Beware the Leaven

This past week God awakened me with the words “Beware the Leaven.” As I began to research the term and use in Scripture, I discovered that “leaven” is mentioned in the Bible 22 times in the Old Testament and 17 times in the New Testament and always represents sin or evil. With this in mind, God began to flood my mine with all the ways that leaven—sin or evil has permeated our society during my lifetime. We lived in communities that were safe and everyone was like family ministering to one another. We never locked the doors, and someone’s word was their bond. There was little to no crime and people were entertained by sitting on the front porch visiting with neighbors. It was a slow-paced lifestyle with fathers as bread-winners and mothers homemakers caring for the children. Most everyone attended church every Sunday and children were taught Bible stories and songs and to memorize Scripture. Boys were boys and girls were girls, marriage was between one man and one woman and divorce was rare. Both prayer and Bible reading was a part of school every day. Alcohol and cigarette smoking were the only vices and sexual promiscuity was condemned. Today most people do not even know their neighbors and homes and property are locked down and secured for safety. Trust in one’s word or promise is lacking as lying and deception have become a reality especially by the “fake news.” Crime rates have spiked and big cities are avoided because of drive-by shootings and assaults. Sunday has become a day for scheduling school competitions, sporting events and just another day on the calendar with a decrease in church attendance. Churches have left biblical teachings and have become seeker-friendly entertainment venues. Children have been indoctrinated by gender confusion as transgender and sex orientation have become everyday topics. Bible reading and prayer have been replaced by cell phones, internet, and social media with unlimited access to pornography and child sex trafficking rings. Most children come from broken homes and raised in daycares. Drugs, vaping and alcoholism have become prevalent among youth. Today terrorist organizations, on-line child exploitation, genocidal campaigns, organized crime syndicates, political corruption, cybercrime, misinformation and lies, cults and false religions, moral compromise, and persecution of Christians are in the news every day! Truly we can see how “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:9) It is time for us as believers to remain steadfast, exhort one another daily, and guard our hearts against the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3: 13) “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. And the victory that has overcome the world is this—our faith.” (1 Jn. 5: 4)

The first mention of “leaven” in the Bible is in Exodus 12:15. This was just before the Passover, in which God destroyed all of the firstborn of Egypt, but spared the firstborn of Israel in the last of the 10 plagues that He visited upon Egypt. God gave instructions to Moses and Aaron that they were to command Israel to celebrate this Passover each year “throughout your generations” with a feast. This feast, called the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” followed the Passover day (the 14th day of the 1st month on the Jewish calendar). It lasted 7 days. During the first day of this week, they were commanded to remove all leaven from their houses. In addition, they were not to eat any bread which contained leaven for the whole week. (Ex. 12: 15; 13: 6-7) In Leviticus 2:11 God prohibits leaven in grain offerings to the Lord, emphasizing purity and sincerity in worship? “No grain offering that you present to the LORD shall be made with leaven.” The Feast of Unleavened Bread in Leviticus 23:6-8 speaks of communion with Christ, the unleavened wave-loaf, in the full blessing of His redemption and of a holy walk. The divine order is beautiful: First, redemption; then holy living. However, there are two offerings where leaven bread is offered. The use of leaven in the Peace Offering is significant. Peace with God is something which the believer shares with God. Christ is our peace-offering. (Eph. 2: 13-18) In verse 13 it is the offerer who gives thanks for his participation in the peace; so, leaven fitly signifies that although he has peace with God through the work of another, the offerer still has evil in him. The other feast where leaven bread is used is in the Wave Offering found in Leviticus 23: 17. This offering was offered fifty days after the resurrection of Christ and corresponds to Pentecost. This was the period between the resurrection of Christ and the formation of the Church at Pentecost by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There were two loaves with leaven at the Feast of Weeks representing the Church consisting of both Jews and Gentiles where there is still evil.

The Old Testament points to Jesus as the “unleavened bread” so in the New Testament Jesus referred to Himsel as the “Bread of Life.” (Jn. 6: 30-35) He was, of course, also without sin. “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” In addition, a “blood sacrifice” (the blood also represented Jesus in the Old Testament) was not to be offered with leavened bread. (Ex. 23: 18) “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10: 10) Leaven being bred of corruption and spreading through the mass of that in which it is mixed symbolizes the pervasive character of evil and is inconsistent in offerings which typified the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ.

