STREAMS IN THE NEGEV

A curious thing:  wine was used by the Lord at the Last Supper/Passover, and is considered acceptable doctrinally by many churches and Messianic congregations for the Lord’s Supper.  Grape juice is an alternative, being of the fruit of the vine.  At the first Passover, when the Israelis were delivered from hard slavery in Egypt, neither wine nor grape juice was part of that feast.  And, according to the instructions given us for Passover in Lev 23, and in the Passover account in Exodus, the emphasis is on eating unleavened bread (matza), but nothing about drinking wine. 

Following the Passover, looking prophetically, once the first-fruits wave offering had been offered on the day after the Sabbath (i.e., Sonday, the “one”/first day of the week) after coming into the land which the Lord was giving to the children and people of Israel, then they could use wine and eat [regular] bread (lechem).  This was during the Passover week.  When Yeshua was walking with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus after His resurrection (first-fruits from the dead) on the day after the Sabbath of that Passover week (i.e., Sonday), their eyes were opened when He blessed and broke bread (artos in Greek; lechem in all Hebrew translations normally used).  Then “they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight”. (Lk 24)  Wine is fermented; it is leavened.  Nothing leavened was permitted under the Law during the Passover and Unleavened Bread week. 

It is interesting that the same Greek word for bread is used in the account of the Last Supper, and in that of the meal with the two disciples in Emmaus.  Had the Last Supper been the night before Passover, as some believe — and therefore leavened bread would have been “permissible” — then surely we would think that the word used in the account of Emmaus would have specified unleavened bread, since it was during the Passover/Unleavened Bread week.