Program Transcript
Episode 34: 7 Feasts of the LORD: Passover and Unleavened Bread
Heather M R Olsen

Hello each of you. Grateful you are here for the Feasts of the LORD series.

As a review, if you read Leviticus 23, you will see a weekly feast, Shabbat or Sabbath as commanded and modeled by God. We are setting that aside briefly as Shabbat will be coming in a separate series. The focus here is on the 7 annual feasts.

Today, we will cover the first two, Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of unleavened bread is listed first in the biblical narrative—specifically Exodus 12. Then Passover followed by Unleavened Bread in Leviticus 23, but as the Bible continues, they are often lumped together, as they are now in modern times, as 8 days of Passover

But before we get started, let’s recite our verse, from

Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

God assigned these rhythms in life—of commemoration and celebration—to remember what He had already done and to delineate what He was planning, and still is planning, to do.

Author Michelle Van Loon regards Passover as the core of Jewish identity.

Author Barney Kasden wrote that, “Passover clearly typifies redemption in a dramatic way. It is a holy day that commemorates God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Yet Pesach also holds a greater prophetic picture of God’s plan for world redemption.”

Keep in mind that the chain of biblical events leading up to Passover went into motion hundreds of years before the Exodus. In Genesis 37, we can read the story about Jacob’s sons selling their then youngest brother, Joseph, into slavery. Due to God’s plan, not only did Joseph end up alive in Egypt, but he eventually became second only to Pharoah in command of Egypt. Some 20 years later, due to famine, Jacob and his family (70 people in all) were reunited with Joseph and all moved to Egypt.

The Exodus took place c. 3500 years ago, back when the latest pyramids were being built.

God had prophesied to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14 “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”

True to God’s word, the Israelites had been slaves for over 400 years. And they came out with great possessions.

Let’s dig into Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread and find Jesus/Yeshua in them.

We’ll begin by reading Leviticus 23:4-8.

“‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, [moedim] the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: ⁵ The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. ⁶ On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. ⁷ On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ⁸ For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’”

Passover occurs in the first month of the Jewish religious calendar as commanded by God in 

Exodus 12:2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.”

and Exodus 13:4 Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to immediately follow, with the Israelites celebrating for 7 more days as we can read in Exodus 34:18, “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you.”

The first month of the religious year, as we read in the Torah, is Aviv, which biblically is later called the month of Nisan as we learned in the Esther story. This may sound confusing as Leviticus clearly says Aviv. So I researched:

Biblically months are numbered, similar to the days of the Jewish week (except day 7, which is Shabbat). 

There are 4 Hebrew named months in the Bible, Aviv and three others at the pre-Babylonian exile time period in the 6^th century BC.

During the Babylonian exile, the Jewish people adopted Babylonian influenced month names, the names that are used later in our Hebrew Bible narratives and also used today. SO, Aviv is of Hebrew origin, and Nisan of Babylonian origin; both the same first month of the year.

Aviv was kept in modern Hebrew as the meaning of the beautiful season of Spring! 🙂

Remember the Jewish calendar is lunar, so the months are not always the same days.

Consequently, though biblically spoken as a month, Aviv is also the beginning of Spring, starting sometime in March–April.

Back to our two Feasts. The Hebrew for these holidays are:

• Pesach פסח
  • “Pesach” (Hebrew = “passing or skipping over”) “Derived from the Hebrew verb פָּסַח (pasach), meaning “to pass over” or “to spare.””
  • OR “Cover over”– cover over is the direct translation which gives a different picture of protection rather than passing over.
  • A Jewish professor in Israel also added that the, “Peh” in Hebrew Pesach translates as “mouth.” For this important holiday, the mouth is used in “the telling” of the story, Hagaddah. Repetition and the telling of the Exodus story is of paramount importance in this narrative as commanded by God.
• Chag HaMatzot חג המאזות
  • Chag is Hebrew for holiday or festival
  • Ha is “the,” 
  • Matzot is the plural form of matza, which is the unleavened bread used in Passover celebrations.

This Pesach or Passover commemorates God rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, Moses as their mediator. 

Per Strong’s concordance, “The Passover is a central event in the Jewish calendar, symbolizing redemption and God’s deliverance.”

It was dictated to the Israelites to be a lasting ordinance, with SHADOWS of THINGS TO COME!

God left the Israelites with a biblical cliffhanger!

