Matthew 13:33 And he told them yet another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”
Luke 13:20 Again he said, “With what will I compare the Kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”
It is commonly thought that when leaven is mentioned in the Bible it represents sin. But is that fully the case?
Let’s look at the word a little more closely to see if we can better understand what is happening here:
The word used for leaven is: שְׂאוֹר s'or (H7603). This literally means “yeast”. But the root of this word can help us get a better feel for its meaning.
The root means “rule” -- as in, the turning of another toward a direction. Other words with this root are: ruler, government, bind, prison, turn, correct, instruction.
So yeast in our lives is the thing that rules us. It’s the teaching we’ve adopted for ourselves and this heavily influences what we believe. And what we believe dictates every corner of our existence.
It takes only a little lie or wounding to ruin our entire life.
Once mixed with flour and water, yeast begins the process of growing the loaf. This bread is what you eat off of and is what sustains you. If the bread is bad, you will be bad. It’s that old adage, “you are what you eat.” How true that is.
Yeshua warned His disciples not to allow bad bread (teaching) to infiltrate their newfound understanding:
Matthew 16:11 How can you possibly think I was talking to you about bread? Guard yourselves from the hametz of the P’rushim and Tz’dukim!” 12 Then they understood — they were to guard themselves not from yeast for bread but from the teaching of the P’rushim and Tz’dukim.
When you are born again, you become unleavened. All of the old teaching, the old ruler, is now gone. This is what we experience each and every year during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We are to take that old understanding and throw it out. We renew ourselves by becoming a clean slate with no yeast. We assume we know nothing and let Him build us up brand new.
Paul tells us this exact thing:
1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know the saying, “It takes only a little hametz [leavened bread] to leaven a whole batch of dough?” 7 Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. 8 So let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz [leavened bread], the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah [unleavened bread] of purity and truth.
Your bread depends on what kind of teaching you absorb for yourself. And a little bit of leaven (bad teaching) can push itself throughout the entire loaf. Don’t you personally know this to be true?
Think about all of those triggers that bring back your old life and your old responses. If you haven’t been set free or able to forgive, rest assured your bread will be tainted. Your “good” deeds will not really be all that good.
This is kind of where we get the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It’s your view of righteousness that you try to push forward but that old leavened bread is still there.
So your righteousness is not righteousness at all.
You may have received the teaching of the Messiah but, if you were never really born again, there are likely old teachings still in you.
And these will come out in everything you say and do. Destruction will sit before you in whatever you touch.
So you need to lay it all down -- fully.
Have you been born again?
Have you ever truly thrown out the old hametz of wickedness and evil? Or is a bit of that still deep within you?
It’s easy to say the right thing here but you’re not fooling anyone (except maybe yourself).
The warning in this parable is that it takes time for new beliefs to really take hold -- after you’ve been born again. You must experience trials, tribulation, joy, ups, downs -- all the things that test your faith.
To begin, lay down all of your views of life and your selfish ways. Then seek healing so you can finally be set free.
Clean the slate and let the teaching of the Messiah push itself down deep.
Once you do, know that it will take a while for the yeast to do its job within you. Be patient. We all want you to be able to present your two loaves of bread at Shavuot. Bread worthy to be received by Abba Himself.