The Appointed Times of YHVH—the Festival of the Unleavened Bread and the Messiah
The Lamb of YHVH and the unleavened bread are not to be forgotten, but to serve as a reminder from generation to generation of what YHVH did for us in Egypt. And if the Festival of the Unleavened Bread is to be remembered throughout the generations, Yeshua the Messiah is also to be remembered as the Lamb of YHVH. This article is a continuation of the articles regarding the Festival of Unleavened Bread Part I and Part II and will focus on how Yeshua the Messiah fulfilled the requirement to be the Unleavened Bread of YHVH, the Bread of affliction, and the Lamb of YHVH.
The need for Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH
The Word of YHVH begins with the creation of the first week in whose pattern we see a shadow picture of how the world will exist in the next 7,000 years. Adam was created on the sixth day, on the eve of the first Sabbath, and the Creator declared that everything was good. Adam and his helper were blessed with everything paradise can provide. In the seventh year of the creation, the deceiver went to the woman and said to her (Gen 3:1), Is it true that Elohim has said, ‘Do not eat of every tree of the garden’? Knowing that Elohim had not forbidden to eat every tree in the garden but only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he adds in his question “every tree.” And the woman said to the serpent, “We are to eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, Elohim has said, ‘Do not eat of it, nor touch it, lest you die.’” (Gen 3:2-3).
And this is the moment when the door was opened for the sin when the woman added to the words of the Creator. However, that was not all with which the serpent would be satisfied. He craftily used the situation when he deceived her. But he had to make sure that not only would the woman be deceived but also the man. Because of the sin the first people committed, the Creator stripped them of all the blessings in the Garden of Eden including the blessing of everlasting life. After the adversary deceived the woman, Elohim made this prophetic statement that commenced the Redemption Plan of YHVH in year eight of the Creation to return the mankind to Him:
And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel. (Gen 3:15)
This declaration of Elohim was not addressed to Adam and Havah, but to the satan that Elohim would do away with sin in a very particular way for the redemption of His creation: the Redemption Plan of YHVH and the restoration of all with the coming of a pre-appointed man in the last days (Act 3:19-21). That man was appointed to be the Messiah, the Anointed One and the Lamb of YHVH, to restore the former glory of all. Maimonides writes,
Moshiach will arise and restore the sovereignty of David to its former glory and power, build the Holy Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel. In his days, all the laws will be restored: we will offer the sacrifices, and enact the sabbatical and jubilee years as commanded by the Torah.
Apostle Yochanan (John) spoke of the same man who would be a central part of YHVH’s Redemption Plan, as it is written in Joh 3:16,
For Elohim so loved the world, that He gave His only brought-forth Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but possess everlasting life.
1941 years after the fall of mankind, a man was born in the righteous line of Shem, Avram whose name YHVH changed to Avraham, the father of multitudes. From his loins the Messiah, the Redeeming Lamb of YHVH, was destined to be born.
To foresee Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH
2041 years after the fall of man, Avraham brought forth his son Yitschak on the day what would become later the Pesach (the Passover), the fourteenth day of the first month. Thirty-seven years later YHVH asked the righteous Avraham to offer his only son Yitzchak, the son of the promise.
Please, take your son, now, your only son Yitschak, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriyah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I command you. (Gen 22:2)
Three days later, Avraham and Yitschak arrived at the mountain of Elohim and Yitschak spoke to his father,
My father! See, the fire and the wood! But where is the lamb for a burnt offering? My son, Elohim does provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. (Gen 22:7-8)
That day was the fourteenth day of the first month which later will become known as the Pesach (the Passover lamb of YHVH). When Avraham was about to commit the act of obedience, his hand was halted, and something happened after that moment. He was turned to time in the future and what he saw was the substitutional lamb that would take the place of the sinful world just as the ram took the place of his only son, Yitschak. Avraham saw the Redeemer in the time to come who would come one day redeem the world. For more insight on what Avraham our father saw, refer to the article To Foresee Yeshua the Messiah. According to the Rabbinical teachings Avraham believed that Elohim would raise his son from the dead.
After a literal translation is made of Gen 22:13, we may see the prophetic picture of good things to come:
And Avraham lifted his eyes and looked and saw afterwards (in a time to come) a Lamb caught in its crown of thorns, offered up for Ascension instead of his son.
And Avraham the father of many nations offered the substitutional lamb of YHVH instead of his son.
We should note that without this literal translation of Gen 22:13, we would not know what Yeshua the Messiah, meant for His day of Passover in Joh 8:56,
Your father Avraham was glad that he should see My day, and he saw it and did rejoice.
And we may recall the very words of Yeshua the Messiah,
For if you believed Mosheh, you would have believed Me, since he wrote about Me. (Joh 5:46)
And,
Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Mosheh and all the Prophets, He was explaining to them in all the Scriptures the matters concerning Himself. (Luk 24:26-27)
Philip found Nethane‘l and said to him, We have found Him whom Mosheh wrote of in the Torah, and the prophets: Yeshua of Natsareth – the son of Yosef. (Joh 1:45)
One thing we should know about the Messiah. If we do not see the matters concerning Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH in the Torah, we have seen too little.