Here is a recap of the Exodus, God’s inauguration of the Passover (my revised standard version):

• Exodus 12

The time had come for God to rescue His Chosen People from slavery in Egypt. They had been enslaved for 430 years, as prophesied to Abraham. God chose an 80-year-old man, Moses, of whom God made a prophet. Moses had been raised in Pharaoh’s household for 40 years. (BTW, Read the first few chapters of Exodus, it’s fascinating!) Moses went into exile for 40 years. Then returned to Egypt to help his people.

God sent Moses and his brother, Aaron, to Pharoah to request he release the Israelites to go and worship YHVH. Of course, this Pharoah, who was considered a god in the land of many gods, did not know who this new (to him) and unique monotheistic God was and promptly refused their request. 

God subsequently sent a total of 10 plagues to convince Pharoah of God’s sovereignty, knowing that Pharoah would refuse. He turned the Nile to blood, He sent infestations of frogs, gnats, and flies. God caused all the Egyptians livestock to die [but spared the Israelites livestock]. He sent boils on the Egyptian people, hail on the land of Egypt [again, sparing the land of the Israelites]. He sent locusts, then 3 days of darkness. Pharoah repeatedly refused to let the Israelites go and worship their God, YHVH.

The tenth and final plague was going to be the death of every firstborn in Egypt from slave to royalty, plus animals. Again, the Israelites would be spared; that is, if they did everything God commanded them to do. This summary of 10 plagues were in direct contrast to 10 of the most popular gods of Egypt. 

Our God proved sovereign. Egypt’s gods proved false.

Our God is the God of Power – over the weather, animals, natural elements, and power over life & death.

Now we are caught up to Exodus 12. The Israelites were to start their year in this month, the month of Aviv. Aviv is such a beautiful name!

On the tenth day of this month of Aviv (now called Nisan), the Israelites were to take a perfect year-old lamb [sheep or goat] and keep it for 4 days. On the 14^th day, the lamb was to be slaughtered at twilight. They were then to take some of the blood and with a hyssop paint brush, put blood on the top and sides of their doorposts. The lamb was then to be roasted, not baked, boiled or crock potted, along with bitter herbs. The bread was to be made without any yeast. Everything was to be eaten, and if there were any leftovers, they were to be burned in the fire. The Israelites were to wear their traveling clothes and be ready to go. The Destroyer would see the blood on the doorposts of the Israelites and pass their homes, not to strike their firstborns.

At midnight, all the firstborns in Egypt were killed—every Egyptian household and family—human, animal, Pharoah, prisoner. Pharoah summoned Moses in the night and said, “Up! Leave! Take the flocks and herds. Bless me!” (Exodus 12:31-32). The Israelites had been commanded to ask the Egyptians for plunder, and plunder was given to them. They left in the night, on foot, about 600,000 men plus women and children. The Bible says, “many other people went up with them” (Exodus 12:38). Commentators speculate that there could have been as many as 2,000,000 people, and these “many others” are believed to have been Egyptians who witnessed God’s signs and wonders, and chose to leave Egypt with the Israelites, following the sovereign, One True God, YHVH.

This is the basis for the Passover celebration. We can find a little more detail in Numbers 9 and Deuteronomy 16. I’ll only read the new details, but you can look up the rest.

Numbers. 9:1-14

9 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Desert of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. He said, ² “Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the appointed time. ³ Celebrate it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with all its rules and regulations.”

⁴ So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, ⁵ and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.

Here is a great provision God allowed:

⁶ But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So they came to Moses and Aaron that same day ⁷ and said to Moses, “We have become unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be kept from presenting the Lord’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”

⁸ Moses answered them, “Wait until I find out what the Lord commands concerning you.”

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, ¹¹ but they are to do it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ¹² They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations. ¹³ But if anyone who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, they must be cut off from their people for not presenting the Lord’s offering at the appointed time. They will bear the consequences of their sin.

¹⁴ “‘A foreigner residing among you is also to celebrate the Lord’s Passover in accordance with its rules and regulations. You must have the same regulations for both the foreigner and the native-born.’”

Deuteronomy 16:1-8

16 Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name. ³ Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. ⁴ Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.

⁵ You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you ⁶ except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. ⁷ Roast it and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. ⁸ For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the Lord your God and do no work.

Pesach is the beginning of the religious year for Jewish people. Like in the Church, we begin with Advent.

One reason God commanded these holidays is that one remembers best by doing. It’s a special kind of remembering or learning: kinesthetic learning, which sticks longer. The Israelites, Hebrew people, then Jewish people were and are commanded to remember this miraculous season forever.

