Day 7--Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread)

(Today is the seventh and final day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it is the second of the seven yearly Sabbaths. I originally wrote and posted this to my previous blog on 04/10/2007.)

Readings:

Debarim (Deuteronomy) 15:19-16:17
Bemidbar (Numbers) 28:19-25
YeshuaYahu (Isaiah) 10:32-12:6

Deu 15:19 "Set apart to YHWH your Elohim all the first-born males that come from your herd and your flock. Do no work with the first-born of your herd, nor shear the first-born of your flock.
Deu 15:20 "You and your household are to eat it before YHWH your Elohim year by year in the place which YHWH chooses.
Deu 15:21 "But when there is any defect in it, lame or blind, or has any evil defect, do not slaughter it to YHWH your Elohim.
Deu 15:22 "Eat it within your gates – the unclean and the clean alike – as the gazelle, and as the deer.
Deu 15:23 "Only, do not eat its blood, pour it on the ground like water.

The first-born males of the herd and flock are to be set apart to YHWH, taken to the temple during the feast and slaughtered and eaten there before YHWH. But if it has any defect, it is to be slaughtered and eaten at home just like any wild game would be, and anyone may eat it, whether they are ritually clean or not (one would need to be ritually clean to enter and eat at the temple). But no matter what we slaughter and eat and no matter where, we are not to eat its blood.

Deu 16:8 "Six days you eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is a closing festival to YHWH your Elohim – you do no work.
Deu 16:9 "Count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
Deu 16:10 "And you shall perform the Festival of Weeks to YHWH your Elohim, according to the voluntary offering from your hand, which you give as YHWH your Elohim blesses you.

Today is the final day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is a High Sabbath, so no work is done on this day.

Today is also the 2nd day of the counting of the omer, which began on the Day of Firstfruits. We will be counting seven weeks, and the following day, the 50th day, will be the Festival of Weeks, the next High Sabbath. In Hebrew, it is called Shavuot (Weeks), and it is also known as Pentecost because it is the 50th day after the Day of Firstfruits.

Isa 11:1 And a Rod shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, and a Sprout from his roots shall bear fruit.
Isa 11:2 The Spirit of YHWH shall rest upon Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHWH,

The Sprout (or Branch) from the root of Yishai (Jesse) is Yeshua. The word translated as Sprout or Branch is the word Netzer, from which the word Nazarene is derived.

Isa 11:11 And it shall be in that day that YHWH sets His hand again a second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Ashshur and from Mitsrayim, from Pathros and from Kush, from Eylam and from Shin'ar, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
Isa 11:12 And He shall raise a banner for the nations, and gather the outcasts of Yisra'el, and assemble the dispersed of Yehudah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa 11:13 And the envy of Ephrayim shall turn aside, and the adversaries of Yehudah be cut off. Ephrayim shall not envy Yehudah, and Yehudah not trouble Ephrayim.

This prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. The remnant will be gathered from the four corners of the earth--the outcasts of Yisra'el and the dispersed of Yehudah. There will no longer be enmity between Ephrayim (believers in Yeshua Messiah) and Yehudah (known today as the Jews). They shall be rejoined into one nation once again.

Isa 12:2 "See, El is my deliverance, I trust and am not afraid. For Yah, YHWH, is my strength and my song; and He has become my deliverance."
Isa 12:3 And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains of deliverance.
Isa 12:4 And in that day you shall say, "Praise YHWH, call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His Name is exalted.
Isa 12:5 "Sing to YHWH, For He has done excellently; this is known in all the earth.
Isa 12:6 "Cry aloud and shout, O inhabitant of Tsiyon, for great is the Set-apart One of Yisra'el in your midst!"

This final day of the Feast is a wonderful time to gather together and sing praises to YHWH for His salvation!