The Feast of Unleavened Bread is one that most Christians have never heard.  It is after Passover on the Jewish calendar and is considered a Holy Day, feast, or festival just like Passover.  Jeff was going to learn more about this day from the angel – because he too had never heard of this day.

It is a shame how Jewish holidays have become divorced from Christianity.  Even the holiest days such as Yom Kippur are not even recognized by most Christians.  And yet it was one of those days that God’s chosen people were commanded to remember in perpetuity.

Many Christians are not familiar with the significance of “unleavened” bread and how it relates to sinfulness.

Jeff was about to learn about this – and much more.

Feast of Unleavened Bread

Jeff woke up from his dream in a cold sweat.  It was like the time when his father – trying to show him there was no danger in the dark cellar – forced Jeff into the cellar darkness with only a flashlight.  He was not permitted to come out of the cellar until his “irrational” fear was conquered.  While his father undoubtedly meant well with this psychological prescription for handling his phobia of the dark, it only strengthened Jeff’s irrational terror that he would hold to this day.

While in that cellar, Jeff could remember being frozen with fear, wanting to run screaming out of that dark space.  He had seen television episodes where an evil demon would grab their unsuspecting prey in the darkness.

His heart was racing out of his throat, his hands were trembling, and his mind inventing all forms of fanciful horror that would be the source of nightmares for weeks to come; this was the kind of fear Jeff experienced in the final moments of his dream.

His father undoubtedly meant well, forcing Jeff into “confronting his fears” and admonishing him not be “be a baby.”  Fear of the dark and closed spaces are irrational fears that can not be treated rationally.  Jeff would be afraid of closed spaces for the rest of his life from these experiences.

It was in those final moments that Jeff was granted a brief vision of what the Passover is all about, what that ancient Jewish ceremony which began many centuries before Christ – but had everything to do with Christ.  Rather than a mere young lamb being slaughtered for the sins of the family, Jeff had a brief glimpse of Christ hanging on the cross.  It was ugly; death always is.

The Jews were not permitted to whip a prisoner more than forty times;[1] in practicality, they were only whipped thirty-nine times in case of a miscount.  The Jewish authorities rarely took joy in the whipping of criminals.  It was a sad occasion because they were whipping one of their own.

The Roman soldier was under no such restrictions; he would whip his unfortunate prisoner until his arm got tired or until the whip broke – or the prisoner simply died.  Romans hated the Jews; they hated being stationed in the Roman outback province of Judaea, and they hated the self-righteous Jews who treated them like lepers and hated them in return.

Roman soldiers knew if given a chance, many of these Jews would gladly slit their necks even if it meant their own deaths.  The hatred Jews felt toward the occupying Romans was mutual. If this Jesus was a leader of those accursed Jews, the Roman soldiers would gleefully whip him until nearly dead; after all, there could not be a crucifixion if the prisoner actually died during their whipping.

Soldier after soldier eagerly took their turn, each trying to outdo the former with increasing ferocity and violence.  Christ’s body was not even recognizable to his mother, as most of his skin was hanging in long strips from his tortured body.   His bruised muscle and white bone and torn tendons could be glimpsed under the blood oozing from every tear.  He was a flogged mess, dripping a bloody trail from his flogging station to his execution site outside the Jerusalem city gates.

Christ’s clothing was removed by the soldiers and split among them.  He would be crucified naked further adding to his humiliation and shame.  Such was the custom of the Romans to bring a population into submission.

It would not take him long to die.

Some men hung on a cross for days, slowly dying in agony from dehydration, asphyxiation, and exposure.  Christ took only a few hours to die, his young body quickly succumbing after being destroyed by the vengeful Roman soldiers and then further stressed by being nailed to a wooden cross.  It was that view – for only a few seconds but up close – that would haunt Jeff for the rest of his brief life.  In this vision, Jeff’s face was only a few inches away from the Messiah; Jeff could see the long thorns from his mocking crown multiple inches under his skin.

He could smell the stench from other prisoners who were decomposing on their crosses, and rotting corpses having fallen to the ground.  Wild dogs and ravenous buzzards were everywhere, feasting on the death that for them meant survival. Finally, after their bones were finally picked clean by various scavengers, their remains were tossed into the garbage heap surrounding Jerusalem.

It was a gruesome, overwhelming horrific site; he could now finally appreciate the personal sacrifice this innocent, young Messiah made to voluntarily accept this punishment for others – for him.

