Unleavened bread. This bread, made without yeast, consists of spring water and fine flour, bakedin a very hot over of 500 degrees. After it is baked,it is pierced to allow the steam to vent. The result is a flat cracker-like bread. Biblically speaking, leaven or yeast is often portrayed as a symbol of sin,which makes it easy to see how we can present matzah as a type of Messiah, for the Scripture describes Y'shua as having no sin or guile found in Him. ( Luke 23:4;1 Peter 1:22 ) This Man, Y'shua, was without sin, yet He bore our sins on Calvary, taking upon His body the intense heat of God's chastisement and judgment.Isaiah's weighty words predicted the Messiah's sacrifice for us in the 53rd chapter, and this was fulfilled when He took the fiery heat of judgment in our place, and afterwards, He was pierced with a spear into His body, just as the matzah is pierced. Out of that brutalized body flowed blood and water from His pierced side, ( John 19:34 ),which are the very elements God demands for our purification. In the Old Testament economy, Numbers 19 relates that the remedy for purification for man's defilement was water containing the blood of a sacrificial animal. This was a type and shadow, pointing to the day that Messiah Y'shua would be the Ultimate Sacrifice, and His blood, mixed with water, would be the means of purifying ALL HUMANITY, not only the Jewish nation. Luke wrote in Acts 22nd chapter"..arise, and be baptized, washing away thy sins"..Peter admonished the first Jewish believers to "...repent, be baptized in the Name of Jesus..for the remission of sins..in water, and by virtue of the Name of Jesus..blood! And so we see in the nature of the matzah, the picture of the redemption of Y'shua.
Yachatz - ( Ya' chots )
A container holding 3 separate pieces of matzah, wrapped in one napkin.. During the meal, the yachatz is brought forth, and the second or middle piece of matzah is removed and broken in half. One of the halves is broken into small pieces, to be passed around and eaten at that time, and the other half is wrapped in a napkin and hidden, to be brought back later as dessert. This special dessert matzah is called "afikomen", which means "to come after ", (which is what dessert does..it comes after the meal.). Tradition dictates that the afikomen is hidden, and throughout the meal, the children search for it. It's a festive part of the family traditional meal, and usually, the afikomen is hidden under dad's pillow, making it easy for the children to find it. There is a special gift the father gives to the child who finds the afikomen, but it's withheld until the next time the family gathers, which is 50 days later, on Shavuous( which makes the next gathering even more meaningful for the kids!) After the meal is eaten, the afikomen is unwrapped, broken in small pieces and passed around to be eaten as dessert with the last cup of wine. The Messianic overview of this part of the meal sees the yachatz as a type and shadow of God, Who is the One God He reveals Himself to be in the Jewish statement of faith found in Deut 6.." hear o Israel, the LORD our God is ONE Lord." This is the basic belief of Judaism! . One God, the Eternal Spirit, the Creator and Father of humanity. As the yachatz contains 3 pieces of matzah, in God is contained 3 manifestations of His Spirit: Father, in creation; in flesh(or humanity), in a Son who becomes Messiah; and as the Holy Spirit of regeneration in the hearts and lives of believers. In Micah, ( 5:2), God told the world exactly where He would manifest Himself when He came in flesh; He spoke through Isaiah, ( 9:6 ), is describing What and Whom to look for.. "..a child..a son," Who would be called "'the Everlasting Father".Timothy explains this verse by telling us that God was manifested in the flesh..(3:16). Paul tells His purpose for manifesting Himself in flesh:"..God was IN Christ,(Messiah), ( for the purpose of) reconciling the world unto Himself.."(II Corintians 5:19). And so we see in the Heavenly Yachatz, One God, in 3 manifestations: The Father, in the Son and the Holy Spirit...all contained in One God. The type and shadow becomes clearer as we see the father removing the 2nd piece of matzah, breaking it in half, wrapping it, hiding it, and bringing it back as the afikomen. This 2nd piece is a type of the 2nd manifestation of God when He was in Christ...the Son, Y'shua, Whose body was broken for us; wrapped ( in graves clothes), and hidden in a tomb. After the wraps of death were loosed from Him, to those who saw ,( found),Him, He told them to wait for "the promise of the Father"..a gift! 50 days after Passover, their Father did give those believers a Gift! It was on that day, Shavuous, ( 5o days after Passover), that the Father poured out His Spirit, which IS the gift "of the Father", for John tells us that "God,( the Father ), is Spirit".( 4:24 ) What a GIFT! To have the Eternal God living within our human frames, to lead and guide usl The same Eternal Spirit that dwelt in Y'shua, now in man! Y'shua fulfills the type of the Afikomen, for,indeed, He did come back after-the cross, and from the grave...and, indeed, He will yet be our Afikomen for He said, before He ascended, that He would "come after" to get us so we will escape God's wrath in the last days. 3 pieces of matzah; 3 manifestations..ONE GOD. The Yachatz is real today to those see Y'shua as their Spiritual Afikomen, and the "GIFT" can be experienced just as it was on the original 50th day, for the Greek word for 50 is what the N.T. called "Pentecost"..The church world calls what the believers received that day "the Pentecostal experience", or the infilling of the Holy Spirit, (Ghost). That same "Gift" is for the believer today..all one has to do is find Him, unwrap the mystery of Who He is and receive the gift of Salvation!
