Growing up in a Christian environment and religion, I was told that the "leaven of the Pharisees" is tantamount to "going under the law", with the following scripture being used as the proof text: “And Yeshua said to them, 'watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees''" (Matthew 16:6). Paul, for his part, warns the believers that if they submit to the law of circumcision the Messiah will be of no benefit to them (see Galatians 5:2-3). He then adds to it by saying, “a little leaven will leaven the whole lump” (ref. Galatians 5:9). Thus, as a new believer, unaware of the above scriptures' context, I was left with the impression that Elohim has eliminated the “Old Testament” that is, the “Law”. Moreover, these interpretations had the potential of breeding an anti-Semitic attitude toward Judaism and the Jews.
But if we go back to the beginning, that is to Genesis. we
will notice that leavening really has nothing to do with the 'Law'. The real 'leaven'
actually came as a result of believing and acting upon (eating) the fruit of
Satan’s words. Adam and Eve were leavened with the agent of sin and rebellion
and every evil thing, and that included the “good” of the Tree of Knowledge.
This leaven always results in puffing up the pride and righteousness of one's self-life.
Because of what took place in the Garden of Eden, all of humanity has been
leavened with “Sin”.
As believers in the New Covenant, we are exhorted to, “clean
out the old leaven, that you [we] may be a new lump, just as you [we]
are in fact unleavened" (emphasis added). How did
we become unleavened from sin? “For Messiah, our Passover also has been
sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate
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 5:7-8).
How important is this for us to
grasp by faith and act upon!
The Torah helps to understand this great mystery of our
cleansing from all the leavening of sin. Notice that our forefathers had to
leave Egypt immediately after the Lamb had been slain. With its blood on
the doorposts, they left in a hurry before the new dough had a chance to
leaven. “And they baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into
cakes of unleavened bread. For it had not become leavened, since they
were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any
provisions for themselves” (Exodus 12:39 emphasis added). Why the immediacy and how does it pertain to
us? Could it have to do with our being
joined to Yeshua in His death, and as He was hurried to the grave, so must we be
buried with Him without delay in our immersion?
Messiah’s blood has cleansed and continues to cleanse us, so that
we as a new lump of new creation's unleavened dough may be leavened by the
“Kingdom of Heaven.” The
Israelites of old were told that "nothing leavened shall be seen among
you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders…" This
is how thoroughly we are to be cleansed by the blood of the Messiah. Furthermore, “…And you shall tell your son
on that day, saying, 'It is because of what YHVH did for me when I came out of
Egypt'" (Exodus 13:7b-8). How much more should we be telling the next
generation of how YHVH took us out of the bondage of sin and death (at
Passover) demonstrating to them that we have been cleansed of the old leaven and
are now leavened with the Spirit, that is His Kingdom! “And again He [Yeshua]
said, 'to what shall I compare the kingdom of Elohim? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid
in three pecks of meal until it was all leavened" (Luke 13:20-21).
We are
coming to Shavuot and the time of the waving of two loaves of leavened bread,
as it is written: "You shall bring in from your dwelling places two
loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall
be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to YHVH” (Leviticus
23:17). The grain for these loaves is
taken from the new growth of wheat hence the leaven in them is not the leaven of sin but the leaven of
heaven. The reason being is that Yeshua
was the "first- beginning wave offering that now allows us to partake of
the new growth of His Kingdom. (See Acts 2)
Thank you, let the Kingdom of Heaven grow in me and us, into two loaves to wave before our king.
ReplyDeleteYes and Amen to that!
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