Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzi)

April 22-29, 2016

Scripture references: Exodus 12:15-20

Exodus 12:17, NIV
“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.”

Today, Jewish families all over the world eat only unleavened bread during Passover and the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This feast commemorates the unleavened bread that the Israelites took with them when they were freed from bondage in Egypt. They had to flee so quickly that there was no time to let their bread rise.

During the days before Passover, their homes are cleaned to remove any trace of leaven so as not to cause defilement during the feast. Leaven is often used as a symbol for sin in the Scriptures, so its removal from the home is symbolic of purification from sin.

Matzah, the unleavened bread used during this feast, is pierced and striped — a perfect symbol of Jesus on the tree.

Today in Israel, there is a seven-day holiday for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Deuteronomy 16:3, NIV
“Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste–so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.”