And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? ⁵ We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: ⁶ But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. (Numbers 11:4-6 KJV)

And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. (Numbers 21:5 KJV)

The week of Unleavened Bread is drawing to a close.  The murmuring, grumbling and complaining about missing bread, ketchup, mustard, A1 Sauce, pickles, salad dressings, various snacks and of course pizza has reached a crescendo!  The novelty of matzah and cream cheese has long ago worn off. The bread of afflicting is beginning to live up to its name. At the same time, the children of Israel (at least the ones living in our home) are starting to sound like their ancestors.

Thousands of years and a great deal of history separate us from the events which we read about during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  As we read these stories we are, for the most part, far removed from these historical events, physically, geographically and emotionally.  We are, if you will, reading the scriptures from a safe distance.  The gulf of time between us as readers, and the subjects and circumstances which we’re reading about, affords the buffer necessary to evaluate, discern, understand, and to judge.  It is easy for us to sit in the peace, quiet, comfort and security of our homes, reading of people, places, challenges, threats and dangers from the distant past.  How easy it is for us to criticize, characterize, and even demonize those that actually experienced, lived through and faced the various tests, challenges, and dangers that we merely read about at a safe distance. 

Again and again, we read how the children of Israel were blessed by YHWH with deliverance, freedom, provisions and promises of a new life in a new land.  And yet the children of Israel repeatedly murmured, grumbled and complained.  To the believer, safely reading the scriptures from a distance, the children of Israel appear to be especially whiny, petty, selfish, ungrateful, weak of mind and weak of faith. It is easy for us to sit in judgment upon our ancestors who experienced firsthand the barrenness and aridity of the wilderness.  When we read these ancient stories we imagine how awesome it would be to eat bread from heaven, drink water from a rock, and to see and follow the Shekinah of YHWH in the pillar of cloud and fire.  What we cannot imagine is the great difficulty of moving and providing for 2.5 to 3 million people in the wilderness.  Most of us panic at the prospects of providing for 20-25 people for a dinner party, or 100-200 people for a wedding reception.  Imagine what it must have been like to stand in line with 3 million people for a drink of water, or to see 3 million people out gathering the wafer like manna and wondering if there would be enough for everyone.  Imagine going out every day gathering and preparing just enough manna for each person in your family for that day, with the exception of the sixth day when you had to remember to gather and prepare enough for two days. Imagine doing this for forty straight years!

In his infinite wisdom YHWH commanded the children to keep specific appointed (moedim) holy rehearsals (qodesh miqra), such as Hag HaMatzot (the Feast of Unleavened Bread), Hag Shavuot (The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost) and Hag Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths).  These holy rehearsals serve several purposes among the children of YHWH. First, these appointed celebrations help us to remember YHWH’S faithfulness to his promises.  By keeping these appointed rehearsals we read of the great love the Sovereign had toward our ancestors and for us.  We learn from these events not only what the Sovereign One is willing to do but what the Sovereign One is capable of doing. Second, by keeping these appointed rehearsals we are being prepared for divine times, events, and appointments that have not yet been fulfilled, such as the great tribulation and the coming of the Messiah.  Third, by keeping the appointed rehearsals of YHWH in the properly commanded fashion, we not only remember it, but in some small way we relive these past events in the present.  This is especially true of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Sukkot.  Both of these holy rehearsals were first lived in the wilderness.  Sukkot, in particular, is the celebration of the wilderness journey.  When all the men of Israel camp out in temporary shelters for a week, we begin to experience in a very small way, what it must have been like for our ancestors to leave the convenience of their homes in Egypt and live in tents in the wilderness.  In the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread we experience what it must have been like for our ancestors to leave the sumptuous variety of food available to them in Egypt, and to eat the monotonous light bread (manna) of the wilderness. 

As the week of Unleavened Bread slowly drones on, the longing for the leaven, the discontent with monotonous matzah, and the spirit of ingratitude for YHWH’S provision (he didn’t require us to fast for the whole week), begins to grow.  Suddenly, the scriptures that were once a safe distance from us, are right on top of us.  The whining, murmuring, grumbling, and complaining we are hearing is not our ancestors’ but our own.  The inconveniences, hardships, monotony, and challenges faced by our ancestors are now ours to deal with.  We would like to imagine that we will handle things better than those who failed before us, but in truth, we are not much different; the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

When we  merely sit and read the scriptures at a distance, as if we were reading some fairy-tale about a people long ago and far away, we can deceive ourselves into thinking that we would have done better, that we are superior to the ancients, that we would have obeyed joyfully and willingly without complaint.  But the Torah demands more from us than simply reading the scriptures.  The Torah demands that we be “doers of the word” and not merely spectators of the word.  The command to keep the appointed holy rehearsals as the Sovereign One prescribed them, forces us to live the word.  We cannot sit safely and smugly in our “Lazy-Boy” thrones casting judgments upon those who have walked the path of faith before us.  To obey the calling of the Sovereign One, we must get up and do what YHWH has called us to do.  The Feasts of YHWH invite us to action, to rise to the occasion, to put our money where our mouth is…to put up or shut up.  Inevitably the inconvenience of the feasts and their commandments impinge upon our schedules and life-styles, and we too begin to feel the heat of the refiner’s fire.  Inevitably the longer the Feast of Unleavened Bread continues the more leaven we find in our hearts and homes that was overlooked at the time of the first purging.  This is the nature of the Torah and YHWH’S appointed holy rehearsals—they are for doing not reading.  When we taste for ourselves the bread of affliction the words become real to us and our whining, complaining, murmuring voices tend to meld with those of our ancestors whom we previously judged from a distance.   Clearly the Torah is a living word that continues to speak, invite, reveal, and challenge us to submit our hearts, our minds, our strength and our appetites to the loving care of YHWH.  By keeping YHWH’S appointed holy rehearsals each year, we learn and grow in our faith and in our walk.  After forty years of keeping the Feasts, we may eventually get it right.  Let us rejoice to know that there is a promised end to the bread of affliction and the refining of the wilderness journey.  It is comforting to know that the Heavenly Father did not give up on, or forsake the children of Israel in the wilderness but did eventually fulfill his promise to bring them to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their seed after them.  I hope and pray that when the prophesied events become reality, that we will be ready to gratefully obey the voice of the Shepherd who leads us.