Study Notes on Matsah (Unleavened Bread)

Study Notes for Pesach + Matsah Topic Study

• Torah: Leviticus 23:4-8
• Apostolic: Joshua 5:1-12
• Additional: 1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Prophets Summary
Context and coherence (Nehemiah 8:8)

Joshua 5:1-12

1. The book of Joshua (“Yehoshua”, “Yeshua”)

   1. Joshua 1:1-9 NASB1995

      1. Trust in Me.

      2. Guard my teachings and instructions.

      3. Be strong and courageous

   2. If you do, you’ll possess every square foot of land I promised the forefathers.

   3. No enemy will be able to stand against you.

   4. You will be prosperous ((tsalach) and successful (sakal).

2. Joshua 2

   1. Sends out the spies — just two, not twelve.

      1. Joshua learned that lesson the hard way.

      2. Only sends two and they report directly to him. Everyone else follows Joshua’s command.

      3. Rahab welcomes them with a covenant of peace and the sign of the red cord.

      4. And they get the evidence of the fear that had overtaken the people of the land.

         1. Joshua 2:9-11 NASB1995

            1. [9]and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. [10] For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. [11] When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

3. Joshua 3

   1. They have become an army.

      1. Likely involved training for battle but more than anything it was discipline.

      2. They need assurance.

      3. Trust in God and His appointed leader.

      4. [3:7] Now the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.

   2. God works another miracle that displays His awesome greatness.

      1. Joshua 3:15-17 NASB1995

         1. [15] and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), [16] the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. [17] And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

   3. The waters pile up at Adam

      1. A city in the Jordan valley

      2. Visible to the peoples of the land

      3. All the water below the between Adam and the Dead Sea would cease to flow. The entire land saw the sign.

4. Joshua 4:

   1. Every tribal leader takes a stone and builds a memorial.

   2. A physical action that displays and memorializes the glory of YHWH and His salvific acts.

      1. Joshua 4:24 NASB1995 [24] that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

         1. God’s wonders serve three primary purposes

            1. 1. They bring glory to His Name.

            2. 2. They cause His people to trust more deeply in Him.

            3. 3. They cause the nations to repent and turn to Him.

5. Joshua 5:

   1. We see that the nations feared.

      1. Joshua 5:1 NASB1995

      2. [1] Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

   2. They’re all high fiving, doing the victory dance.

      1. God says, “Oh yeah, Joshua… One more thing”.

         1. [2] At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.” [3] So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

      2. “I need you to make another memorial. We’re going to call it, “Gibeath-haaraloth” because it’s going to be a Hill of Foreskins.

6. The text then explains WHY they had to be circumcised.

   1. Joshua 5:4-7 NASB1995

      1. [4] This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. [5] For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. [6] For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. [7] Their children whom He raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way.

7. Verse 9, God explains to Joshua what He has done.

   1. [9] Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach (#2781) of Egypt from you.” So, the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

8. What is the significance of this?

   1. There was something on the men (and through them, their households).

      1. What was it? Is it a physical defilement? Or it is spiritual?

9. Reproach, disgrace.

10. 2781. Cherpah – “reproach; shame, disgrace”.. Humiliation.

    1. Results in a bad name and ruined reputation.

       1. Lexicon: Reproach is never a mere social embarrassment in Scripture. It signals a rupture in the God-ward relationship that exposes the offender to scorn, whether from enemies (Psalm 79:4), from former allies (Jeremiah 24:9), or from one’s own conscience (Psalm 69:7). The word can describe

          1. • National humiliation (Joshua 5:9)

          2. • Familial or marital disgrace (Genesis 30:23; 2 Samuel 13:13)

          3. • Personal derision faced by the righteous (Psalm 22:6)

          4. • Divine judgment that turns a people into a “taunt, a proverb, and a reproach” (Jeremiah 24:9; Ezekiel 5:15).

    2. Because Israel’s identity is covenantal, cherpah is ultimately directed at the LORD whose name the nation bears (Psalm 74:10; Isaiah 37:4). Thus the removal of reproach is inseparable from God’s act of salvation (Isaiah 25:8).

