Get rid of Leaven.
We are looking into the warnings of Jesus when He said "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and of Herod" - Matthew 16:6-12; Mark 8:15 and we shall also look into the Parable of the Leaven to understand the background of the meaning of leaven.
In Matthew 13, we see how Jesus Christ used parables to foretell certain situations that would affect God's church down through the centuries until His second coming. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, He forecasts that the church would begin small and that evil, outside adversaries would try to subvert it from within. In the Parable of the Leaven (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:20-21), He forewarns of internal doctrinal distortions.
Matthew 13's first four parables, which are in two pairs, all consistently reveal the church's future progress: In the Parable of the Sower, God's Word is rejected. In the Wheat and Tares, God's work is opposed. In the Mustard Seed, attempts are made to thwart God's plan. In the Parable of the Leaven, God's doctrines are corrupted.
Looking into the parable of the Leaven - What does leaven represent? (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:21)
Physically, leaven is a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, or a substance that causes dough to rise (yeast). A natural reason for leaven's negative symbolism is the idea that fermentation implies a process of corruption. In the Old Testament, it is generally symbolic of sin and evil. In every instance that leaven appears in the Bible, it represents evil. Only in two places in Scripture is its use commanded - Lev. 7 :13 and Lev. 23 :17. Knowing its Old Testament significance, however, I believe Jesus would have used the symbol in the same way. The common meat offering was unleavened, part of which was burnt on the altar, where no leaven might be burnt, ( Leviticus 2:4 Leviticus 2:5 Leviticus 2:11 ) ; and from this it may be concluded that no part of these loaves was to be burnt, but the whole of them became the share of the priests: With the wave-sheaf no leaven was offered, for there was no evil in Christ; but the wave-loaves, typifying the church, are "baked with leaven," there is still evil. After Pentecost the church stands for both the Jew and the Gentile. Two loaves but one offering. God's plan was that the Jew and Gentile will worship the Lord as one body.
And what happened on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2?
A new body was formed, the body called the Church, made up no longer simply of Jews alone but of Jews and Gentiles -- two loaves baked with leaven. This was not the old Judaism re-formed but a totally new entity - a brand new creation born of the Spirit but still tainted with sin.
While some commentaries interpret this parable as depicting the spreading influence of the gospel, such explanations go against Jesus' use of this symbol. He uses it to refer to the evil doctrine of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and of Herod (Matthew 16:6-12; Mark 8:15), and this could easily apply to later corruptions of doctrine by those who place more importance on the traditions of men than on the Word of God.
Paul uses leavening as a type of sin in its development (I Corinthians 5:6-8). His reference to Christ's sinless sacrifice, and his statement that believers, as such, are unleavened shows the typical significance of leaven. In Galatians 5:7-9, its diffusive quality describes the harmful effects of false doctrine. He calls leaven a persuasion, something that exerts a powerful and moving influence, which hinders people from obeying the truth. Such a thing, he declares, is not from Him who calls us.
Lets take a brief view of the parable of the Leaven. Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:21
The woman in the Parable of the Leaven is interesting because in all the other parables a man is the main character. What is "a woman" in Scripture?
In Revelation 12, a woman is symbolic of the nation of Israel, and in Revelation 17 and 18 she represents the false system of Babylon. In Isaiah 47, a woman is again symbolic of Babylon (whether the nation or the system of Babylon). In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul uses "women" to symbolize the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. In Ezekiel 16, God uses a woman to symbolize Israel: "Aholah" is the kingdom of Israel and "Aholibah" is the kingdom of Judah.
What can we understand from this? Every time a woman is used as a symbol, the common de-nominator is the idea of a system of beliefs and practices that influence other people. A church or religion is a system of beliefs and practices. This world as a whole has a system of beliefs and practices that go contrary to God. To find out what kind of system is being referred to, we must look at the context to see how the system works, how it reacts, and what it does.
What are the characteristics of this woman in the parable? First, she took leaven. This is the common word used to mean "to come into possession of." The next verb is "hid" (. It means "to hide in" or "to mix." Its major connotation is "to be sneaky" or "to be secret, covert, or surreptitious." It seems from the usage of these words that this woman is up to no good whatsoever. First, she takes something, then she hides it. She is a bad lady, a bad system.
