The Spirit of Leavened Hypocrisy

First Day of Unleavened Bread 2016

Howard E Marchbanks, III

April 23, 2016

New Kings James translation of Bible used unless noted.

On this Feast of Unleavened Bread I want to look how Jesus Christ used symbolism of leaven, as an likeness, to help describe the teachings of the Pharisees and Herod.

What Jesus was warning us to be avoiding?

What is the leaven Jesus told his disciples to be on guard against?

What symbolism can we learn, and spiritually discern from His teachings about leaven?

How does the spirit of leavened bread and unleavened bread react to each other?

The Hebrews, known as the Children of Israel were commanded to keep this memorial by removing leaven and eating unleavened bread (when bread was eaten).

In Exodus 12 the words are written:

Exodus 12

15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 

17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

We have a few basic ideas being brought forward in these verses.

You shall eat unleavened bread, If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

You shall remove leaven, If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away.

Whoever eats leavened bread, shall be cut off from Israel, (John 8) 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

They came out of the land of Egypt, (Romans 5:8-9) 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 

Basically understood is the idea or concept of leaven or yeast as an additive in baking that is used to change the physical characteristics of bread.

Leaven products make fancy the grain flour and make it into something lighter and risen, such as a soft loaf of bread, stack of bagels or cake. It causes the expansion of the dough by the release of gases into the mixture.

What do we do at the store, but squeeze the bread to check for freshness? Stale leavened bread is tough, hard, and crumbly. Looks can be deceiving; a closer inspection is usually needed by the discerning shopper.

The loaf of bread is baked and it rises. In the process it is becoming larger than the original dough. Inwardly it is full of small holes making it light and welcoming to squeezing hands. When I heat up flour tortilla at home I put it on the gas stove and flip it over a few times until it starts to brown, steam, and puff up light and hot. My flat unleavened corn tortillas just toast in the fire and parch the corn.

The Pharisees were puffed in their attitude and in character. They used their positions of authority as a political party, a social and religious movement and as schools of thought. They played the part and acted as if they were righteous. Their efforts went towards putting on the look of Godliness.  To be fair the New Testament and Jesus paint a negative picture of the Pharisees. Josephus, who was writing to a Roman population, described them as extremely virtuous and sober, and as despising luxuries

The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906 edition, Topic Pharisees says;**

“They were pledged to a strict observance of their view of Levitical purity, to the avoidance of the ignorant and careless boor, they finally succeeded in infusing their own views and principles into the political and religious life of the people. The Pharisees introduced rites in the Temple which originated in popular custom and were without foundation in the Law. Such was the water-procession of the people, on the night of Sukkot, from the Pool of Siloam, ending with the libation of water in the morning and the final beating of the willow-trees upon the altar at the close of the feast. The rite was a symbolic prayer for the year's rain.

Of decisive influence, however, were the great changes wrought by the Pharisees in the Sabbath and holy days.

To begin with the Day of Atonement, the Pharisees wrested the power of atoning for the sins of the people from the high priest and transferred it to the day itself, so that atonement was effected even without sacrifice and priest, provided there was genuine repentance.

The New Moon of the seventh month was transformed by them from a day of trumpet-blowing into a New-Year's Day devoted to the grand ideas of divine government and judgment

Especially significant are the Pharisaic innovations in connection with the Sabbath. One of them is the special duty imposed upon the mistress of the home to have the light kindled before Sabbath.

Henceforth Jewish life was regulated by the teachings of the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older, priestly tradition. The Pharisees shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future.”

Now notice Jesus Christ’s teaching about leaven, which expands the meaning of this feast and expands our idea of how deep-rooted sin is in all the world’s societies.

During Christ’s ministry He performed two miracles in which He fed thousands of people. After one of these incidents:

Mark 8:14-15

14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

The Herodian dynasty would be a threat to Jesus, John the Baptist, the apostles, and the followers of Jesus Christ.

Herod’s dynasty would try and kill the infant Jesus when he was born, and tried to ruin the church in it’s infancy.

An example of Herod’s evil against the church in its infancy.

Acts 12

1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him,
intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

“Take heed, beware of the leaven of Herod” He does evil to please others for political or social gain. The Church had an unleavened approach to Herod’s terror.

5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. 6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. 7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised
him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” 9 So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

Continuing on the teaching of Jesus Christ about leaven as Jesus and the disciples came across the Sea of Galilee

Matthew 16

5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”

Jesus Christ warned about hypocrisy, which can spread like leaven.

Luke 12

1 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people 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.

The leaven of a Pharisees is hypocrisy and is it fills the doctrine of government and religious leaders from the past as well as in our current era. Human nature is strong and it wants to subvert the will of God even when they think they are doing God a favor.

Hypocrisy Defined

“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 in 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.

From Merriam-Webster.com a simple definition is a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs.

1. a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

2. a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

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.

Let's Go to Matthew 23

(Matthew 23:13) “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

The Jews had a notion about the Kingdom of God. Although we will not find one single mention of the expression “Kingdom of God” in the Old Testament, the Jews did have a messianic hope and still do.

As John Bright put in his book Kingdom of God, published 1952, pages 18 & 19 *: “It involves the whole notion of the rule of God over his people and particularly the vindication of that rule and people in GLORY at the end of history”. “Before Israel’s hope of the kingdom of God could assume such a form, she first had to build a kingdom on this earth”.

During Judah’s and Israel’s hope for a kingdom on this earth, God sent prophets to warn them to repent and respond. The Kings and Priests of Judah in response killed the prophets who came to teach about the kingdom and plead them to return to the one true God.

