FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD
The second miqra on Yahweh’s calendar is inextricably linked with the first—so much so that in common Jewish practice and parlance, they were seen as virtually the same thing. It’s only natural: the lamb that was slain on the afternoon of Passover was eaten after sundown, that is, technically several hours into the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The fire that was kindled during the first miqra was used to roast the lamb on the second. The leaven or yeast that was removed from every Israelite home on Pesach was the very thing characterized and defined Chag Matzah by it’s absence. One day could not be observed without the other, and they were, for all intents and purposes, seen and celebrated as one holiday.

But Yahweh was very careful to separate them in His instructions, to call them by different names and place them on different dates—though the second followed immediately on the heels of the first. It behooves us to ask why. If these days were purely memorial—if they spoke only of the events surrounding the exodus—then there would be no reason to distinguish them. But if they were symbolic of separate concepts, prophetic of different events that would prove crucial to God’s plan for our redemption, then we need to carefully consider what these things might be. We have already observed that the crucifixion of Yahshua took place on Passover in the year 33—His death took place at the very time the paschal lambs were being slain. This of course is a dead giveaway (if you’ll pardon the all-too-literal expression) to Christians that Yahshua’s sacrifice was the very thing the Passover symbolically pointed toward. Indeed, recognition of this fact is what most fundamentally separates Christianity from Judaism. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, then, symbolizes a different facet of Yahweh’s plan. What that is will become apparent in the next few Precepts.

(836) Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the day specified by Yahweh. “On the fifteenth day of this month [the first month, Abib/Nisan] is the feast; unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work.” (Numbers 28:17-18) The day after the Nisan 14 Passover, a seven-day festival (see Precept #838) was to begin. We are reminded that the first day of the mo‘ed was to be a qodesh miqra, a holy convocation, and a Sabbath: no customary work was to be done. (We find this to be literally the case in the crucifixion year, 33 A.D., when Nisan 15 fell on a Saturday, the natural Sabbath.) And indeed, when the sun heralding the Sabbath fell below the horizon, the work of our redemption had been completed. The sacrifice had been made, and the fires of judgment had been kindled. Yahshua had declared, “It is finished.”

Something else had been finished as well. The leaven—all of it—had been removed from the household of faith. That is, our sin (which is what leaven represents) had been physically taken away, if we would but trust in Yahshua’s finished work. These things—the Sabbath and the removal of leaven—are related. With both images, the picture of God’s having already done the work of removing the sin from our lives is the central theme. If we fail to accept that Yahweh has removed our sin, we are faced with the prospect of doing it ourselves (something that has proved impossible for everyone who’s ever tried). And if we refuse to “rest” in Yahshua’s finished work, represented by the Sabbath, we once again will be faced with a never ending and ultimately impossible task: working to achieve reconciliation with God on our own merits.

So whereas Passover explained the means by which Yahweh would redeem us, the Feast of Unleavened Bread reveals that He has actually accomplished His mission—and that we may now rest in the assurance of our salvation: our sin has been removed from our lives. What was Yahshua doing on this day in 33? His body rested from its labors in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. His soul meanwhile, made alive by the Spirit of God, “went and preached to the [antediluvian] spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient,” as we’re informed in I Peter 3:19-20. That is, He did nothing more to secure our release from sin, for everything that could be done, had been done.

By the way, Theophilus asked, "I wonder at what time local, the sun set occurs in Jerusalem on April 3, 33 CE?" Seems to me that because we were within a few weeks of the vernal equinox, the latitude wouldn't matter---it would have been right around six o'clock pm, right?

kp