She hides the leaven "in three measures of meal." That Jesus uses the very phrase "three measures of meal" is quite interesting—and it is a key, because this told His Jewish audience something that He did not have to explain, as they were familiar with it. It was a normal practice and meant something to them.
It has been suggested that He used this amount because it is the average quantity of meal a housewife would employ in her daily baking. This suggestion is pretty ridiculous when we consider that three measures of meal equal about 7.3 liters meal - two gallons of meal. That seems like a lot of bread each day.
An average loaf of bread contains about three cups of flour. Two gallons of meal, which is the equivalent of about thirty-two cups, would make nearly eleven loaves! Even the most bread-gorging family on this earth would not eat eleven loaves each day. Normally, one loaf would suffice for one person for a day, if he ate nothing else. Jesus, then, is probably speaking of a special occasion.
Genesis 18 contains the first biblical usage of "three measures of meal." This is the occasion when the Lord and two angels came to Abraham, and he made them a meal - verse 5 "So Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, 'Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal'" (Genesis 18:6).
What was "three measures of meal"? There is a principle of Bible study (the law of first mention) that says, "The first time a thing—a word, a phrase—is mentioned in the Bible influences how it should be interpreted throughout." Here, "three measures of meal" is used in the context of a fellowship meal—giving hospitality, in this case, to God—so it has a spiritual connotation. Three measures of meal is a little over a bushel of flour.
With this example in mind, we can understand that Christ's use of this phrase would have made His Jewish audience think immediately of the meal offering in Leviticus 2, and they would have been absolutely shocked out of their sandals to find that someone had the audacity, to put leaven in a meal offering! It simply was not done! A person who did so could expect to be killed by the next lightning bolt out of heaven. What, then, what would the normal Jew have thought? He would have understood immediately that the Kingdom of Heaven would be subverted. Something good had been corrupted.
"Three measures of meal," the meal offering, represents the offerer's service and devotion to fellowman. Symbolically, it represents the second great commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." It is devoted service toward others.
If "three measures of meal" represents our love, service, and devotion to fellowman, this parable warns us that the false system will make a concerted and covert effort to corrupt the true church through false doctrine aimed at how we treat each other.
The "three measures of meal" represents the church's teachings. This squares with our under-standing of what Christ is. He is the Word, and one of His titles is "the Bread of life." The church's teachings come from the Word of God, which is our daily bread. Fine meal is the major component of bread. Satan would try to corrupt the word, the teaching, so that church members would not treat each other well, offend one another.
And the woman succeeds! Jesus says, ". . . till it was all leavened!" Sobering, is it not?
The leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy - Luke 12: 1 . That of the Sadducees was skepticism. Herod's was of shameful self-indulgence in worldly desires. The leaven of those who have distorted doctrine down through the ages has been greed, pride, control, and worldly desires.
Jesus warns in the parable of the leaven that false doctrines would be infused by stealth into the church, and these evil beliefs would corrupt, erode, and destroy relationships. If the false doctrines are allowed to grow, affection and loving concern in service to one another are thwarted. The phrase "till all was leavened" is a sobering indication that the church would be plagued by insensitive, uncaring, self-absorbed, self-centered attitudes that would spread through the church just as leaven spreads through bread dough. The apostle Paul tells us "through love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13), which is an antidote to the woman's devious subterfuge.
The Parable of the Leaven gives us an explanation as to the low spiritual condition of the visible church in our day. " Will I find faith" - asks Jesus in Luke 18:8 . Please remember that the interpretation of this parable comes from my own understanding, and I cannot be absolutely dogmatic that my understanding is correct. The Lord does not give us an interpretation to this parable.
This parable tells us about a woman who pulls off a sneaky trick; she does something that is not right. She puts leaven into three measures of meal. Now this may not mean much to you and me but it would have great meaning to a Jew, for He related this parable to Jews gathered there.
1. A Jew would probably make a connection of the three measures of meal with something in his religion. The crowd of Jews to whom Christ was giving this parable would probably connect it up with the meal offering. The meal offering the Old Testament consisted of three measures of meal, precisely prescribed to be unleavened. That is, the meal was not to have any yeast in it at all. The meal offering spoke of God’s fellowship with the people.