Jeff finally came to his senses and reflexively did what came naturally; reached for a bottle of whiskey to drown out these images.  The images were deeply engraved into his consciousness so it took a lot of whiskey to drown them out.  Of course, this self-induced anesthesia was only temporary and Jeff would have recall in complete detail what the angel showed him that night.

But what does it all mean?

Could this not have been a fervent trick of his miscreant imagination forcing upon his consciousness an image to further expand his guilt?  Or was this dream merely a product of his drug and alcohol bathed brain rebelling with agonizing clarity against its mistreatment for so many years?

He tried to call Shari, his erstwhile girlfriend, but she had left him a few days ago, leaving no contact information.  He tried calling a few of his friends, but they showed no interest in Freudian dream interpretation – or quite frankly, in helping him in any way.

Most of his so-called friends were only interested in being with him when they could get a drink, stock market tip, or get hooked up with some dim-witted girl – hopefully pretty – with whom to have a brief no-questions-asked hookup.

He thought about taking some pills, maybe some Oxycontins – so dull his sensorium but decided against that move for fear of inducing another dream with another angelic encounter.

Whatever this angel was, it was definitely getting old.

But unfortunately for Jeff, the human body needs – no, demands sleep.  Even with uppers galore, the brain will eventually force its will upon the body and induce sleep; Jeff would soon be learning this physiologic certitude.  Of course, while inebriated Jeff could not do independent research to verify what he was being taught by the angel.  Also, to be frank, Jeff preferred not to verify any of the facts presented to him; after all, if they checked out, he would be forced to accept the inevitable conclusion that his entire experience with the angel was real and not some fevered invention of his inebriated brain.

And if the facts could be verified, then another conclusion was also forced upon him; that his death was imminent.  Jeff was certainly not ready to leave this world, there was so much more he wanted to accomplish here; many more worlds to conquer; he was simply having too much fun!  But he also remembered what the angel told him; “having fun” was not his purpose here on earth.  Of course, everybody needed diversion and “downtime.”  But that is now why we are here.

So Jeff went out of his house to seek some diversion, especially from this annoying angel who seemed to always dwell on the negative.  How could he have fun when burdened by these visions of death, destruction, and disease?

He took a taxi and went out to a nightclub; surely, he could find some young woman – or maybe man – to spend the night with – to keep him awake.  It was a new place in town; Tony’s.  Tony was an ex-fighter who took his winnings and invested them – with a little bit of encouragement and help from Jeff – into a nightclub.  Surely, he could get some “action” there.

After going through the front door of his uptown establishment, Jeff cast his eyes around the dimly lit room.  He found some young men grouped together in a back corner of the dining room clearly enjoying each other.  He thought he might recognize one of the men as a client of his, so Jeff decided to see if he could get some action.  After a brief introduction, he sat down with the youngest, most handsome looking guy who looked about twenty, and before too long, they were involved physically.  Since they were seated in a discrete isolated location, no one seemed bothered by the loud grunts and groans which ensued.

It was in the midst of this physical activity that Jeff didn’t notice one of his new acquaintances slipping a liquid into his vodka.  Gamma-hydroxybutyrate is known otherwise as the “date rape drug” and takes effect quite rapidly.  It is colorless and tasteless;[2] and Jeff succumbed to its soporific effects quickly.  It was not sex the lustful young men were wanted from their new boyfriend – they got enough of that from each other.  They merely wanted his wallet, credit cards, cash, rings, watch, and anything else valuable they might peel from his unconscious yielding body.  Jeff was left in his rather exposed, naked state, slumped over a table, in a drug-induced slumber.

Jeff then recognized the room getting brighter – intensely brighter.  While initially annoyed at bright lights in a bar, he then realized he was asleep and in front of his angel friend once more.  He found this rather strange, as his last thoughts were those of sexually molesting his young male friend, hardly appropriate for his angelic acquaintance.

The Angel at the Nightclub

“Why are you here angel?” Jeff inquired with an annoyed voice.  “I was having fun with my friends and I resent your intrusion!”

“Son of Earth, it seems as those friends have drugged you and stole all your possessions, leaving you literally exposed for all the world to see in a bar.  Soon, the bartender will find your naked body and call the police who will take you to a hospital emergency room where your predicament will become a topic of humorous discussion among the medical staff for several months.  They will eventually stop discussing your current situation when your lifeless body is brought in as a DOA.”