After 2447 years after the fall of mankind and when the 215-year sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt had come to end, YHVH commissioned Mosheh to return to Egypt and lead the people to the Promised Land, as He remembered the Covenant with Avraham, Yitschak, and Ya’akov. On the fourteenth day of the first month of the year the Pesach (the sacrificial lambs) were slaughtered in Egypt and the blood was poured on the door posts. As the fifteenth day began with the setting of the sun, the lambs and unleavened breads were eaten in haste (Exo 12:8-11); at midnight the firstborn of Egypt were slaughtered (Exo 12:29). While yet dark, the Exodus began: Exo 12:31-39. That was the first day of the Unleavened Breads (Exo_12:17), which the Torah states is to be celebrated on the fifteenth day of the month of the Aviv: Lev 23:5-6.
The children of Israel left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the month, on the morrow (Num 33:3), four hundred and thirty years after Avraham came into Kana’an and two hundred and fifteen years after Ya’akov went down to Egypt. Seven days later, that is the seventh day of the Unleavened Bread, the Israelites were led out of Egypt by the strong hand of YHVH as they witnessed the destruction of the Pharaoh and the Egyptian army on the bottom of the Yam Suph (Red Sea). However, as the history showed, it took seven days for YHVH to take Israel out of Egypt, but forty years to take Egypt out of Israel.
The suffering of a righteous man to save the nation is a Jewish concept
Eventually, the new Israel settled in the Promised Land and after the death of Yehoshua lived as it fit. 1509 years went by when the promised Seed of the woman was born. He was the only begotten son of YHVH. His name was Yehoshua (Hebrew for “Yehovah saves”), a righteous man, the only person who ever lived a sinless life. He was to be the substitutional Lamb of YHVH to take away the sin of the world. He was the One prophesied who would crush the adversary’s head, but the adversary would crush His heel first.
Just like the first Pesach slaughtered in Egypt, Yehoshua being a sinless man was the perfect substitute for the redemption of the sins of everyone who would believe in the Anointed One, the Lamb of YHVH. He would suffer exceedingly and die to pay the penalty that otherwise would have been on us. According to the accounts in Mat 27:62, Mar 15:42, Luk 23:54, and Joh 19:31, Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH was crucified and died on the Preparation Day, that is the fourteenth of the month of the Aviv, when the Pesach (Passover) lambs were slaughtered in Yerushalayim. His body was placed in a tomb just before the beginning of the fifteenth at sunset (the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread). Yeshua was three days and three nights in the tomb according to His own prophecy in Mat 12:40 and Luk 11:29-30 and resurrected on the seventeenth day, on the Festival of the First Fruits of the barley harvest. Read more about the Sign of Jonah.
Yeshua being a sinless man was the perfect substitute for the redemption of sin. This principle of a righteous person chosen to save the nation in his merit by taking the punishment on himself is not a foreign idea in the Hebraic mind. On the contrary, Sefer Chasidim recites the suffering of another righteous person in behalf of the sinful nation, that of Ezekiel’s. The reader may want to refer to the articles The Human Messiah for a further understanding of the concept of the suffering righteous man. If Ezekiel as a suffering righteous man took voluntarily the punishment that otherwise would be on Israel, how much more it will be valid for the Messiah of YHVH who had never sinned.
Throughout history Jewry has eagerly awaited the final redemption through the Messiah who is seen in the Rabbinic Literature as the Suffering Messiah, son of Yoseph, and also as the Conquering Messiah, son of David. For more insight on Who is the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53? refer to the parts I and II of this series.