Back to Matthew 23 verse 14

(Matthew 23:14) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

 ***Clarke's Commentary quotes Josephus, (Ant. l. xvii. chap. 3), who wrote:

“They were in vogue for their long prayers, which they continued sometimes three hours; that perhaps they sold them, as do the Roman priests their masses, or pretended others should be more acceptable to God for them; and so might spoil devout widows by the gifts or salaries they expected from them”.

(Matthew 23:15)“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. 

Travel over land and sea - An expression like leaving no stone unturned; suggesting that they did all in their power to gain converts, but not to God, but to their own sect or system of beliefs! The converts, Proselytes were strangers or foreigners; one who is come from his own people and country, to sojourn with another. They may have been principally sought from among the Gentiles because the majority of the Jewish nation was already on the side of the Pharisees.

The idea of the convert becoming him twice as much a son hell of can be linked to gheh'-en-nah or another name it is known by, the Valley of Hinnom.  (hell - gheh'-en-nah –Valley of Hinnom).

This was an evil place where Baal worshipers burned their sons and daughters in the fire- following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. Called gheh'-en-nah or hell named Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom.

As discussed earlier, members of the religious establishment of Christ’s day taught and practiced manmade traditions that were actually contrary to God’s law and thus sinful.

Mark 7

1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem. 2 Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.

5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

6 He answered and said to them, “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.

7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

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).

172 My tongue shall speak of Your word, For all Your commandments are righteousness.

 Sin makes us become defiled

(Luke 11:44)  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”

Within Judaism contact with a corpse conferred uncleanness.

(Numbers 19:11) ‘He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days.

The unmarked grave opens up the possibility that a religious Israelite would become unclean and unable to participate in Temple services. This could happen without being aware. The Jewish tradition wanted to avoid unmarked graves by keeping grave site outside city walls or villages and further by whitewashing sepultures and tombs and marking graves

The true hazard is the teachings of the Pharisees were just warped enough from the truth of God to defile the believer, without the believer knowing what happened. The changes they made to the Holyday idea of salvation and the sacrifice of the lamb to atone for sin where enough to take the true faith once delivered off course. The manmade philosophies are sin when they try to replace what God has commanded.

The Unleavened Bread of Life

John’s gospel account records a long discussion by Jesus after he performed a miracle feeding people with bread and fish.

Mark 6:34 records Jesus coming across the sea and after he landed seeing a large crowd who he had compassion on because they were like sheep without a shepherd. The head of John the Baptist had been presented after being executed during Herod’s birthday party and John's disciples had taken his body and laid it in a tomb." He provided more than a meal for the people. He provided a deeper spiritual purpose to His life. Physical bread eaten would not satisfy the urges and hunger this physical life would generate.

What bread does a Christian eat that fits what Christ is saying here?

It is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth that we eat on Passover and continue eating during the seven day festival of Unleavened Bread.

The unleavened bread represents Christ’s life within us.

As we eat unleavened bread during the seven days, we’re reminded that we don’t live by bread alone: “Man does not live by bread alone,” as Jesus said on another occasion, “but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

The Days of Unleavened Bread give us a seven-day period to focus on our need to work against sin with the help of Christ’s life within us.

That life, through the power of the Holy Spirit, gives us the faith and the ability to overcome sin, becoming a new spiritual creation in the image of our Father.

The apostle Paul shows us the end result of this spiritual transformation:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

When we think of spiritual leaven our minds should be trained to generally equate it with or as sin which takes many forms, just as leaven takes different forms.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is thus a time of personal reflection on ways sin infects us, overtakes our environment, and becomes a natural part of the society’s morals, religious talk and action and, governmental rule.

We are swallowed up daily in barrages of marketing, society’s morals or right and wrong, and religion confusion lead and deceived by the devil.

1. You shall eat unleavened bread

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth This is the bread that came down from heaven and he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

2.  You shall remove leaven

Take heed; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod --- Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

A hypocrite is a person who claims or pretends to have certain beliefs about what is right but who behaves in a way that disagrees with those beliefs.

Do not put on a false appearance of virtue or religion

Do not act in contradiction to your stated beliefs or feelings

3.  Whoever eats leavened bread, shall be cut off from Israel

Beware of being a hypocrite and associating and ingesting ideas of Hypocrites and blind guides.

They shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.

They do not enter or know the way themselves to the Kingdom and do not allow anyone else to know the way to the Kingdom of God.

4. Come out of the land of Egypt

The religious establishment of our day, as in Christ’s day, teaches and practices manmade traditions that are actually contrary to God’s law and thus sinful.

It is easy to honor Jesus Christ with our lips, and still have our hearts far from being close to Him.

Vain worship of Jesus and God the Father, and following the false or deceptive teaching and doctrines of men that are contrary to the commandments of God will keep us in a spiritual Egypt and a sinful life.

(Psalms 1:1 KJV)  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

(Psalms 1:2 KJV)  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditates day and night.

(Psalms 1:3 KJV)  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

(Psalms 1:4 KJV)  The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

(Psalms 1:5 KJV)  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

(Psalms 1:6 KJV)  For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

*John Bright,  Kingdom of God, Publisher: Abingdon Press 1952, pages 18 & 19

**The Jewish Encyclopedia.com, 1906 edition, Topic Pharisees, by Kaufmann Kohler

 http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12087-pharisees

***Adam Clarke's Biblical Commentary for Matthew 23:14