Leaven is also mentioned in the New Testament. In Matthew 16: 6-12 Jesus compared the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians to leaven. The Pharisees had come to Jesus to test Him but Jesus perceived their true intent and the state of their hearts. He later warned His disciples against being taken in by their teachings, which He compared to leaven. A small portion of the “leaven” of falsehood can permeate a person’s heart and mind. In Luke 12:1 Jesus says, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” They prized themselves on the knowledge of the Torah and oral traditions—Mishnah, Talmud, Zohar, and Kabbalah. Jesus knew the dark roots of the Jewish mysticism when He warned in verses 2-3 “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” Having head knowledge and a show of piety without true holiness and truth, is like leaven in that it gradually increases and spreads corruption, puffing up a person with vanity. Lies and hypocrisy can poison one’s whole character. Jesus addressed the religious Jews in John 8:44, declaring, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.” This was not a statement about biological lineage, but a spiritual indictment based on their actions and motives. This same leaven can be seen today in some of the infiltration of the government of Israel according to Revelation 3:9: “Behold I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but are liars—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you.”

In Matthew 13 Jesus spake seven parables that He called “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. (v. 11) Taken together they describe the result of the presence of the Gospel in the world during the present age, that is, the time of seed-sowing which began with our Lord’s personal ministry and will end with the “harvest.” (vv. 40-43) The result is the mingled tares and wheat, good fish and bad, in the sphere of Christian profession. As Christians, we are to go forth sowing the seed of the Word in a field which is the world. One-fourth of the seed takes permanent root, and the result is “wheat” (v. 25), or “children of the kingdom” while the tares are the children of the devil. (v. 38) Among these seven parables is another one about “leaven.” “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” (v. 33) The use of leaven in the three measurements of meal seems intended likewise to represent evil within the kingdom of heaven. The teaching that leaven in this parable represents the beneficial influence of the Gospel does not line up with Jesus’ other 6 teachings in this chapter. Nowhere in scripture does leaven represent good; the idea of a converted world at the end of the age is contradicted by the presence of tares among the wheat and bad fish among the good in the kingdom itself. Although Biblical truth has a beneficial moral influence on the world the mingling of leaven is not the method of divine salvation or enlargement of the kingdom. Tares never become wheat. The parable is, therefore, a warning that true doctrine, represented by the meal, would be corrupted by false doctrine.

Truly we are in a time of great deception as we seek to know and discern truth. I John 4: 1 instructs us to test the spirits; “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The Bereans were praised for examining the Scriptures daily in Acts 17: 11 and sets a model for believers today. This means any teaching that denies the incarnation of Jesus—His true humanity and divinity—is not from the Holy Spirit. We are to compare teachings to the Bible as our ultimate standard. (2 Timothy 3: 16-17) We are to evaluate the outcomes of teachings to see if it promotes love, humility, unity, and obedience. (Gal. 5: 22-23) We must evaluate the speaker, their ministry or personal agenda to see if it glorifies God and Christ. We must question to see if the message aligns with the core teachings of Scripture, or does it introduce heresies that contradict biblical truth. Testing the spirits requires discernment, a deep knowledge of Scripture, and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

We can conclude from these scriptures that “leaven” in both the Old Testament and New Testament are pictures of sin and “a little sin can wind up destroying the whole body.” This body can be symbolic of our individual body or the larger body of Christ (the Church). Steve Shirley had this to say concerning this: “I believe a good parallel to this can be seen on the 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread God commanded that all leaven (sin) should be cleaned out of the house. As Christians, our bodies are the “house” or Temple of God, and we are told not to “defile” God’s Temple with sin (1 Cor. 3: 16-17), but rather, we are to “glorify God in our body.” (1 Cor. 6: 19-20)

Paul warned the church at Corinth against tolerating sin in their midst, using leaven as a metaphor. (1 Cor. 5: 1-8) There was a man in the church who was guilty of sexual immorality. Paul told them to remove the man from their fellowship because, like leaven, his influence would permeate the whole church. “Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?” Paul asks. (v. 6). Then he points them to the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread: “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (v. 7) He also said such a person should be “judged.” (v. 12) The reason for this is because if one person is allowed to continue in unrepentant sin (we all sin, but as Christians must repent for it), it will soon affect the rest of the body (the whole lump). Paul closes the chapter with one of the most sober and difficult warnings in the Bible for Christians. He warns Christians to not even “associate” with a “brother” who is practicing unrepentant sin. Paul makes a distinction between a Christian “brother” and a person who is not a Christian. Why does Paul issue this warning? It seems clear from the numerous previous warnings that it is because his sin can have a negative impact on either our personal walk with the Lord, or on the church as a whole. Are we heeding this warning as Christians?

Paul gives us our marching orders for purging the leaven from our lives in 1 Timothy 4. Read and meditate upon the whole chapter and allow God to speak to you. He ends with this command: “Give attention to yourself and your teaching. Persevere in these things, for in doing so you will save yourself and those who hear you.” (vv. 15-16)