Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – John 3-4
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 8:15-19
Jesus: Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about and discussed it among themselves.
Some Disciples: What?
Other Disciples: He’s saying this because we have run out of bread.
Jesus (overhearing them): Why are you focusing on bread? Don’t you see yet? Don’t you understand? You have eyes—why don’t you see? You have ears—why don’t you hear? Are you so hard-hearted?
Don’t you remember when I broke the five rounds of flatbread among the 5,000? Tell Me, how many baskets of scraps were left over?
Disciples: Twelve.
Jesus: And how many were left when I fed the 4,000 with seven rounds?
Disciples: Seven.
Jesus: And still you don’t understand?
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Yeast and leaven. It spreads through the dough so quickly and thoroughly. In baking, it is such wonderful stuff. It makes tiny little air pockets in the dough so it makes it puff up and makes bread and cakes light and fluffy. Whoever discovered you could use leavening agents in baking did a great service for the world because it makes baked goods taste so good. But then again, maybe it was also part of our downfall since we have a tendency to eat too much of those tasty treats and it adds to the obesity of our generation. I digress, back to the story.
The disciples thought Jesus was talking about bread. He wasn’t. He was thinking about His recent encounter with those snakes, the Pharisees. He was thinking about they way they refused to listen and believe God even when they saw the evidence right in front of them of His hand at work. They wanted one more sign, one more proof, one more miracle, one more something. They were never satisfied because they wanted to be the center of attention, not God.
That’s want Jesus was talking about with the disciples that day. The Pharisees’ brand of religion put this selfish thought upper most in everyone’s mind. Put my way first. Put my rules first. Put my thoughts above everything else. It doesn’t matter what God wants. My way is more important. Self takes precedence. So when the Pharisees encountered Jesus and He challenged their structure and their way of life. They couldn’t handle it. When He disagreed with their emphasis on the petty things of life that they held as most important, they called Him an instrument of Satan.
The biggest problem, though, is Jesus saw their philosophy and their influence had the same influence in the world as yeast or leaven in bread. Once it gets into action, it is so difficult to stop it. It spreads and is hard to stop. People pick p on it and spread it and share it because Satan pulls this veil over our eyes. We like Adam and all of his offspring after him have this selfish seed in us that wants to believe Satan instead of God. We want to satisfy this selfish drive instead of giving ourselves to the God who made us.
And Herod was just as bad. His problem was not just hiding behind a religious veil saying he was a Jewish king, but then living the life of a Roman. He indulged in all the vices of the pagan world around him, but said he lived as one of God’s chosen people. The duel citizenship he thought he could live only showed how far away from God he really was. Yet many followed him thinking it was okay to live his same lifestyle since he was king.
Do we do the same thing today? Does the story fit us in this generation? I’m afraid so. Whether we want to talk about the Hollywood celebrities so many emulate, or the sports figures that pocket millions in salary but find themselves on the wrong side of the law, or politicians that think themselves above the law, or any number of other segments that we tend to focus on, there are those that spread leaven in our society. They plant seeds of evil, lifestyles that run contrary to the life God wants us to live. Yet we flock to them thinking it’s okay to follow their pattern of life. It’s not.
Look around, though, and you’ll find people wearing the same style clothes, styling their hair the same, using their same speech patterns. We fall into the trap of letting these leavening agents of sin slip into our lives, sometimes without even thinking about it. Jesus warns us, “Beware of the yeast, the leaven.” I don’t think He would use the terms Pharisee or Herod today. But instead He would point to those figures of authority we tend to blindly follow that will lead us to our destruction if we are not carefully discerning whether they are following God or self.
How can we tell? Know God’s word. If they act in a way that is not in concert with His word, beware. God does not contradict Himself. Beware the yeast and leaven. It spreads before you know it.
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