Passover is mentioned at least 70 times in my NIV translation. 28 times in the New Testament alone.

Jesus celebrated the Passover as a lasting ordinance for the Jewish people. 

It was during the Passover celebration that Luke 2 records Jesus’ family pilgrimaging to Jerusalem. As they left for home, Mary & Joseph couldn’t find Jesus in their caravan. They turned back to Jerusalem and approximately 5 days later found him in the temple courts, with the teachers, asking questions and listening to them. He amazed everyone with his understanding and answers! One part that is pertinent for us today is in

Luke 2:41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover.

They were an observant Jewish family who did what God had commanded.

The Gospels record some Passover celebrations of Jesus, but the most famous one is what the Church calls the Last Supper; the night Jesus was to be betrayed and arrested. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

Before we get into the Seder, or order of service, let’s examine a unique translation of Passover. 

I have this translation and exegesis in my Hebrew textbook, The Basics of Biblical Hebrew by Gary Practico and Miles Van Pelt. It gives a different view of the word Passover as mentioned above.

The Feast of Cover-Over written by Dr. Meredith G. Kline, and summarized by his son, Jonathan G. Kline, lecturer on Hebrew Bible, Harvard

Commentary on Exodus 12:

There are 2 Hebrew words that mean “to pass over” = עבר and פסח

עבר truly means to “pass over” or to “pass through”- The destroyer passed through the land of Egypt, judging Pharoah and the Egyptians.

HOWEVER, Dr. Kline contests that the verb and translation of “Passover” is not an accurate translation of the verb פסח.

So, Pasach, both in Hebrew and Egyptian, has two roots: one is “to limp” and the other is “to cover or hover.”

Isaiah 31:5

“Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem;
he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.””

That passover is “pasach.” 

There are many metaphors of God as characteristics of birds in the Hebrew Scriptures. I challenge you to take time someday to find them!

128 “bird”, 3 “hover”, 30 “eagle”, 7 “sparrow”

(If you want to format for a word study, this is an easy morning quiet time, looking up references to BIRDS.)

This rendering of Pasach in the Exodus story means to “hover” or “cover,” not TO LIMP.

In Hebrew, the word is more of a “Shielding shelter”. 

Egyptian linguistics confirms this. 

So picture the night of the Exodus. The night of “Passover” in the Hebrew Scriptures.

With this definition, we can picture GOD not PASSING BY or OVER the homes of the Israelites with the blood on their doorposts.

On that dark night of death, we picture GOD, protectively HOVERING OVER His People Israel “as an abiding shielding Presence and shelter” when the Destroyer arrives.

How does this change how you view God? Me, the story was formerly terrifying; now, how tender and caring God is.

Consequently, we can call this the Feast of Cover-Over, which reflects the reality that our God Almighty, El Shaddai, protecting His people Israel from the destroyer—the wrath—by personally covering over each of their homes, putting Himself between them and death as their shielding shelter.

This event, as miraculous as it was, was merely a shadow of what we experience and know today; pointing to the New Covenant.

The LAMB of God put himself between us and God’s WRATH, due to our sin. We cannot approach our Holy God without reconciliation. Jesus freed us as God freed the Israelites from the power of death and the adversary—satan.

Isn’t that a tender and protective translation?

Back to the Exodus:

Passover, if physically possible, was one of three pilgrimage holidays. God told His people, 

Deut. 16:16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.” 

Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are the three pilgrimage holidays (more on the other 2 later).

Let’s walk through the Passover Seder:

And if you ever get an invitation to one, please accept without any questions! They are priceless and meaningful.

Seder means “order” and refers to the Passover order of the service.

Preparation for the Seder, includes the home being cleansed of all chametz, or leavening agents. Biblically it is translated as yeast, which is a fungus. You can find phrases in Merriam-Webster which sum it up:

Yeast is a yellowish surface froth or sediment, largely unicellular and is used especially in the making of alcoholic beverages and as a leaven in baking. This fungus is a changing agent, either fermenting juice into alcohol, or producing CO2 gas that raises bread through fermentation.

In the Bible, chametz is originally translated as “ferment,” but the translation also extends to “being leavened, to be sour.”

Yeast fungus is symbolized as decay which comes from sin, the evil impulse of the heart, causing contamination and swelling. The chemical definition of ferment or yeast is “a substance in a state of putrefaction, the atoms of which are in a continual motion.”

Google dictionary describes yeast as, “A pervasive influence that modifies or transforms something.”