“OK, angel, you once again have my full attention.  Look, I’m sorry I accused you of interfering in my personal affairs – such as they are, and I deserved that little reprimand.  Are you here again for another forced lesson; another lesson into ancient history that only interests religious fanatics?”

“Son of Earth, you are this evening to hear more about what we were discussing previously.  As you saw in your last dream, Christ was sacrificed for humanity during the Passover.  While the Passover lambs were being slain in the Jewish Temple for the Passover feast, Christ was being slain on the cross. You remember how I explained to you that the Passover is the first of the great feasts?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good.  The second one we will discuss is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.”

Feast of Unleavened Bread

“What the heck is that?  I’ve never even heard of it, angel.”

“I am not surprised by your ignorance.  Most of Christianity has never heard of this High Feast in Judaism because as we have discussed previously, Christianity is ignorant of many of these important things because it is ignorant of its religious history.”

“Ok, so what?”

“God told Israel,

Then on the fifteenth day of the same month, there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.”[3]

The angel continued.  “Additionally, we read in Exodus,

You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, fr on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.  Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses, for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land.  You hall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings, you shall eat unleavened bread.”[4]

“OK, whatever angel.  What does all of that have to do with me?”

“I will get to this, Son of Earth.  First, let me talk to you about the custom of Bedikat Chametz.”

“What the heck is that?”

“Son of Earth, this is a custom that is very familiar to many Jewish families throughout the world – even today.  What it tries to do is to teach the children about the Feast in a way that will be fun for them, so they will remember the Feast and pass it down to their children in turn.”

“The game starts with candles, a wooden spoon, a feather, leavened bread crumbs, and a furnace of fire.

The father of the house gives each of the children a candle, and they go through the house looking for crumbs of leavened bread that have been placed in various locations throughout the house.  When the children find a crumb of bread, they call out to their father who comes and gently brushes the crumb with a feather onto a wooden spoon.  He then carries the wooden spoon outside to a furnace to be burned.”

“Why would a family do all of this – it seems like such a strange game!”

“The entire purpose of this game is to teach the children about their relationship with God.  First, recognize that in the Old Testament, leaven – or yeast, represents sin.  In the baking of bread, yeast is mixed throughout the bread to make it rise; similarly, sin affects the entire person.  The picture of this game is that when we call to our Heavenly Father, he will gently take away our sin.  The wooden spoon is symbolic of the wooden cross of Christ.  We read in the New Testament,

Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.  For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.  Let us, therefore, celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.[5]

“The idea is that we should try to live the ideal of a sin-free life to remain in fellowship or in communication with God.”

“Oh come on, angel.  Really!  Live a sin-free life!  First, how boring is that!  One of my friends noted that anything fun is either immoral, unlawful, or fattening! Why should we avoid the fun of life when we only have one?”

“I would remind you, Son of Earth, of your current situation.  You are lying naked in the back of a bar asleep under the effects of a drug your “friends” slipped into your alcoholic drink. Also, you have been stripped naked of anything valuable to you, including your credit cards – which your friends are now using at a jewelry store.   They have already been to a pawn shop with your watches, rings.”

“OK, I get the point.  Sometimes, things can get out of hand.  But isn’t it boring to “be good?”  As they say, ‘only the good die young!’”

“Son of Earth, if you want happiness, peace, contentment, and joy, you will find none of these rebelling against God.  You may find excitement, but not long-term happiness.”

“I don’t know, Angel.  I mean, you’ve never really experienced the excitement of living my kind of life; how would you know?”

“Because, Son of Earth, as an Angel I was creating long before the foundation of your world[6] and have watched mankind throughout thousands of years make the same claims and the same bad choices as you are making.  I have thousands of years worth of experience which in your brief sin-filled life you don’t have.”

“When you are at the end of your life, it is best to have been with God and served him rather than to have ignored him.”

“Yea, well …”

God Brings People to Himself

“Son of Earth, theologically speaking, there are four stages in the process whereby God brings people to himself.  These stages can be remembered easily as the four Ps – preparatory, positional, progressive, and prospective sanctification.”[7]

“Preparatory sanctification is what we are engaged in right now; it is why I have been sent to you personally.  It is the process whereby people are brought to the point of salvation.  Scripture notes that God has worked with you people long before they have come to know God,

God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit an God in the truth.[8] and those, who are chosen, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit.[9]

“So you see, Son of Earth, you were in the mind of your Creator long before the universe was created.”

“Positional sanctification refers to our position when through the grace of God he brings a person to faith and salvation.  This is referred to as becoming righteous in God’s mind – otherwise referred to as “justification.”

