The Recipe for Unleavened Bread

Sermonette given by Davut Korkut

Just what is it?  What makes that perfect batch of unleavened bread?  Now you can go to the supermarket and find Matzos usually during the Passover Season.  When you do find them, you will see various types.  There are Matzos made with eggs and some that are made with apple juice. There are even whole wheat Matzos for the health conscious.  I haven’t had one of these store bought Matzos in years but I do remember they are rather dry and tasteless.

The word Matzos is actually the Hebrew word for "unleavened bread" found in Exodus 12:17: "And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; (Matzo) for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever."

So now we begin to observe literally the Appointed Time of Matzo and we are commanded to eat unleavened bread for seven days. But just how do you make good unleavened bread? When I came home Friday, Rhonda had made a batch of unleavened bread part of which we were to use at Passover. It was thin, light, and crispy and it tasted great. There is nothing better that a crisp piece of unleavened bread with some butter. To make this bread, she followed a specific recipe.

A recipe is composed of two major parts: The ingredients and the method or steps to combine the ingredients.

  To make a good batch of any bread, you must begin with the finest ingredients. What are the basic ingredients for unleavened bread? The major ingredient of unleavened bread is flour but not just any flour. Turn to Exodus. Unleavened bread was used in the ceremony to set Aaron and his family apart to serve as priests. 

Exodus 29:1-2: "And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish, (2) And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them."

It’s interesting to note that unleavened bread is also part of the ceremony that will set apart the future priests of the Kingdom of God. Those who would be priests in the Kingdom MUST partake of the unleavened bread at Passover as well as during the days of unleavened bread. This ceremony sets us apart from the rest of the world as future priests. 

Now consider the phrase "wheat flour." Some translations say "fine wheat flour" or "the finest bread-meal".  Let’s take a look at this main ingredient. The wheat kernel is known to be one of the most wholesome foods available. In this tiny grain exists protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals all in the right proportions.

We know that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God. John 6:35 shows us the symbol for the Word: "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." 

Is it any wonder that the symbol for the Word of God is bread and that the main ingredient of unleavened bread the most complete nutrient in the world? 

But if you take a handful of wheat kernels and try to make bread with them, you will fail.  You must grind the kernels down to a fine powder. Only then will the full nourishment of the grain be released. The written Word of God must be ground down into fine components. You must study in detail, here a little, there a little, to get full nourishment. This is an amazing analogy when you think about it. 

Consider today’s bread production.  The bread baking industry takes the perfect grain and grinds it to a fine powder.  No problem so far.  Then it takes all the valuable nutrition out, leaving only the gluten.  Then it bleaches the gluten to give it a false appearance of white.  Then man-made nutrients are mixed with this white powder and it becomes "enriched" white flour to which leavening is added to make a puffy white loaf of bread that is unnaturally white, of no substance and of no true nutritional value. 

Now what do this world’s theologians and preachers do to the written Word of God, the pure, wholesome flour of God’s Word? 

First the theologians or "bakers," grind up the God’s flour and study it in detail. No problem so far. But then these "bakers" remove the base nutrient of God’s flour, God Law, and discard it.  Then with what’s left, these "bakers" try to bleach their teachings so that those teachings appear to be white. 

Remember that the symbol for righteousness is white. But you cannot obtain righteousness by discarding God’s Law, so these "bakers" use false righteousness, righteousness in appearance only.

Then to make these false teachings appear to be nutritious, these "bakers" inject false doctrine into the dough.  Then they mix what’s left with leaven, or lawlessness, and you wind up with the doctrines of this world’s churches: Puffy, no substance, no nutrition. 

But flour by itself is not sufficient to make unleavened bread.  You must mix some sort of liquid with the flour in order to make dough.  In Exodus 29 we are told that this liquid is pure olive oil. Water can also be mixed with flour to make dough.  Do you see a connection here?  In order to make the dough for unleavened bread you must mix oil or water. 

What are the two symbols of the Holy Spirit?  Olive oil and water.  Olive oil is probably one of the best oils for the body and water is mandatory to sustain life.  What better ingredient to mix with wholesome wheat flour than olive oil and/or water. 

You see, reading the Bible by itself will not give you life.  Indeed there are many Bible "scholars" in the world, men who have made a life’s work out of studying words the Bible.  These men are fluent in Greek and Hebrew.  They love to flaunt their credentials.  Yet they still can’t understand the simple Plan of God that these Holy Days represent.  They are basically working with only flour. 

It is not until God opens your mind and gives you His Holy Spirit that you can understand the Bible.  Mr. Armstrong drilled this into us over and over.  You must mix the pure oil of the Holy Spirit with the fine flour of God’s written Word in order to understand God’s Way and His plan.

But recipes require something other than ingredients.  The ingredients must be mixed together and worked.  You cannot just pour oil onto flour and expect a loaf of bread to appear.  The dough must be thoroughly mixed with the oil and kneaded. 

Now you might think kneading is limited to making leavened bread.  Leavened bread will not rise unless the yeast is thoroughly mixed in the dough.  But to obtain good unleavened bread, you must also knead the dough to mix the OIL with the FLOUR.  And kneading takes effort!

Finally, you must bake the kneaded dough in order to obtain the final unleavened bread. Baking is usually done over some sort of fire and fire is normally associated with trial.  You can reference 1 Peter 4:12 which talks about the fiery trials that we face. 

Jesus Christ faced the worst fiery trial that any one could face when he was nailed to the stake like so much meat.  The words that He spoke mixed with the Holy Spirit kneaded though 33 years of experience and baked at the stake on Golgotha has produced a truly nourishing Unleavened Bread. 

But as we make our unleavened bread, let’s remember that we can add additional ingredients.   What about salt?  Salt gives a good flavor to unleavened bread.  Jesus Christ said that we are the salt of the earth.  We are the seasoning.  We need to add ourselves to the unleavened bread as we make it.  We need to put ourselves into the mix of Bible Study and the Holy Spirit to ensure a tasty batch of unleavened bread. 

But there’s another property of salt: Salt kills yeast.  I learned this the hard way.  If you want make sure that leavened bread will not rise, just mix the salt with the yeast.  Perhaps Christ was trying to tell us that we are the yeast killers of the earth as well as the seasoning. 

In conclusion, the Apostle Paul summarized God’s recipe for delicious unleavened bread in 1 Corinthians 5:8: "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 

So, brethren, during these days of Unleavened Bread, let’s whip up the best batch of unleavened bread that we can.  Let’s take the fine flour of God’s written Word and ask God for an extra helping of His Holy Spirit.  Let’s put great effort in to kneading these two together into dough, adding ourselves as a little seasoning.  And let our trials and life experiences bake wonderful unleavened bread that will thoroughly nourish us into the Kingdom of God.

Bon Apatite!