leaven Archives – Sonshine's Journal

Leviticus 1-3 I love to make homemade bread. Over the years, I have made more yeast breads than number could count. I have seen the effect of yeast to change the dough. God told Moses if any were to bring a grain offering, it was not to have any leaven. In that day, honey and yeast were the leavening agents because they caused fermentation. Both are an illustration of sin. You can’t see the leavening agent, just like you can’t see sin, but you do see the effects of it. Leaven causes the dough to rise and change form, and sin changes me inwardly and sometimes outwardly. Is there any leaven in my/our life when I offer myself to God?

Then also, God gave instructions to Moses about the sin offerings. He required that they be pure and set apart. They were to have no blemish of any kind. Am I set apart when I present myself to God? Am I/are you without blemish, pure and holy without sin? As the sin offerings were burned on the altar, they produced a sweet aroma. Am I/are you a sweet aroma to God?

Such practical lessons!

Jesus no sooner finished his miraculous feeding of the 4000 when appeared on the scene the Pharisees seeking a sign. Where had they been when this was all taking place? Surely had they been there that would have been sign enough or so we would think. However, since early times they and the Jews have been looking for signs and no matter how many God has given, they always seem to need just one more. This reminds us of John D. Rockefeller when at the height of his incredible wealth was asked how much money is enough and responded “one more dollar.” So when the Pharisees asked Jesus for yet another sign he asked: “Why does this generation look for a sign?” 1Co 1:22 For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom. Would they have believed him then as THE Messiah? Probably not and that is the way it is today with many who refuse to see and believe the evidence before them because: what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them in creation and still they refuse. Their spiritual insight is as the blind man we see next.

Someone brought Jesus a blind man for healing. Now this man had not seen THE Messiah nor had he seen the miracles that he had performed. He did not come to seek a sign nor did he come on his own seeking healing. Imagine being blind and then being restored to sight and seeing THE Messiah as your first image. How would you have responded? Would you want to see “more?” What more could there be than the very image of God Himself in living flesh? His physical sight and his spiritual sight were both restored to wholeness.

The Pharisees like many want to “see more” but the blind man was content to “see” and believe that the Messiah himself was standing before him. How often are we like the Pharisees and want God to provide just one more piece of evidence that Jesus is who he said he was? Listen to what Jesus said: I tell you the truth; no sign will be given to this generation. Perhaps that is why Jesus told the disciples to beware of the yeast or leaven of the Pharisees for they would never be satisfied to have just plain sight, they needed more convincing.

Beloved, are you content for sight to see or are you looking for yet another sign? May we yearn not for signs but spiritual truth.

Tag: leaven

Do I have leaven in my life?

“What Are You Looking For?”