2. Second the Jew would probably think back to Genesis 18 where three measures of meal is first mentioned in the Bible. Abraham was in his tent by the Oaks of Mamre one day, and he looked out the door and saw three strangers approaching. He went to meet them and offered them hospitality. He welcomed them and offered them three measures of meal baked into bread which Sarah had made .
3. The symbol of the three measures of meal speaks of their fellowship of God with His people and their fellowship one with another. It is a picture of the people of God sharing the life and fellowship of God. This principle of sharing is true of the church (I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:3). It is God’s will that Christians should love one another, accept one another, bear one another’s bur-dens, uphold one another and share together the life of Christ. The early church had “all things in common” and the word “common” means “fellowship.” They had oneness and communion in the Body of Christ. We have lost much of this spirit in the church because leaven has entered into the church.
Everyone in this crowd of Jews knew that the woman had no business putting leaven into these three measures of meal because the leaven would mess up the meal
Now lets start with the Leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees”—it’s a curious phrase. Why did Christ feel compelled to warn His disciples to avoid it? Would you recognize this “leavening” if you saw it today? The answer to these questions is important.
What is this “leaven of the Pharisees”? You will find a direct answer in Luke 12:1. “In the mean-time, when an innumerable multitude had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.’” Hypocrisy is here described as the leaven of the Pharisees, but as we will see later, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
“Hypocrite” comes from the Greek word hupokrites and refers to someone who is acting, pretending. It was the custom of Greek and Roman stage actors to speak into large masks with mechanical devices for augmenting the force of the voice. These actors, concealing their real faces and changing their real voices, were called hupokrites, or hypocrites.
Jesus likened the conduct of the Pharisees to actors—men pretending, playing a role. The Pharisees of Christ’s day were a powerful leadership body who claimed to be more zealous and more righteous than the rest of Jewish society. They set themselves up as models of what was right and godly, yet in Christ’s eyes their example was actually destructive. In Christ’s estimation the conduct of these men had a corrupting effect upon those who followed their example—a leavening effect, if you will.
It is interesting that Christ forcefully addressed the issue of hypocrisy from the beginning of His ministry. You might call Matthew 6:1-18 an introduction on identifying hypocrisy.
(a) The hypocrites give offerings for the purpose of being seen and admired (verses 1-2);
(b) they pray to impress men with their voices and their words (verse 5); and
(c) they do all they can to look miserable when they fast so they will be admired for their sacrifice and pitied for their discomfort (verse 16).
Christ’s message to His disciples was simply: "If you do it this way, men’s admiration will be your total reward since I (Christ) will not be looking or listening."
How often do you see someone blow a trumpet to announce his offering or look so tousled, unshaven and unkempt that you have to ask, “Are you fasting today?” But the leavening effect of hypocrisy is far broader.
Most of us are familiar with the situation described in Matthew 22:15-18. The Pharisees brought to Christ a coin bearing Caesar’s image and asked Him if it was appropriate to pay taxes. The Jews of Christ’s time hated the Roman occupation. To say "yes, it is OK," would alienate the Jews. To say " no, you should not," would be treasonous and open to prosecution by the Roman government. Jesus said, in verse 18, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” Here hypocrisy was the masking of their malicious intent.
Verses 15 through 18 make it clear that the intent of the heart and the appearance were different: “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying ‘Teacher, we know that You are true and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. Tell us therefore what do You think?’” Here is a clear example of malicious intent. With smiling faces and flattering words they sought to injure Christ. Paul, who had been a Pharisee before his conversion, could easily see the connection between leaven and malicious intent. In his letter to the Corinthians, written at the Passover season, Paul exhorted, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8). But there is more to the story of the leaven of the Pharisees.
In Matthew 16, Scripture shows that the leaven of the Pharisees goes beyond hypocrisy. Following the miracle of the fishes and loaves, the Pharisees confronted Jesus as they sought a sign. He called them hypocrites to their faces and offered no sign but the sign of Jonah. Later He warned His disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). The disciples did not at first understand what He meant. Christ called the Pharisees hypocrites in verse 3, but the disciples didn’t automatically assume a connection.