There– Your exhaustive definition of yeast. 

The deep cleaning of the home, then, is literal and symbolic as we are to cleanse our hearts as well.

So, God put this yeast into an object lesson:

• Ex. 12:15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

• Deuteronomy 16:4 Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. 

There are NT references to yeast as well, as Jesus warned to “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Mt. 16, Mark 8, and Luke 12). 

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians in,

1 Corinthians 5:6-7 

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ 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. ⁸ 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.

We are to be yeast free. Unleavened. No decay. No sin. There is only one way we can be yeast free. Stick with me.

But back to the preparation and spring cleaning, what would the Jewish households do with the leaven? Burn, sell, give to Gentiles, donate. But God told them to get it out of their homes.

God told the Israelites to commemorate with three foods: roasted lamb, unleavened bread (now called matza), as they were to leave in haste, & bitter herbs. Later in Rabbinic Judaism, other commemorative elements were added: a roasted egg, horseradish, a lamb shank, salt water, greens, charoset (a walnut/honey/apple mixture). Several of these items are arranged on a Passover plate, a “K’arah,”l and placed in the middle of the dinner table.

Kasden shares that biblical celebrations feature special foods, reminding us that theology is not only taught, but eaten. 

Van Loon writes that in these moedim, one uses all 5 senses: hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, seeing.

These statements remind me of the verse in Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Moving on in the Seder, there are 4 cups of wine.

There is an order of service, entitled, “Haggadah” or “the telling.” This “telling” takes one through the commemoration of the meal. There are strictly Jewish Haggadah and Messianic Haggadah, which shine a light on Yeshua’s presence in the meal. 

Another rabbinic yet prophetic addition is the matzah pouch. It has three compartments, and one sheet of matzah is placed in each section. Three. 

Back to the Seder:

We’ve covered the preparation: removing the chametz and cleaning. We’ve assembled the ka’arah (Passover plate), and set the wine on the table, with cups and Haggadah.

The Mother lights the candles and her prayer ushers in the holiday, similar to her role in the Shabbat meal. 

Then the Father lifts the first cup of wine, the Cup of Sanctification, sanctification meaning becoming holy, and recites the “Prayer of Sanctification,” or “kiddush.” 

Next is the ceremonial act of hand washing—a symbol of purification. A water basin and towel are passed around as each celebrant dips their hands and wipes them.

After the hand washing, a green vegetable, often parsley, is dipped in salt water. This is a reminder of the season of Spring, Aviv, and the salt water commemorates the tears and suffering of the escaping slaves.

Then the leader removes the middle matzah from the three sectioned pouch and breaks it. Half is placed back in the middle section; half is wrapped in a white napkin and hidden. This hidden piece will be searched for later by the children. 

This is followed by the youngest child asking the four questions, such as “Why do we celebrate this day?” Fulfilling, 

Exodus 12:26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’

The second cup of wine is poured, The Cup of Deliverance, entitled Beginnings, or in Hebrew, “B’reshit.” The book of Genesis begins with “B’reshit,” as does the Gospel of John. 

“In the beginning…”

This “B’reshit” is the beginning of the Exodus narrative. 

Part way through this service, the Hallel הלל, Hebrew for “praise,” in English called hymns of praise, are recited. In fact, Hallelujah is Hebrew for “Praise God, or YHVH”. These Hallel are recorded in Psalms 113-118.

At this point in the service, the top matzah and the broken one are taken out, passed around for each celebrant to take a piece and make a matzah sandwich made of the charoset—the sweet honey/apple/cinnamon concoction & horseradish. 

God’s redemption is sweet, slavery is bitter.

After the matzah sandwich, the meal takes place. Current foods include kugel, brisket, and roasted chicken. During Jesus’ time, it would have consisted of the biblical mandates, lamb, matzah, and bitter herbs.

The “dessert” is the kiddos after the meal searching for the Afikomen, the hidden matzah half. Traditionally there is a prize!

Next, the 3rd cup of wine, the Cup of Redemption is poured and sipped. This one in the messianic sense is monumental.

• Lk. 22:20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.^” 

The 4th cup of wine is the Cup of Acceptance or Praise (Hallel)

The meal ends with singing of hymns. Jesus’ Passover was no exception.

• Mt. 26:30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 

This formal service closed with a hymn, as Jesus and His followers did. 

Within Psalm 118, the final Psalm of Passover, the disciples and Jesus would have sung Scripture such as,

²²The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
²³ the Lord has done this,
    and it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ The Lord has done it this very day;
    let us rejoice today and be glad.