Shankbone
On the seder table, resting onthe Passover plate, in a dry and bleached lamb's shankbone, that represents the Pasach ( pay'sock ) lamb. Pasach, meaning "skipper", is used to express the fact that when God saw blood of that lamb applied to the door posts, He "skipped over" or passed over (passover) that house for judgment~ In the Exodus story of Passover, the LORD told Moses to take a lamb on the 10th day of Nisan, observe it for 4 days and on the 14th of Nisan, to kill it if there was no disease or blemish found in it. The Israelites were then to empty the lamb's blood into the bason,(which was a scooped out area in the threshhold on the door), to the 2 side posts and then overhead on the door frame. When the LORD saw the blood in the 4 places, He passed over their homes, reserving judgment. The Pasach lamb was the means of their escape from judgment, and had they not believed Moses to apply the blood, they would have been judged with death, as were the Egyptians. In the Pasach lamb, and its role in the Passover, we see a powerful type and shadow of Y'shua. He was called the Lamb of God by John, because His blood, applied to our "houses",( hearts), protects us from the judgment and wrath of God. The judgment "skips" over us and passes on to those who are not covered with the blood of Jesus, " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." We se it recorded in the Gospels and history that Jesus entered Jerusalem on Nisan 10, and during the next 4 days was questioned by the Pharasees, His disciples, the High Priests, Pilate, and Herod. The Lamb of God was examined, but they could find nothing in Him..even Pilate confessed he found no fault in Him. Y'shua was the perfect Lamb, ready for the sacrifice. On the 14th day of Nissan, at the hour the ritualistic pasach lamb was being offered by the rabbi, Y'shua was sacrificed at Calvary, and blood appeared on His body in 4 places: overhead, where the crown of thorns had been set in His brow; in each hand, where the spikes had been driven; and in His feet. Jesus had described Himself as ..the door.. to the Father, and now, just as the door of the houses in Exodus was covered with the lamb's blood is 4 places, Y'shua, our Door,was covered with His own blood,( being the Lamb of God ), in corresponding places. Was this Man the Messiah? 1500 years before this date, Moses recorded a prophecy the LORD had spoken to him,( Leviticus 17:11 ),wherein the LORD promised.."For the life is in the blood, and I,(God),have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." How could God, being Spirit, give us His blood upon an altar? The only way the Father, being Spirit, could shed blood is when He was manifest in a body ( 1Tim 3:16 ),and that Body hung on the altar of Calvary, bleeding, and reconciling the world to God through that shed blood. God, the Father, stated multiple times in the Scripture, that He, alone, is our Savior;( Isaiah 43:3: "for I am the LORD, thy God, the Holy ONE of Israel, thy Savior"). How many Saviors are there? Only ONE, when God, the Father, was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. "I, even I, am the LORD;( God, the Father speaking here), And beside Me, there is no Savior" And again, " I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your king." (Isaiah 44:14,15). How many Holy Ones are there? 1 Chron 29:10: "...and David said, blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father for ever and ever.."How many Kings? Only the One,... the Eternal Spirit of God, our Creator and Father, who bled through the body He called His Son when that body hung on Calvary! There are no second and thirds in the Godhead, for again He tells" thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel,..I am the first, and I am the last, and beside Me, there is no God."( Isaiah 44:6 ) He is our Father, God, King, Redeemer, and Savior.! Today, on Seder tables all over the world, there sits a dry bone on the Passover plate, a symbol of the deliverance and protection the pasach lamb provided over 3000 years ago in Egypt.Historically, it provided deliverance for the Jews of that day, but it was a type and shadow of what can and does happen in the Spiritual realm today. Through the sacrificial blood of the Lamb,Y'shua, men can have deliverance from their bondage of addiction and habits..perversions..and the iniquities that have separated him from his God can be removed. Man doesn't need to have a "dry bone" religion today, but an experience of a vital Spirit filled life, energized by the living God!