It is quite likely the disciples were initially blinded by a guilty conscience. They thought they had received a subtle scolding because no one had remembered to purchase food for the group (Matthew 16:7). Christ explained that He wasn’t dependent upon whether they remembered to buy groceries. After all, hadn’t He just fed a huge multitude with seven loaves and a few fish? With their guilty consciences relieved, they hit upon His true intent, which is described in verse 12, “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
The leaven of the Pharisees is more than hypocrisy; it is also their doctrine. But how or why is their doctrine equated to leaven? We will find as we go along that there is an inextricable link between the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the doctrines of the Pharisees.
The clearest connection between the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and their doctrine is seen in Mark 7:1-9, where the Pharisees complained about the disciples eating with unwashed hands. It should be understood that the traditions, or rulings, passed down generation to generation by the men of the Pharisaical persuasion took on the power of law. To the mind of a Pharisee the sayings of their elders were as binding as the Scriptures. In fact Christ implies they were even seen as more binding than the law of God if the two came into conflict. To Christ this was hypo-critical. How can a body of men who claim to be the most righteous observers of the law of God create traditions that nullify the law of God and still claim righteousness? This didn’t make sense. Christ saw their doctrines, in this case, as hypocritical.
In their zeal toward faithfulness, the Pharisees strove to meticulously tithe everything to God, down to their spices. But Jesus accused them of focusing so much on the details of their traditions—the trees—that they lost sight of the forest: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matt. 23:23-24). I doubt the Pharisees intentionally neglected the call to justice, mercy, and faithfulness from Micah 6:8. But Jesus was still ruthless in his critique of this inadvertent hypocrisy.
Jesus’ words are a warning for us today. What “gnats” are we so focused on that we have inadvertently swallowed “camels”? Have we been straining out cuss words but swallowing racism or sexism? Have we been desperately straining out non-inclusive language while swallowing non-biblical worldviews?
In another example of hypocrisy, Jesus called an entire crowd hypocrites for not knowing how to interpret the present time even though they knew how to interpret the weather (Luke 12:54-56 Like that crowd, we may be adept at reading the stock markets or interpreting the political climate but fail to recognize the spiritual climate. Or perhaps we have misread our spiritual climate, identified the wrong enemies, and offered the wrong solutions.
Because the Pharisees were so highly respected as paragons of religious zeal and virtue, Jesus’ denunciation of them as “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27-28) would have shocked most Israelites in his time. Would we be shocked and offended if Jesus called us hypocrites?
By God’s grace, a different yeast is also at work in our lives and in the world—the yeast of God’s kingdom (Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:20-21). As we immerse ourselves in God’s Word, in a faithful Christian community, and in faith-forming practices, we allow the Holy Spirit to work that yeast into our lives, enabling us to grow into a more sincere, less hypocritical faith and love.
As we continue in Mark 7, we can see the conflict. The Pharisees came to Christ and challenged, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?” (Mark 7:5). Christ responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in vain they worship Me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Mark 7:6-7).
Christ continued His rebuke in Mark 7:8-13, giving examples of traditions passed down by the elders that directly contravened the law of God. His final summation was that in many areas of advice, ruling and even law they had put aside the law of God preferring their traditions instead. To Christ this was hypocritical of a body that claimed superior righteousness since the laws of God are righteousness (Psalms 119:172).
The key to understanding the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:6, 11-12) does not hinge on their zeal in keeping the law, but on their zeal in finding loopholes to twist it to their own ends. Their motto could have been, "How close can we get to the edge without going over?" We could refer to this practice as "brinkmanship" (pushing a situation to the limit to force a desired result)
"'…you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honour Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'" (Matthew 15:6-9)
It was their additions to the Law that Jesus sometimes criticised. Their traditions probably meant some of their rituals and extensions of normal Jewish practice, that even when applied with the right intention - to prevent the breaking of the Law, were causing a millstone of nigh-on-impossible practice to be hung around the people's necks.
The Pharisees had the look. They had the talk but they did not have the walk. Everything about them looked holy from the outside but on the inside they "were like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and every-thing unclean Matt. 23;27 .
Matthew 23:25 28 -- “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” “Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” “Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
The outside looked great but the inside was writhing in evil.
Hypocrisy is intentionally pretending to be what you are not, so though we all struggle in our spiritual lives, only those who pretend otherwise are hypocrites.
Now let us look at the leaven of the Sadducees. Mat 16:6,11,12 speaks of ‘the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees’ or ‘the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees’.