To those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus saints by calling.[10]

and,

By his will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.[11]

“So you see, Son of Earth, it is through the will of God that people are brought to him – not the other way around.

“Progressive sanctification refers to the life-long growth as the believer becomes more Christ-like in behavior and attitude.  This is generally what most would refer to as “sanctification.”  This is what was referred to when,

we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.[12]

“Son of Earth, this is a life-long project; it was what you were supposed to be doing with your life rather than just living for yourself.  One of the tasks of your mortal life is to conform yourself more to the image of Christ.“

“Finally, prospective or ultimate sanctification is what the believer is looking forward to – and is what you will not achieve in this life.  Note that this is progressive; you cannot achieve one step without going through the prior step; you cannot become perfect before God without becoming a child of God first.”

“Yea, well listen, Angel, I understand what you are trying to do here.  You are only a reflection of my insecurities – you aren’t real.  You are trying to scare me into something I am not – I quite frankly don’t want to live a goodie-two-shoes life; you know, not drink, no drugs, no sex – you know, all the fun things in life.  All the Christians I know are missing out on the fun in life.  It’s just not for me!”

Separation from God

“Son of Earth, separation from God is a terrible thing.  He has made within you a void that can only be filled with his presence, and he will only fill that void if asked.  You were made to be incomplete without filling that void; you will never find true happiness without God.  I am sometimes sent to visit those on their deathbed – only hours away from eternity.  Many of these souls are not even conscious, but they can talk with me in their minds.  God sends me to them for one last chance before it will be eternally too late for them.”

“When I come to these people, they often tell me their regrets.  Son of Earth, their regrets are never about not having another drink, or more sex.  Their regrets are always about not having found meaning in life; that they are scared – no, terrified, about losing their life.  They nearly always ask me, “Is that all there is!”  As you are coming to know now, life can be very brief – there is never enough time to do all the things you want to do; but there is enough time to do those things you need to do.”

“Yea, well, I don’t know angel.  I’m having a blast with my life.”

“Oh really, Son of Earth.  You have a few friends, lots of possessions.  But if you were to die right now, if God took your soul at this moment – would you be happy with what you have accomplished in life?”

“Well, I don’t know, Angel.  That’s a tough one.  Of course, there is always more we want to do on this earth before we become plant food. “

“Let’s continue on.  You are apparently going to be unconscious from your friends’ medication.  By the way, why have you not verified all the information I have shared with you from the last few visitations?  Is it because you are too busy with something more important, or is it because you might find out what I am telling you is true; and if that were the case, you might have to seriously consider what I am telling you to be the truth?”

“I guess, Angel, I am worried that if all that stuff you told me checks out, it means I might be checking out soon.  I’m just not ready for my final curtain call.”

“Son of Earth, it is becoming time to finish up our discussion.  As you remember, Passover is always on the fourteenth of Nisan which in the year that Christ was crucified fell on a Friday.[13] We know this from http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=33&month=4&country=34.  Scripture notes,

The Jews, therefore, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.[14]

“Son of Earth, Scriptures indicate the Jewish elders wanted bodies taken down so they would not defile the High Sabbath.  A “High Sabbath” refers to one of the seven great feast or festival days in the Jewish calendar.[15]  That year, the High Sabbath was Nisan 15 or the start of Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Friday was a ‘preparation day’ because the Jews had to prepare their meals and clean their houses on the day before the Sabbath [16]  Breaking the legs would ensure the quick death of those being crucified because after their legs are broken, they can’t use their legs to help prop themselves up to breathe. Jesus of course, was already dead – and his legs were not broken.[17]  The fact that the Messiah’s legs were not broken was foretold in Scripture many hundreds of years previously.”[18]

“Yea, well, I’ll bet there were many crucified that day who didn’t have their legs broken.”

Unleavened Bread Represents Purity

“In Jewish tradition, the unleavened bread represents purity, not being contaminated by the world.  It means separation from the world, leading to spiritual life.  It is a recognition of mankind’s inability to achieve righteousness in God’s sight but can only be achieved through God’s grace.  Christ warned believers about the “leaven” of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the political leaders of his day.[19]   He would also warn to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.”[20]  The whole context of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to remind the ancient Jewish population of their need for personal purity, humility, and sanctity.”

“Well, OK, I can see how all of that is important; but it is so dull!  I mean, personal purity and sanctity don’t seem very exciting!”

