did you believe it against the odds of the world?
And so rejoice in tribulations or affliction unto patient endurance and that unto experience which is a proof for our hope.

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About JS Lowther

Foremost I know that I am a chief sinner saved by Grace. I am a servant of YHWH Almighty the one true God Who is Father, Son and Spirit. I believe in God's only begotten and perfect Son Jesu(s) Christ whose redemption power of my soul I have Faith in and testify of. Having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, I wish to no longer spend my time in the lusts of the flesh and of this world, but to promote the Gospel of the Kingdom by means of the knowledge of the New Covenant, a reNewal of the Covenant God made with his people Israel in the blood of Christ (Jer 31:31 and Heb 8:8) whereby He writes His Law upon the Heart and Mind beside the forgiveness of sin and transgressions. I believe Christ Jesus is the incarnate Son of God as the WORD made flesh, and the son of man born of the virgin Mary conceived of the Holy Spirit: I believe Christ Jesus Lived a perfect life for us as a living sacrifice as well as a pattern of the Sanctified newness of life a believer has in Him, I believe Christ Jesus died a cursed death on the Cross for His people of Covenant who are sinners, and I believe in Christ Jesus who Resurrected with power from Death from the grave to Justify the offenders. This is the same Jesus who is indeed the Son of David and king of Israel, who is both LORD and Christ over all the kings and dominions of the earth! In the fullness of time YHWH will regather his people under the Head of the Church, Jesu(s) Christ to affect his will according to the Lord's prayer, Psalm 2, 8 and 110 as well as Genesis 1:26. The focus of my administration of the Gospel is like unto my Lord's who said "I have come not but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.."(Mathew 15:24), and so I have come to my European kinsman according to the flesh. It is my mission to show the Israel of God the Salvation which is taught by Scripture Alone and offered in all ages by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in the work of Christ Alone to the Glory of GOD Alone. As a modern day Puritan separatist it is my goal to purify the church of Christ with Faith heretofore stated. I am studying to show my self approved, if you have any questions just ask!

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