Day 1--Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread)

(Today is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the first of the seven yearly sabbaths. I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 04/04/2007.)

Readings:

Vayikra (Leviticus) 22:6-23:44
Bemidbar (Numbers) 28:16-25
Melakim Beit (2 Kings) 23:1-9; 21-25

Vayikra chapter 23 describes the moedim (appointed times) of YHWH. These are not the appointed times of the Jews, but the appointed times of YHWH, as He tells us over and over in His Word.

In addition to the seventh-day weekly Sabbath, there are seven yearly Sabbaths which are also set-apart times when we gather together in His Name. No work is done on these days.

There are also other appointed times during the year which are not Sabbaths.

Lev 23:4 'These are the appointed times of YHWH, set-apart gatherings which you are to proclaim at their appointed times.
Lev 23:5 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings, is the Passover to YHWH.

Passover is a memorial day, a day of remembrance. It is the day upon which the passover lamb is slaughtered. It is the day that Yeshua Messiah was slain at the same time as the passover lambs were being slain. It is a Preparation Day for the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is a High Sabbath.

Lev 23:6 'And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread to YHWH - seven days you eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 'On the first day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.
Lev 23:8 'And you shall bring an offering made by fire to YHWH for seven days. On the seventh day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.' "

The Festival of Unleavened Bread is a seven-day festival. Both the first day and the seventh day of the festival are set-apart days where we gather together in His Name. They are not working days.

For each of the seven days of the festival we eat unleavened bread, all leaven having been removed from our homes prior to the beginning of the festival.

Exo 12:19 'For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra'el, whether sojourner or native of the land.

Physically removing the leaven from our homes reminds us to remove the leaven of sin and false doctrine from our lives as well--

1Co 5:7 Therefore cleanse out the old leaven, so that you are a new lump, as you are unleavened. For also Messiah our Passover was offered for us.
1Co 5:8 So then let us observe the festival, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Also during the Festival of Unleavened Bread is another special day--Yom HaBikkurim (Day of Firstfruits). This is when the firstfruits of the grain harvest (barley) are brought before YHWH. This takes place on the day after the weekly Sabbath during this special week.

Lev 23:9 And YHWH spoke to Mosheh, saying,
Lev 23:10 "Speak to the children of Yisra'el, and you shall say to them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest.
Lev 23:11 'And he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it.

The reason this day is so important is that the grain harvest cannot be eaten until the firstfruits are brought before YHWH.

Lev 23:14 'And you do not eat bread or roasted grain or fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Elohim - a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

Yeshua Messiah was slaughtered on the afternoon of Passover, which was on the fourth day of the week that year. He was put into the grave before sunset, after which began the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, a High Sabbath. He then remained in the grave for three nights and three days, thus fulfilling the sign of Yonah--

Mat 12:39 But He answering, said to them, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Yonah.
Mat 12:40 "For as Yonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of the great fish, so shall the Son of Adam be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

He rose from the grave at the end of the weekly seventh-day Sabbath at sunset, as the Day of Firstfruits began because He was to be the wave-sheaf offering of firstfruits from the dead.

1Co 15:20 But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.

On the Day of Firstfruits is when we begin what is known as counting the Omer. An omer is a unit of measure for the grain offering. Once the firstfruits of the grain harvest is offered, we start counting the days until Shavuot (Festival of Weeks), which is the third High Sabbath of the year.

Lev 23:15 'And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths.
Lev 23:16 'Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to YHWH.

This day is also known as Pentecost because the counting of the Omer is for 50 days, and the High Sabbath is on the fiftieth day.

Act 2:1 And when the Day of the Festival of Weeks had come, they were all with one mind in one place.

Yeshua Messiah's disciples were all gathered together in one place at His appointed time on Pentecost. What if they had not followed YHWH's instructions for His "set-apart gatherings which you are to proclaim at their appointed times"? It was because they were all gathered together in one place at the appointed time that they were able to receive the outpouring of the Ruach HaKodesh (Set-Apart Spirit).

YHWH has appointed His times for us because He wants to pour out His blessings upon us. Why would we want to be anywhere else doing anything else other than what He has spoken?