“Son of Earth, life is not meant just to be “exciting” – you were created to be fulfilled; to be made whole with God.  You will never achieve that wholeness yourself but only through helping others and in being in spiritual communion with God.  Your greatest chance for personal fulfillment, happiness, and fulfillment come in the spiritual life, not in living for yourself.”

With that, the angel slowly dissipated, and the intense brightness withdrew.  Jeff once again found himself in reality, only this time the reality was too real.  He awoke to find himself slumped in a corner under a tablecloth somebody threw over him to hide his nakedness.  The place was trashed; drinks were spilled all around him, and half-eaten food littered the floor near where he lay.  Not only did he have no clothes, but he had also been relieved of every other personal possession.  He had no way to pay his bar bill, and he found himself pondering his next move.

Thankfully, a bar is not filled with clientele in the early morning hours and he was able to gather up his tablecloth and scamper out the rear door into an alley.  It was still dark outside; dark enough to evade the curious gaze of most early morning people.  He hailed a taxi that took him home; thankfully, he had some cash stashed away in his house for just such an emergency and was able to pay the taxicab driver who accompanied him into his house for payment.

Jeff was embarrassed; embarrassed that he allowed some “friends” to take advantage of him.  It was an amateur’s mistake not to keep a close watch on what you are drinking at a bar.  He vowed to never let that happen again.  Of course, he found himself thinking, if he were to follow that blasted angel’s advice, this would not have happened in the first place.

What was he going to do with that angel!  He found it odd that he could remember the dreams so well.  Usually, dreams are forgotten within minutes of waking up in the morning; with these dreams, he couldn’t forget them – goodness knows he tried.  He sometimes felt the angel was watching him – watching him at every move.  He found the thought of a “guardian angel” disturbing; it was like being back in school again with the principal monitoring your every move.  Only, he never was visited by the teacher in his dreams …

He had to get back to work again; there were cold calls to make, stocks to monitor, and commissions to pocket.  He still enjoyed his work immensely; but he found himself watching the clock, wondering when he would have another angelic encounter at night.  He could see these visitations were following some kind of a pattern; they weren’t haphazard at all.

But he was particularly haunted by the up close and personal view of the crucifixion in his mind; those visions would never escape him.  Once on the way home from work he saw a gruesome car accident where the victim flew out through the windshield onto the road only to be run over a few times by passing cars.  The poor teenager looked like roadkill – like a dog or car lying motionless in the road, contorted in death, red stains along with the track marks of passing vehicles.

But his vision was different.

This poor, naked man hardly looked human; and while he gazed in disbelief upon this dying figure, it looked up at him – right at him, making perfect eye contact.  He remembered turning away; the whole thing was just too horrific to watch.  There were a few people at his feet – a very few.  Except for a few Roman soldiers mulling around, all of his visitors were weeping, asking passersby for help; none was given.  This eviscerated, lonely, naked man dying in agony would die nearly alone; forgotten by the throngs of people he helped.  A few well-fed passersby who he somehow recognized as religious Jews threw slurs at him, called him all sorts of vile names, even laughing at his pain.

This vision proved difficult for Jeff to forget, for like the words he heard from the angel, the vision was engrafted into his consciousness; there was no escaping it.  Of course, he tried, with drugs and alcohol mostly.  But it was at night time when his unconscious mind was at the mercy of his dreams that the vision returned; especially the few seconds when their eyes met.

Over the next few days, Jeff would have a hard time eating.  He would use amphetamines to try to avoid sleep – but this could only work for a while until his drowsy brain eventually succeeded by engulfing his consciousness into the surrealistic landscape of the dream world.

References

[1] Deuteronomy 25:3

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid

[3] Lev. 23:6

[4] Exodus 17-20

[5] 1 Cor. 5:7-8

[6] http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/7998/when-were-the-angels-created

[7] Norten, Michael, pp. 30-31

[8] 2 Thess 2:13

[9] 1 Peter 1:1-2

[10] 1 Cor. 1:2

[11] Hebrews 10:10

[12] 2 Cor. 3:18

[13] Passover always occurs on the 14th of Nisan which is always a full moon; however, the day of the week varies from year to year.

[14] John 19:31

[15] http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Unleavened_Bread/Anavah/anavah.html

[16] http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=33&month=4&country=34

[17]
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/m_prophecies.shtml

[18] Psalm 22:17, Psalm 34:20

[19] Matthew 16:6-12

[20] Luke 12:1