There was no mistaking what the leaven of the Sadducees was. It was their false doctrine. We find they did not believe in the supernatural, in the spirit, in angels, or in a bodily resurrection (Matt. 3:7; Mark 12:18; Acts 5:17; 23:6-8)
Our convictions must be formed based on the scriptures and then we must stand strongly convinced of the truth as revealed in the bible . A man who has strong convictions has three characteristics:
1. A commitment to Scripture as the final authority.
2. A construction of beliefs built on that Word.
3. A courageous spirit to act on those convictions.
5 says, “And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.”
The third leaven we need to watch out for is that of the Herodians. The leaven of the Herodians is the spirit of the world – the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. Herodians were hypocritical. (1 John 2:15-17) In a mixture of clean and muddy water, which one shows up more visibly and which kind would you most likely be able to taste? That’s how sin and Christianity looks and tastes like when people attempt to mix both of them in their lives!
They were a political party associated with the fortunes of the Herodian family who believed the doctrines of Herod the Great. They advocated submission to the Romans and freedom to con-form to pagan religion as well as to Judaism if it was more convenient and if it helped further their political fortunes and secular gain. They could have been courtiers or servants of Herod who was at this time in Jerusalem. They tried to trap Christ by questioning Him, “What do you think? It is lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?” Christ responded, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” They were left speech-less, as they marveled at Him (Matthew 22:15-22).
Herod the Great sought to kill Jesus. Herod Antipas had John the Baptist beheaded. Herod Agrippa killed James, John’s brother, with a sword. He also sought to kill Peter, who in prison in the days of unleavened bread. Also, it was the Herodians, also known as the Zealots, who were disobedient in paying taxes and led to Jerusalem to its fall in 70 A.D.
The leaven of the Herodians has even plagued our generation today in the body of Christ. The lusts of the flesh and eyes have caused us to be separated from God and live in hypocritical lifestyles. 1 John 2:16-17 says, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” Those that walk according to the lusts of their flesh will never succeed in the kingdom of God, but we must crucify our flesh with the lusts thereof. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” If you want to live spiritually, you must crucify the flesh with its lusts.
We are very busy looking for loopholes and are disobedient to the expressed Word of God.. Look for all the loopholes that you want to look for and try to creep out of them. And what is the penalty? Ask Achan (Joshua 7:22-26 ) One mistake cost him his life. . . . . .But not only his life, but all of his entire family. And what about Moses. Why was he prevented from entering the promised land - again one mistake but he did not enter the promised land - see Deut:32:49-52.
God is challenging us to exchange the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and of the Herodians for the love of the good Samaritan. The moral of this story is that you should put aside your differences and help those who are in need of help. The Samaritan did not think about the race or the religion of the man; he just saw a man who needed help.
In using the figure of leaven, Jesus is saying a couple of things.
1. One of the things is this, leaven in that day and age was the symbol of corruption
2. Here’s the other thing. Leaven works silently. It works gradually and it works inevitably. No matter that the doctrines of the Pharisees or the Sadducees or of Herod may have only been believed by people that day, if we continued to tolerate those beliefs they would lead ultimately to apostasy .
3. If we are willing to tolerate a little error - we may say to ourselves that it’s no great thing. We may say it’s just a little error and we may be willing to tolerate it to have peace. If we are willing to tolerate a little error for whatever the reason it is going to spread and it will lead ultimately to outright apostasy. Error, no matter how small, cannot be tolerated. Like leaven it is going to influence the whole and it’s going to lead the whole into unbelief and spiritual blindness.
One additional observation is that in many religious groups there are doctrines of man that are contrary to God’s word. Some of them are small discrepancies when viewed from the world’s point of view. I tell you these small things will lead the whole batch to ruin just as assuredly as what Jesus was saying about the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees and of Herod.
When we are caught up in the world and we see things from the world’s view, it’s difficult for us to see things that are spiritual. It will be difficult for us to see spiritual truths. When we begin to tolerate some small bad thing we need to realize that it won’t be long until it leads to a big bad thing. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
If we are not watchful we can let the leaven of this world creep into our lives, that leaven will work its way into our heart, and cause us to say and do things that we shouldn’t have, perhaps even to think in terms of things like it’s really not all worth it to be a child of God.
