“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”
Summary: What is it about yeast that makes for a good parable? The answer is that yeast when mixed with flour is invisible, just like the kingdom of God or the teachings of Satan.
“He told them still another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.’”
(Matthew 13:33)
When we started talking about yeast, we were talking about the “kingdom of heaven.” Soon we were up to our elbows in flour as we kneaded our way through this parable. The kingdom of heaven is “like” …
It is not like the woman who mixed the yeast in the flour.
Nor is it like the flour itself.
Instead, the kingdom of heaven is like yeast. Why?
Yeast is small, almost invisible. When mixed in with the flour, it is invisible and impossible to discern from the flour. So from this, it seems clear that the “kingdom of heaven” is invisible.
When the yeast is mixed with flour, and water is added, you have dough. Given time, the dough will “rise” as the yeast does its work. This is how you know that there is more than flour and water in the dough. We can see from this that the kingdom of heaven changes people.
But, wait! Is the kingdom of heaven the only invisible thing that changes the people who have it?
No, no, no, no…
As Paul reminds us in his letter to the Galatians, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” Good yeast does good things, and bad yeast does bad.
In Matthew 16:6 Jesus warns his disciples, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” What?! This saying seems to come out of the blue. Jesus, always on task, never loses sight of what his Father in heaven wants him to be doing. In the same way, he alerts his disciples to danger. Verse 12 tells us that Jesus was warning ”against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
It seems odd, doesn’t it? Jesus, Son of God, comes to earth, and instead of patting the clergy on the back and saying, “Well done!” he ends up warning people away from them. What happens to those who follow their teachings? The teachings, like yeast, work their way into their thinking and become part of who they are. Like yeast, the teachings are invisible.
What happens when we listen to the wrong teachings? Here is what Jesus says about those who teach wrongly:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (Matthew 23:15)
Every once in a while I see ads that encourage kids to read. They suggest that reading is healthy and good regardless of what you read. The reality is much different. Reading the wrong thing, like using the wrong yeast, can end up very badly. The same holds true for churches today. If a church is not teaching God’s Word, we need to be on guard.
Application: Check your yeast before using it.
Food for Thought: Is there any such thing as “harmless” “bad yeast,” and if not, what are we supposed to do?
Is there anything that is bad, unscriptural, untrue, ungodly that is in reality “harmless”?
No. Some hold to the doctrine of you can do whatever you want as long as you “do no harm.” The problem is that we become our own standard of what we think causes harm. I think I can hear this hiss of the snake saying, “Did God really say…”
Oh Rich…
Well said! The serpent does indeed still whisper in our ear! And living by God’s standard requires us to keep our eyes on Him at all times.
As Rich implied, who determines what causes harm? Who draws the boundary? Who defines it?
God does. The commands of God aren’t just a bunch of random rules to follow. They are the guideline to living long, healthy, peacefully with others, fairly, and most importantly lead you to heaven with Him instead of hell with weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Is it harmless to be sentenced to hell, regardless of the gain on earth?
A –
Amen!
There is no such thing as a “harmless sin,” nor can mankind change God’s law. All other references that I can find pertaining to leaven or yeast in the scriptures are symbolic of sin. I know a youth prison minister who proclaims, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, will keep you longer than you want to stay, and will cost you more than you want to pay.” I’m so thankful for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Romans 5:12-21
JEC,
Thank you for sharing your friend’s saying. If it is okay, I think I will borrow that. 🙂
12-04-2022, Is there any such thing as “harmless” “bad yeast,” and if not, what are we supposed to do?
No, and we should stay far away from appearance of evil.
We will know with the discernment given to each of us by the Holy Spirit, and Christ in each of us will reach out to those as He choses.
John 16:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:22
Ron,
The 1 Thess 5:22 verse is interesting: “reject every kind of evil.”
But how do we know what is evil and what isn’t? This is where the discernment you talk about is so important. We need to see Good and Evil from God’s perspective and for that we need the Word and the Spirit.