CONNECTING OUR HEARTS TO HIS ~ Words of Affirmation for our Rehearsals by Tonya C.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

I had a "connect the dots moment" that I wanted to share, particularly because I see so many preparing for Unleavened Bread with anxiety as they search their pantries for crackers and yeast, myself included. 

A while back, Matthew did a teaching about Yahusha being the leaven, and although everything made sense to me, I still had a sense of not fully digesting what this meant. I understood the 2 types of leaven and how they were not really the same, but I was still bothered by how our Messiah could be represented by something that also symbolizes sin and death? Then I was thinking of Yahusha handing Judas the leavened bread as a way to remove the leaven. Then I realized the connection. We have to give ALL of our leaven to Yahusha, or we will perish. He became our sin (leaven) to wash us clean, but we cannot hang on to any part of it. We have to give all of it to Him and not keep any hidden away, not dealt with, or forgotten. This is what the verse about anyone eating leaven being cut off from Israel is really about; not the crumbs in our pantries (Exodus 12:15-20). So, as we look forward to this Feast, we can't get stuck on the physical leaven that represents something so much larger spiritually. If we do, we are straining a gnat and swallowing a camel, just as the Pharisees did.

Blue Segment of Scripture for emphasis added by Libby

Leaven of His Kingdom of Righteousness to Rejoice In:

Mat 13:33  Another parable He spoke to them, “The reign of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until all was leavened.” 

Leaven of the Pharisees to Beware of:

Mat 16:5  And His taught ones came to the other side, and had forgotten to take bread. 

Mat 16:6  And יהושע said to them, “Mind! And beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” 

Mat 16:7  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “Because we brought no bread!” 

Mat 16:8  But יהושע, aware of this, said to them, “O you of little belief, why do you reason among yourselves because you brought no bread? 

Mat 16:9  “Do you still not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you picked up? 

Mat 16:10  “Or the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you picked up? 

Mat 16:11  “How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?” 

Mat 16:12  Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. 

This is also a reminder not to put down those that don't understand the Feasts, because the Feasts are a rehearsal and a teaching tool to help us understand His ways, but they may not be the only way He is using to gather His sheep. The requirement of salvation is that the blood of Yahusha is on our "doorposts" spirituality, and that our leaven has been given to Him. It is not of our works, whether we keep the Feasts perfectly or not, but of His sacrifice and Redemption over our lives. Keeping the Feasts to the best of our knowledge demonstrates our love for Him, allows us to be a better Bride, and sets us apart to draw in more of the flock. These are all great things, but we must hand over our Salvation completely to Him, and not in the faith of how well we scrub our pantries. We cannot hold onto any of the responsibility of what works we are doing to gain salvation, because we will always fall short. We have to accept His sacrifice for us, and hand over the rest to Him. 

I hope this will help those struggling with getting everything "done in time" and those coming into the Feasts completely overwhelmed in how to keep them. It still amazes me how we can understand so many of the pieces, but they don't connect until they finally do. Once they connect, they are so obvious that we don’t understand how we missed it.

Blessings in Yahusha,

Tonya C.