²⁵ Lord, save us!

    Lord, grant us success!

²⁶ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
    From the house of the Lord we bless you.
²⁷ The Lord is God,
    and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
    up to the horns of the altar.

Truly prophetic.

And so ends the Seder. With the words, “Next year in Jerusalem!”

One of the more meaningful parts of the Seder for me is the 15 stanza, “Dayenu” song. It is sung after the Exodus story and would not have been as old as Jesus’ Passover, but it is still very meaningful. One author calls it a “reboot.”

“Dayenu” דַּיֵּנוּ in Hebrew means, “enough to us” (direct translation), or “it would have been enough.”

Here are a few stanzas:

1. If He had brought us out of Egypt (Dayenu)
2. If He had executed justice upon the Egyptians (Dayenu)
3. If He had executed justice upon their gods (Dayenu)
4. If He had slain their first-born (Dayenu)
5. If He had given to us their wealth (Dayenu).

You get the picture. If God had only done __________, it would have been enough.

I have had friends in bible studies I’ve led write their own stanzas for Dayenu. It takes bravery because you are admitting that you have way more than you need. 

BUT it also reminds us of all of what we have.

For example:

If He had given me a one-bedroom house. Dayenu.

If He had given me only one Bible. Dayenu.

If He had fed me one meal a day. Dayenu.

You get the picture.

If you are brave, write some of your own.

This will reboot your gratitude, and help you inventory the magnitude of God’s provision.

Yeshua’s Passover:

Luke 22:14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

He was the leader in His Passover celebration with the disciples that fateful Thursday as He recited the kiddush, the blessing.

Let’s unpack some KEY terms and scripture in the Passover celebration with Messianic meaning:

WATER: 

Water is the cleansing agent, the symbol of becoming clean. We can never get fully clean here on earth. Only One can institute that inside and out clean—a cleansing from our sin. Rosenthal and Howard wrote that it was probably this part in the hand washing section of the Seder that Jesus decided to teach a kinesthetic lesson to the disciples.

Jesus took off his outer clothing and knelt, the posture of the lowest of servants. He went a step further and; rather than helping them wash their hands, he modeled humility and surrender, extending the washing to their sweaty, sandy feet. This example of humility and servitude reminds us of the lowest we need to go to serve others.

We can read about it in

John 13:4-5

⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

The LAMB: 

The lamb was to be perfect, blemish free. Young; one year old. No broken bones. This Passover lamb’s blood was the only thing standing between the Israelites firstborn and the Destroyer. This lamb’s death provided protection and redemption for the Israelites. In the 1^st century, the lamb on preparation day was slaughtered in the afternoon for the Passover celebration, as opposed to sundown for regular sacrifices. 

The slaughter began at 3:00 pm to be exact.

Jesus was the final sacrificial lamb. Perfect. Blemish free. His death provides protection and redemption for all who believe in His Name, saving us all from eternal separation from God. We can approach God now, with no curtain to divide us.

Jesus died at 3:00 pm. Like the Passover lambs. After 3 hours of darkness over all the land. He is our eternal cover over, protecting us from eternal death.

LEAVEN: 

All but one biblical reference to leaven equates it with sin and decay. This yeasty fermentation process produces decay as a fungus. At the Exodus and forever celebrating the Passover, the Israelites were charged to make their bread without yeast, to be ready to make and eat it quickly.

The symbolism of yeast in the Passover narrative is a reminder that a little yeast can corrupt the entire batch. 

1 Cor. 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

BODY: 

Jesus’ body was perfect. His innocent death covered us over from God’s wrath for our sin. Yet He gave His body, broken for us. Believers in Yeshua celebrate this often and reverently in the Lord’s Supper.

Matthew 26:26

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

MATZA: 

Matza is a flat—no yeast or leaven—striped, pierced, and broken square cracker.

There is prophetic meaning in this simple matza.

Jesus was striped by the beatings and flogging.

His hands and feet were pierced with nails, as he was hung to the cross.

His body and spirit were broken as God turned away and most followers deserted him. 

In the Gospels, the matza sandwich, horseradish and charoset, is where Jesus would have said,

John 13:26-27 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 

In the Passover seder, the three matzot are placed in a pouch. Though in Jewish Pesach Seders, the three can mean the patriarchs, a fuller explanation points to the Trinity. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And the Son, the middle matzah, is broken.

