Nougat 1

You know, God is not accidental. Not at all. God attends to the little details; whether we notice or not. Consider today’s Holy Nougat

““This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord. This is a law for all time … During those seven days, there must be no trace of yeast in your homes. Anyone who eats anything made with yeast during this week will be cut off from the community of Israel. These regulations apply both to the foreigners living among you and to the native-born Israelites.” Exodus‬ ‭12:14, 19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?”…

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.”” Matthew‬ ‭26:17, 26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Firstly, I wish to clarify that the Passover meal is generally shared on the eve of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Scholars argue that the reference to ‘first day’ indicates that it was the day prior, as the context clues of the disciples question indicate.

Having qualified that concern, it may also be helpful to note that with the Passover being on a calendared date, it was not guaranteed that Passover would be on a Friday. (Plus the math strongly suggests otherwise). What we DO know is that there was a Passover followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We also know that Days 1 & 7 were sabbaths (ie days of rest). That being said, we return to the substantive aspect of the nougat.

As an ordinance, the observance of the Passover involved eating yeast-free bread, bitter herbs, roasted lamb. During the 7-day period, no trace of leaven (ie yeast) was to be found in their homes. We might recall Jesus saying in John 6:35 stating that He IS the Bread of Life. With the new covenant instituted at the Second Passover; one can (should) presume that the Bread to which Jesus referred was yeast free.

This is important, as yeast (leaven) is considered a contaminant. Removing traces of leaven is a metaphoric symbol for removing sin (impurities) from our lives. And, as scholars would explain, that is impossible to do on a sustained basis by ourselves. But, if it’s the Lord’s Passover, or if the Lord is our Passover, that is a different matter completely.

Let’s then go back a day or two when we reflected on the Passover being eaten ‘on the run’. We spoke of the Second Passover as anticipation of departure from this existence to the New Promised Land; Heaven.

Should that argument hold true, then we may rightly deduce that the unleavened Bread of Life which is embodied in the New Covenant is our guarantee that in the eating; contamination (sin) is removed from our lives. And since we eagerly (read anxiously) await THAT day when we get to the Promised Land, we try to ensure that we commemorate the Passover as often as we can. That’s what the Body is about (in addition to the substitution as Firstborn for us all).

And we are also assured that if God can cover those finer details, then we ought to trust Jesus with the bigger pictures of our lives. Will we?

Tomorrow … the Blood

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May all we seek be found in Christ