The Ransomed Matzah

I’ve just finished reading a great booklet called “The Holidays Of God: The Spring Feasts” by Kevin Williams, published by the Discovery Series at RBC Ministries, the same people who have been giving us the “Our Daily Bread” series for a good while now.

I decided to write in and requested copies since I thought my wife would enjoy them, as it was also part of the literature in my growing years.

The booklet came with the package and piqued our interests immediately because it talked about the Spring Feasts that the Jews celebrate. It was also very useful because it gave a diagram of the Jewish months alongside our Gregorian calendar months and indicated when the feasts were celebrated.

What caught my attention was the account of the broken matzah eaten during Pesach (the Passover).

Pesach is celebrated in accordance to God’s instructions to Moses after He had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, as recorded in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. It is celebrated on the 14th of Nisan, when observant Jews must consume unleavened bread for seven consecutive days.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

Leviticus 23:5-6

The festival commemorates how God broke the Egyptians with 10 plagues to rescue His own from spiritual darkness and bondage. The tenth plague fell on the 14th of Nisan, when God told Moses to instruct that each Israelite home slaughter a lamb, collect its blood, and set that on the lintels and door posts of their households with a hyssop brush.

On the night itself, God took the lives of the first-born of all beasts and men in Egypt, but He ‘pass(ed) over’ those households that had done exactly what Moses had instructed them to do.

What I also discovered reading the booklet was this amazing piece of information: Nisan was also the chief month of the Egyptian god Amon, represented by a lamb or ram. Amon, whose name meant “Hidden One”, was the king of the Egyptian gods.

Throughout that month, Egyptians were forbidden to touch lambs or rams, much less slaughter and eat them as the Israelites did. On the 15th of Nisan when there is a full moon, the Egyptians believed that Amon reached the apex of his power.

Therefore, when the Israelites slaughtered lambs it was a direct challenge to the Egyptian religion. And where the first-born of all Egyptian beasts and households were taken, the LORD our God showed Himself unto the Egyptians as to who was really the Living God who executes judgment.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.

Exodus 12:12

Since the destruction of the temple by the Romans under General Titus in 70 A.D., exactly just as our Lord Jesus Christ had said it would be, no lamb has been served during the Pesach as no sacrifice could be performed in the absence of an actual temple and authorized priesthood.

Therefore, for more than 2,000 years, unleavened matzah bread took the place of the lamb. Eating the matzah bread would be alike consuming the lamb.

On tables in Jewish homes observing Pesach would be a matzah tosh, or matzah bread bag, where there will be three pieces of matzah bread, each contained in its own pocket.

During Seder, the middle matzah bread is broken in half. One of the halves is wrapped in linen cloth then removed from the table and hidden. The piece wrapped in linen cloth and hidden is now called the Afikomen, a Greek word for “The Coming One”.

It is easy for Christians to see the significance of the three matzah bread — representing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The significance of the piece wrapped in linen cloth and hidden is even more interesting.

During the night, the children will play a game to find the hidden Afikomen, and whoever finds it brings it to the ‘Papa’ who has to then ransom it. Once ransomed, the half-piece is eaten last so that the flavor lingers for the remainder of the meal.

Through Christian eyes, the significance is not lost — the middle piece of matzah bread that’s broken in half, wrapped in linen cloth and hidden to be ransomed is the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For our Lord Jesus Christ was broken — stricken, bruised, smitten — for our iniquities and transgressions (Isaiah 53), and through Him were we ransomed. Therefore, when we share in the bread of communion, we share in Christ who became the matzah bread.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood…

Luke 22:19-20

There’s also great significance between the Kiddush cup used during the Pesach meal and the wine that we share when observing Communion. Due to time constraints, I’ll leave you to read that from the booklet itself.

You can download the PDF of the booklets on the Spring feasts here, and the one on the Autumn (Fall) feasts here.

Shalom Aleichem.

Photograph ‘Passover @ Marilyn’s 2006′ by Josh Bousel.

Illustration of Feasts Calendar taken from “The Holidays of God: Spring Feasts”, Copyright 2000 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Information in the post is based on booklet “”The Holidays of God: Spring Feasts” written by Kevin Williams, Copyright 2000 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI.