…for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’
Leviticus 23:6-8
In Israel, the feasts start on the evening of the marked day, until the next evening. Those days are considered Holy Days, and are regarded as Shabbat; all workplaces are closed, and there is no public transportation. The nation rests completely.
During Passover week, which is actually the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread considered the Holy Days, the nation of Israel celebrates as commanded in the Bible: no work, gathering with their family, praying, worshipping, and dedicating these days to the Lord.
Interestingly enough, during the Passover week, it is forbidden by law to sell bread in Israel. Grocery stores only sell Matzah (unleavened bread), and all bread or yeast-containing products are removed from the shelves.
This week of Feast of Unleavened Bread we cannot help but see Yeshua’s prophetic footprint in this feast.
Yeshua is the fulfillment of every biblical feast God commanded us to celebrate. He gave them to us as a foreshadow of His Son, who came to fulfil them all, as part of Him fulfilling the whole Law.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.
Luke 22:7-8
Yeshua didn’t only show us how he celebrated God’s appointed feast, he also showed how he fulfilled them by becoming our redeeming Passover lamb, as well as our Unleavened bread.
Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7
Our Unleavened bread is Yeshua, as He himself said in John 6:35
I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
God’s command to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread still stands in the light of the New Testament, and it is important we don’t neglect that part.
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:8
While the nation of Israel prepared for the Feast of Unleavened Bread by cleaning their homes from any trace of yeast, we as believers have been cleansed by the blood of Yeshua.
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrew 10:10
Beit Hallel is a Messianic Jewish congregation in Ashdod, led by pastor Israel Pochtar, serving holocaust survivors and the poor and needy locally and throughout the nation of Israel, while building up the body of Messiah in the promised land of Israel.