One half is wrapped in a napkin, entombed, and hidden… only to be found shortly after.

This middle-broken piece is called the Afikomen.

Afikomen is not a Hebrew word, but rather Greek, which was the common language of 1st century Judea. It is actually the only Greek word in the Seder and it means, “I came” or “He came.”

Repeatedly in the Gospels, Jesus is referred to as the “Bread of Life,” or the “Living Bread.”

BLOOD: 

The blood on the doorposts of the Israelite slaves saved them. They were covered over by God and protected from the Destroyer. 

Now, as believers, we are covered with the Lamb’s blood, to be saved from eternal separation from God.

Jesus’ blood was poured out for us as we commemorate Him every time we celebrate communion.

The blood is equated with Jesus’ blood. He shared the third cup with his disciples, the Cup of Redemption, his selfless act of covering over humanity for their sins.

Following, Jesus did not drink the fourth cup of wine in the Passover celebration, the Cup of Acceptance or Praise.

Matthew 26:29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

NEW COVENANT: 

Jesus inaugurated this New Covenant at the Last Supper, his Passover celebration with the disciples. He broke the bread, his body, given for them and now for us. 

He poured out his blood, on the cross and in the wine, which was shed for them and us. 

Believers are to celebrate this remembrance often and solemnly, never forgetting what it took to obtain it. 

Remember, Jesus was God’s Bekhor… בכר… His firstborn. God took this precious firstborn, biblically dedicated back to Himself, and allowed the worst to happen, so you and I can experience the best.

The Israelites and up to the 1^st century Jewish people had to obey all of these mandates without understanding why. 

God took centuries to show them why.

Chag Hamatzot:

It is linked with Pesach, and even now as 8 days of Passover; the Feast of Unleavened Bread, God’s second moed. This holiday emphasizes the lack of leaven as commanded by God. The command was given in Exodus 12, with two sabbaths, days 1 & 7. There was to be no regular work.

Luke 22 references this holiday twice, verses 1 & 7. 

The Messianic meaning of Chag HaMatzot emphasizes Jesus in the tomb where there was no decay.

Messianic Prophecy is found in 

Psalm 16:9-11

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

This is quoted by the Apostle Peter, as he gave the greatest sermon message in history:

Acts 2:24, 31-32

²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 

³¹ Seeing what was to come, [King David] spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. ³² God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

Thank you to Jesus, Yeshua, “God saves” or “Salvation,” we are not slaves to sin anymore.

At Jesus’ death, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn from top to bottom. Soon after, in 70 AD, the temple was destroyed, ending all God ordained animal sacrifices. We as believers can now approach the Holy God. And the final Lamb has been sacrificed, providing access to God.

Jesus’ death was a curse. 

He was buried and his body was honored by God, using Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to brave Pontious Pilate and retrieve Jesus’ body before sundown. Due to rabbinic purity laws, by burying Jesus, these two followers could not become ritually clean as they touched a dead body (Numbers 5:2) and forewent their Passover celebration. Yet it was worth it.

Jesus was buried in a borrowed unused tomb. And though dead, Jesus’ body did not decay, fulfilling prophecy.

Psalm 16:10

For three days in midrashic tradition (Judaism), the soul hovers over the body. It is not until after the three days that the soul is completely released. God made sure this tradition was debunked in Jesus’ resurrection. 

Regarding the Israelites and regarding all of us: There was and is no deliverance without the Lamb.

• Jesus FULFILLED the Passover Feast. His perfect Death.
• Jesus FULFILLED the Feast of Unleavened Bread. His perfect, sinless body did not decay.

Van Loon reminds us that, “the Jewish Jesus was offering His followers not an escape plan from their Jewishness but a completion and deepening of it.”

She continues that “Jesus upheld the message and meaning of the seder as he applied its story of deliverance to Himself.”

Jesus is our “Cover-over” against God’s wrath.

With this cover over, we have the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh—the Holy Spirit, this presence who hovered over the waters at the beginning of time, and abided with God’s people Israel as He abides with His children now: you and I who believe. 

Jesus’ fingerprints are all over this seder. 

Let me close with Isaiah 53. Written hundreds of years before Jesus broke into history.

53 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Thank you, Yeshua.

Feast one: Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 

Feast two: His body lay undecaying for three days.

NEXT in the series: Feast three: First Fruits!

Shalom friends.

**Heather!

©2025 Heather M R Olsen, Illumination: Hebrew Insights. All rights reserved. 

---