Boiled Eggs
During their bondage in Egypt, the Pharaoh set cruel taskmasters over the Jews, making them build roads and cities . The more they complained, the harder their plight became. They wept in bitterness, but the kings heart became even more hardened to their cries. It was in response to their cries that God provided a savior to lead them out of their bondage:man from their own people, a Jew, whom God raised up to teach them, lead them and be a mediator between the people and God. Moses told them that there would come another day that God would again raise up a Prophet from among their own Who would lead them as well , but when this One came, they rejected Him. In 70 A.D., The Jews wept bitterly as Titus took over their beloved city of Jerusalem. The final takeover came after 5 months of struggle, starvation, torture and the destruction of their Temple. As Jesus had foretold them some 40 years earlier, not one stone was left upon another. ( Matthew 24:2) They had rejected Him when He tried to teach them, for they were looking for a political Messiah...one who would provide freedom from their heavy Roman taxes and oppression..not one who spoke of spiritual values and concept. Now they were weeping and going into exile, as they had been in Egypt so many years before. The boiled eggs are a visual reminder of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart toward them, as well as their Roman oppressors. Dipped into salt water, the eggs then represent the tears shed when they were in bondage to their Egyptian taskmasters, and again, as they fled their beloved Jerusalem.
Karpas - ( car' pes)
Green vegetable; usually parsley, lettuce, endive, etc. Green speaks of life and growth, abundant life and provision that was hoped for in the promised land of Canaan that God would lead them into. It reminded them that out of the death of a winter's grip, there would always be a new season of life resurrected..new bounties..new crops. It speaks, in type, of Resurrection power, seen only in Messiah Y'shua, Who became the firstborn from the dead by the eternal Spirit of God. His resurrection speaks of eternal life for all men "born of the water and Spirit" (John 3:5) God wants us to have life, and that life is by His Spirit, which is why He commanded, ( not suggested!), "be ye filled with the Spirit."
Charoses - (ha row' ses)
a combination of raisins, chopped apples, nuts and wine. This chutney blend is symbolic of the mortar or cement used by the Israelites when building the cities for the Egyptians. Just as mortar is used to adhere bricks in a physical structure, the Holy Spirit is spoken of in 1st Peter 2:5 as the Cohesive Agent that binds together the believers in the Spiritual body, where each member is a lively stone.Through the Spirit, our lives become a blend of holiness, mercy, love and joy, uniting the believers in the household of God.
Morer - (more'a)
Bitter herbs. Usually represented by horseradish on the Passover plate. This ground horseradish represents the bitterness of hardship and anguish that the Israelites felt as slaves. It was during their exile that many Jews assimulated into the Egytian culture and began idol worship,feeling abandonment from God , not understanding that He neither sleeps nor slumbers and is always aware of the plight of His children. Luke 22:42 teaches about a cup of bitterness that Jesus had to experience as He became our Savior, in spite of feeling a sense of abandonment. Not turning away from God, but making self humble and obedient, He drank that cup to purchase our redemption. Philipians 2:5 admonishes us to "..let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus"..humility and submissiveness to the will of God for your life.