The bitter night of the Lamb encoded in the Bible
Let us return to the moment back in history when Avraham was ready to offer his only son Yitschak. But for more insight on what YHVH asked Avraham for, the reader may refer to the article “Take Your Son, Your Only Son! What did YHVH Ask Avraham for?“
In English we read:
And Avraham took the wood of the ascending offering and laid it on Yitschak his son. And he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. And Yitschak spoke to Avraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “See, the fire and the wood! But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Avraham said, “My son, Elohim does provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” And the two of them went together. And they came to the place which Elohim had commanded him, and Avraham built a slaughter-place there and placed the wood in order. And he bound Yitschak his son and laid him on the slaughter-place, upon the wood. (Gen 22:6-9)
Now, in Hebrew we read:
(Gen 22:6) ויקח אברהם את־עצי העלה וישׂם על־יצחק בנו ויקח בידו את־האשׁ ואת־המאכלת וילכו שׁניהם יחדו׃
(Gen 22:7) ויאמר יצחק אל־אברהם אביו ויאמר אבי ויאמר הנני בני ויאמר הנה האשׁ והעצים ואיה השׂה לעלה׃
(Gen 22:8) ויאמר אברהם אלהים יראה־לו השׂה לעלה בני וילכו שׁניהם יחדו׃
(Gen 22:9) ויבאו אל־המקום אשׁר אמר־לו האלהים ויבן שׁם אברהם את־המזבח ויערך את־העצים ויעקד את־יצחק בנו וישׂם אתו על־המזבח ממעל לעצים׃
1. starting from letter yud in the name יצחק Yitschak which is the second word in v.7 and counting the first letters of every 5th word from left to right spells the Name of YHVH (in green);
2. starting from the last word in v.8 and counting the 1st letters of every 5th word from left to right spells again the Name of YHVH (in blue);
3. starting from yud in the name Yitschak which is the 18th word in v.9 and counting the 1st letters of every 19th word from left to right spells the name of the Messiah of Israel Yeshua (in red);
4. starting from the first letter of 12th word in v.9 and counting every 6th word from left to right spells הלַיְלָה halailah, “the night” (in purple). The word overlaps with the coded word YHVH (in blue) at letter yud in v.8 (blue highlighted in purple);
5. starting with the last letter of the 11th word in v.9 and counting every 6th word (the adjacent words that spell halailah) from left to right spells the word תְּרֻמָה terumah (in light blue) or “an ascending offering”;
6. starting with yud in the 3rd word from the last word in v.7 and counting every 4th letter from right to left overlapping at lamed, spells Yah ha’mar lailah (in maroon) or “the bitter night of YHVH”;
7. in v.8, starting with the underlined yud (the 1st letter of the 4th word), and reading the 1st letters of every 10th word from right to left, spells YHVH (underlined)
8. in v.8, starting with mem in 3rd word and counting from right to left, the last letters of every 10th word spell מֶלַח melach, “salt” (highlighted in orange)
This is phenomenal when we read these dense Bible codes in the context of Gen 22:6-9. In other words YHVH is telling us in a secret prophetic message that the sacrifice of Yitschak is a shadow picture of the good things to come when Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH appeared as an ascending offering in that bitter night of Yehovah (from the 6th to the 9th hour there was gross darkness), when the day became as night. The odds for these eight codes to appear randomly in such a short passage of four verses is merely astronomical. 1908 years later was the fulfillment of the prophecy that the adversary would crush the Messiah’s heel. We read:
And from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land, until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Yeshua cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama ‘azavtani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mat 27:45-46) (See also Psa 22:1)
And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the land, until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the Dwelling Place was torn in two. And crying out with a loud voice, Yeshua said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” And having said this, He breathed His last. And the captain, seeing what took place, praised Elohim, saying, “Truly, this Man was righteous!” (Luk 23:44-47) (See also Psa 31:5)
For everyone shall be seasoned with fire, and every offering shall be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how shall you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace among one another. (Mar 9:49-50)
Please, refer to the articles Astronomical Evidence of Messiah’s Crucifixion and Crucifixion in April 28 AD for the correct chronology of the events regarding the Messiah’s crucifixion.
The Passover Lamb as the central point of the festival
In conclusion, YHVH’s Pesach Yeshua the Messiah (the Passover Lamb of YHVH) is the central point in the Festival of the Unleavened Bread. In His unique mission as a Redeemer, Yeshua is the Bread of Affliction and also the Lamb of YHVH. We should note that Yeshua repeatedly referred to himself as being the “Bread of Life” (Joh 6:33-35, Joh 6:48, Joh 6:51). And Yeshua said to them,
I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall not get hungry at all, and he who believes in Me shall not get thirsty at all. (Joh 6:35)
Once we see Yeshua in this festival we will understand why we are told to have it as a sign between our eyes, as we read:
Seven days you eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a festival to Yehovah. Unleavened bread is to be eaten the seven days, and whatever is leavened is not to be seen with you, and leaven is not to be seen with you within all your border. And you shall inform your son in that day, saying, ‘It is because of what Yehovah did for me when I came up from Egypt.’ And it shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes, that the Torah of Yehovah is to be in your mouth, for with a strong hand Yehovah has brought you out of Egypt. (Exo 13:6-9)
What is being conveyed is the fact that the Festival of the Unleavened Bread is not to be forgotten, but to serve as a reminder from generation to generation of what YHVH did for us in Egypt. And if the Festival of the Unleavened Bread is to be remembered throughout the generations, Yeshua the Messiah is also to be remembered as the Lamb of YHVH. The remembrance in the Hebraic mind is not simply recalling events of the past but reliving the event in the present so that each generation may participate in it. That is, each generation is to teach this meaning to the next generation. Notice the first person in When I came up from Egypt and the plural in YHVH brought you out of Egypt. This can only mean that we were all there in Egypt, native and non-native, and all of us have been delivered from bondage in the modern-day Egypt, because we are all children of our father Avraham, if we stay in the faith.
The Festival of the Unleavened Bread is something that should be between our eyes, that the Torah of Yehovah is to be in our mouth, for with a strong hand Yehovah has brought us out of Egypt. And we have been delivered from “our Egypt” because of the blood of Yeshua the Lamb of YHVH.
This article is a part of series of articles dedicated to the Appointed Times of YHVH and how His Messiah Yeshua has fulfilled them. For the rest of the set-apart days of the Creator, please, visit The Appointed Times of YHVH.
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