Another Sabbath Rest

Its been awhile since I have posted on this blog so I thought I would write a little to share what the past few weeks have been like. We were blessed with an opportunity to travel to KY to visit some dear friends and their sabbath keeping fellowship. It was a wonderful and encouraging time. I learned so much in visiting them. After a few days in KY we headed down to Jackson, TN where we once again were blessed with a family who paid our way to the Passover event there. It was an AWESOME experience! I can't even put into words what its like to observe the feasts that Jesus Himself observed! Its incredible! The Bible came alive for us. And the Passover is not just some little historical event.. its a remembrance of the Messiah who was the PERFECT Lamb! He gave His life so that we might live! The Passover was followed by a week of Unleavened Bread and I have to admit that being pregnant and nauseated that was a challenge. However, getting rid of sin in our lives is never easy and we must constantly die to self and deny ourselves. This was a wonderful lesson to me. Also we ate unleavened bread each day as a symbol of taking in more of the Messiah each day. Once we accept Him as our Passover Lamb, then we seek to rid the sin our of our life and seek to take in more of Him. We are now counting the days till Pentecost which will be celebrated on June 12. What an awesome year this has been so far. We feel so blessed.

Tonight was another Sabbath, another reminder that one day we will rest for eternity! I cannot wait for that day! We blessed the bread and the juice tonight and prayed together as a family. Daddy played the guitar and we sang one of my favorite songs, Days of Elijah! My favorite part, "Behold He comes! Riding on the clouds, shining like the sun, at the trumpet call. So lift your voice, its the year of Jubilee. Out of Zion's hill Salvation comes!" I am so excited that He is coming back again! He is coming to SAVE us! What a day that will be! I love how Yahweh shows us how to rehearse for His rest in the millennial kingdom! He instituted a seventh day rest every week! I look so forward to that. And He even told us to rest our land in the seventh year! Woven through the pages of scripture are object lessons for us to do that have a spiritual application as well. That is what Sabbath and His feasts are all about! Its incredible!

Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (ULB) is the second spring festival beginning in the fifteenth month of Nisan (Lev 23:6; Ex 12:15-17). When the Isrealites fled from Egypt they took the dough before it had time to leaven. On the next day when they baked it, it was unleavened bread. The fermenting nature of leaven is commonly used as a metaphor for sin. In remembrance of this event, Yahweh commanded His people to eat only pure, unleavened bread for seven days every year.

During this week long feast, nothing with leaven in it may be eaten. Leaven is removed from all houses before the Passover feast. Abstaining from unleavened bread for seven days is symbolic of Yahweh's people separating themselves from sin and becoming a holy (set-apart) people and experiencing a holy walk with Yahweh.

Spring cleaning has its roots in the Passover preparation. Thirty days before the festival, the women of every household began removing all leaven from their homes. According to Lev 13:7, as long as leaven remains in the house one cannot celebrate Passover. It is a spiritual as well as a physical cleansing. If one does not examine their hearts and life for sin and come before Yahweh with a pure heart, then that person cannot celebrate Passover. (1 Cor 5:7-8)

The matzah is a wonderful reminder of the Messiah. The bread with without leaven (sin), striped, pierced and bruised. He was wounded and bruised for our sins. The feast of ULB speaks of sanctification. The Messiah was set apart. His body would not decay in the grave.

The unleavened bread is also a visual lesson instructing us how Yahweh wants us to change through Yahshua (Jesus). When we accept Yahshua as the Passover Lamb who died for our sins, our position before Yahweh changes to sinless (without leaven) because Yahshua took on our sins. We are righteous through Yahshua. As believers in Christ we are to put off the sin nature within us. (Eph 4:22-24)

The symbolism in the feast of ULB is incredible. The Israelites fed on bread without leaven (sin) and believers on Yahshua, the Word, without sin. Unleavened bread is used for consecration and separation and believers in Christ are to be consecrated and separated to live a holy life.

To me these spring feasts represent the process of salvation and sanctification in a believers life. First we accept the Messiah as our Passover Lamb and His blood gets put on the door posts of our heart. Then we seek to turn from our sinful ways and purge the junk out of our lives, this is ULB. And finally we then begin to really study Yahweh's Word and we start in the beginning which is the Torah. From there we seek obey Him by observing all He has written for us (this is Pentecost). I will explain more about the feast of Pentecost in another blog post. But for now I just wanted to show how the spring feasts from Passover to Pentecost show the journey of a Believer's life.

My family and I are so eager to celebrate these feasts this year. What an awesome way to make the Bible come alive and to even further understand the road map that Yahweh has laid out for His children to become set apart for Him!

Passover

Yahweh (God) has given us seven annual feasts, or festivals on which to worship and honor Him. By observing them according to His Word, we can understand His ultimate plan for humanity. Leviticus 23 lists all of Yahweh's commanded festivals in order.

The very first festival is called Passover. It comes from the word "Pesach" which in Hebrew means, "passing over" or "protection". Passover, which falls in early spring in the Holy Land, is a reminder of how Yahweh took the lives of all the firstborn Egyptian males (Ex 12:7, 26-29) but passed over the Israelites' homes because they had placed the blood of a sacrificed lamb on their doorposts. The blood of the lamb foreshadowed the sacrifice of Yahshua (Jesus), which spares mankind from eternal death. In the New Testament, Believers come to understand that Yahshua is the true Passover Lamb (compare Ex 12:21 with 1 Cor 5:7). Yahshua was sacrificed on Passover.

It cannot be overemphasized as to how foundational Passover is in Yahweh's redemption plan. It is on the 14th day of the month of Nisan. Only Nisan can be the first month in Yahweh's calendar. Though other cycles and other aspects of life in Yahweh are important, it is the sacrifice of the Lamb that gives it all meaning. Except for the sacrifice of Passover and the blood on the doorposts, all Israel would have suffered the same fate as the Egyptians. The promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would have then become void. With no Passover sacrifice and with no blood on the doorposts, then no Torah could have been given and no other celebrations would have followed. We would have no hope and remain dead in our sins; however, the command was obeyed and deliverance was accomplished. Indeed, for us, this is most certainly the first of all the months, the first month of the year. This is the real beginning of all spiritual life.

Yahweh instructs parents on this special night of the year, to pass down His story of the Exodus from Egpyt. This night not only looks back on the miraculous story of Yahweh delivering His people, but it also presents the promise of Messiah's death and resurrection. It is an exciting experience centering on a mixture of ritual foods. The matzah (representing Yahshua's sinless body), bitter herbs (representing the bitterness of bondage), wine (representing His blood) and other things provide a lasting link through the march of history.

Scriptures through the Bible on Passover being remembered:
Numbers 9, Deut 16, Joshua 5:10-11, Ezra 6:19-20, 2 Chron 30-32, 2 Kings 23, 2 Chron 35, Ezekiel 45:21-24, Luke 2:41-52, Matthew 21 -28, 1 Cor 5:7 and Acts 12:3