Wine
This is the symbol of abundance, since it is the fruit of the harvest of our of labor. There are 4 cups of wine poured during the course of the seder service, and each time it is taken,to recall the abundant promises of the Lord given to the Israelites while in the wilderness. God promised: (1) to bring you out of bondage; (2) to deliver you from your enemy; (3) to redeem you from slavery, and (4) to take you to the land of milk & honey. God's word is yea and amen! What He promises He does! What is Wine? It is the fluid or juice of the grape, pressed out for the benefit of man, to be used in healing, purification, and to elate the spirit! It is a beautiful type of God's Spirit in Y'shua. The Messiah was firstfruit unto the Lord; At Calvary, His blood and body fluid was pressed out for the benefit of humanity, and spilled for us for our physical and emotional healing. Isaiah tells that by His stripes we are healed. By the same Spirit, we can have peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, according to Roman's 14:17... His Spirit can elate us, for Paul tells us "..be not to be drunk on wine, but filled with the Spirit", (Ephesians 5:12). The observers at the Temple on the day of Pentecost thought those that had received the Holy Ghost were tipsy, because they accused them of being drunk. Peter had to correct them in Acts 2, and tell them "these are not drunken as ye suppose, for it is but the 3rd hour of the day", and he went on to tell them that this was that that Joel predicted would happen in the last days. In the last days, "I will pour out my Spirit". Our intoxication should be on God! The four promises given to Israel on a national level were also four promises given to all men on a Spiritual level through the Messiah, for He will bring you out from sin's bondage; deliver you from death, the grave and hell; redeem you by the lamb's blood; and take you to Heaven and give you eternal life.
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Remission of Sin Acts 2:38 The plan of Salvation, preached for the first time by the Apostle Peter: Repent, be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, be filled with the Holy Ghost.
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Judaism Deut 6:4: known the Shema: ?Hear O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD? A belief system of worship and praise to One God, Who revealed Himself, as time unfolded, through His many attributes. He revealed Himself as a Healer, Redeemer, Savior, Banner, Strength, Creator, Glorious, Gracious, Merciful, Just, Light, Love, Perfect and many other attributes, including Father.
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God was Manifested in the Flesh 1 Timothy 3:16: "..God was manifest in flesh,seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory." The Eternal Spirit,(God), our Father, appeared in the form of a human, since Spirit is invisible, in order to walk in the world, He had to manifest Himself as a man. Only as a man could He shed blood, which He said was the ONLY way to make atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11, The LORD speaking, "..for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I,(God), have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." The altar He gave His blood upon, the wood of Calvary, when in the body of Y'shua, God's blood poured out for the atonement of your soul!)
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The Door Y'shua made a reference to His Messiahship by identifying Himself with the only access a man could have to God. He called Himself the ?Door? in John 10:9: ? I am the Door; by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.?
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Shed Blood The entire Jewish sacrificial system was predicated upon the shed blood of a innocent animal. It was a substitution for the guilty, and offered annually on what was called the High Holy Days, Yom Kippur..the days of Atonement. By virtue of the shed blood, man could have atonement with God,( AT-ONE-MENT ). There was no other medium of exchange, according to the Old Testament, ( then or NOW!). Millions of gallons of blood had been shed at the only place allowed..the Temple in Jerusalem.When the Ultimate Sacrifice had been offered, ( Jesus, Y'shua), there was no more need for animal sacrifice. Thousands of Jews realized the Messiah?s atonement as the final sacrifice for their sins, and became believers, while others resisted and continued to offer the annual sacrifices, until God allowed the Temple to be destroyed, eliminating the place and the sacrificial system. In efforts to replace the blood atonement, Rabbis had to invent new ways to compensate, and so the emphasis ws then placed on works, rites, rituals, endless commentaries on the Law, all a fulfillment of Isaiah?s prophecy: ? wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as these people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the PRECEPT OF MEN.? 29:13 By rejecting the plan of God, and devising man made religious precepts, man developed a system that produced self righteousness, not Salvation!. Our righteousness will never be in works, but found only in the Lord. Jeremiah 26:26, ? the Lord is our Righteousness?. These new precepts became the foundation for what is called Rabbinical Judaism and exists today in the practice of traditional rites and rituals and humanistic philosophy, as opposed to the original teaching as handed down by Moses, Biblical Judaism.
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