       1. Cherpah is a form of judgment that establishes God’s character and righteousness.

          1. God can place or remove cherpah.

             1. 2 Chron. 29:8 Therefore the wrath of the LORD was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of scorn (cherpah), as you see with your own eyes.

             2. Psa. 119:22Take disgrace and contempt away from me, for I comply with Your testimonies.

11. We see from Joshua 5:9 that, Egypt was and is s a place of cherpah (reproach) and those in it have it placed upon them.

    1. Egypt is a symbol of the world.

       1. “Walk of shame” — deeds done in the darkness carry with them cherpah in the day.

       2. The cherpah of Egypt had been removed from the Exodus generation but their failure to trust and obey caused it to return to their sons.

12. Somehow, the physical removal of the foreskin on the banks of the Jordan took it away.

    1. If it’s just a spiritual thing, why couldn’t God have just said the word and removed the reproach?

       1. The men had to understand the reality of this reproach and the cost of removing it.

          1. It had to be personal, painful, and bloody.

       2. Also, extremely vulnerable.

          1. All the men of war were completely exposed and vulnerable to attack for at least three days.

             1. Remember Shechem?

KEY POINT:

Physical circumcision was required (and still is) because the natural cannot be separated from the spiritual.

13. From a biblical understanding, “spiritual reality” is an oxymoron.

    1. 1 Corinthians 15:46

       1. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

14. What is the fulness of this sign?

    1. The author of Hebrews explains it to us.

       1. Heb. 1);1-4 “For the Torah, since it has a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away (G851. Aphaireó)_sins.

          1. Same word used in the LXX in Joshua 5:9 – “roll away” the reproach of Egpyt.

    2. The sacrificial system could cover sin but never remove it completely.

       1. Physical circumcision provided a visible and tangible manifestation of how to remove the reproach of Egypt, but because of the sinful nature of man, Egypt remained in the heart.

15. If the Torah can’t remove the reproach of sin that is upon us, where is our hope?

    1. How could Joshua’s generation have hope?

16. The Father has always had a plan!

    1. You see, from the beginning, God made a promise that One would come that could remove the reproach of Egypt and the righteous judgment that it brings upon every human being.

17. Who would this be and how would He do it?

    1. God says, I’m going to show you through Passover.

18. Passover is the sign of this covenantal promise.

    1. An innocent lamb, sacrificed in a bloody and personal way, to take away the reproach of Egypt.

    2. All you need to do is eat this sacrifice and you too will receive the covenant.

       1. But first you need to be circumcised.

       2. You need to make a personal choice to reject Egypt like Moses did.

          1. “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Messiah greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward” (Heb. 11:24-26).

    3. Circumcision is the sign that we are choosing the reproach of serving God instead of Egypt.

       1. For Joshua’s generation, obedience required adult circumcision followed by the keeping of the Passover and the eating of Unleavened Bread and the produce of the Land.

          1. “While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth * day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain” (Jos. 5:10-11).

    4. For the early church, the requirement was baptism into Yeshua’s Name which meant expulsion from the Temple and later the synagogue bringing with it the reproach of your entire community.

       1. But for them, leaving the reproach of Egypt meant leaving the religious establishment that had rejected the Messiah.

       2. “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Yeshua also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:11-13).

19. What does it look like for you and me in our generation?

Does anyone have specific questions or need any clarification from what was said during the Summary or Exhortation?

Application & Discussion
Living the Word and following Yeshua (Acts 2:37; Romans 2:13)
Questions, input, and sharpening (Proverbs 27:17; Luke 2:46)

Romans 2:13 For it isn’t the hearers of the Torah who are righteous before Elohim, but the doers of the Torah will be justified.

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.

1. 1. What questions or comments came up during your family’s discussion of this week’s study?
   2. “What other related Scriptures did you find during your study of this week’s portion?”
   3. Have you ever experienced something from this study or something related to it?
   4. “What changes do you need to make in your life to align with what you learned during this week’s Torah Study?”

Additional Notes