About that leaven 531-1 - 12 - 4

There are 29 references to leaven in the Bible in 20 verses, 18 in the Old Testament and 11 in the New Testament.

Exodus 12:15; 12:19; 13:7; 34:25

Leviticus 2:11; 6:17; 10:12; 23:17

Amos 4:5

Matthew 13:33; 16:6,11,12; 8:15

Luke 12:1; 13:21

1 Corinthians 5:6,7,8

Galatians 5:9 

First mention of leaven in the Bible, Exodus 12:15, “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.”

Matthew 13:33, “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”

“We believe that in this parable the meal represents the food of God's people as it is found in the Bible. The leaven is evil doctrine. The woman is a false prophetess who teaches and beguiles (Revelation 2:20). Is it not significant that women have been the founders of several false cults? Forbidden by the Bible to teach in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34; 1Timothy 2:12), some have defiantly taken the place of doctrinal authorities and have adulterated the food of God's people with destructive heresies.”

[Believer’s Bible Commentary]

Jesus warned of the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Luke 12:1, “In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” This warning was repeated in Matthew 16:6,11,12 and Mark 8:15. Today there are unbiblical teaching, discernment is very needed to separate the wheat from the chaff.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8, “6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Galatians 8:9, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”

The Nicolaitanes of the Temple accused Jesus of being demon possessed, as a result Jesus started to speak in parables. Two somewhat similar parables are found in Matthew 13 with different results; the tares among the wheat and the leaven. The tares and the wheat were left to grow together and at the harvest the tares were burnt and the wheat was saved. Here sin (tares) was mixed with good (wheat); however, the wheat was salvageable. In the case of the leaven, the whole loaf was leavened or puffed up. Leaven is synonymous with sin.

As I understand to God there no difference between little and big sins; sin is sin. Like leaven, a little sin puffs up the whole loaf/ individual. Like with the Passover Feast, leaven/ sin is to be cleaned from our being. Far easier said than done.