The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” 16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. 20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”
21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
This is such a confusing topic to so many, they think that yeast signifies sin. It doesn’t, we know it doesn’t because Matthew 16:12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. But notice, Jesus said the “yeast of the pharisees and that of Herod”. Yes, the Pharisees might teach the Bible, but that is not what He is referring to, Jesus is specifically referring to “their teaching” not the Bible’s teaching. We will need to illustrate this with two examples because the teaching of the Pharisees is not the same as the teaching of Herod even though He seems to lump the two together.
Teaching of the Pharisees
Today I was lectured by a brother on the need to keep the Sabbath, the 4th commandment of the ten commandments. So I said fine, do you know when the Sabbath is? He said it was Saturday. I said Saturday? I have never seen the Bible use that term can you show me the verse that tells you it is Saturday? He then showed me a number of verses that said that the Sabbath is the seventh day which he explained to me is “Saturday”. I pointed out that “Saturday” means “Saturn’s day” and Saturn signifies Satan. Saturday is an invention of the Gregorian calendar and has nothing to do with the Biblical calendar. I explained that in the Bible the first day of the month is the new moon. This is very clear in the Bible. From that day you count seven days with that day being the first and you come to the Sabbath. If you do it right the first quarter of the moon will be the sabbath, the full moon will be the sabbath, etc. At the end of the month you will have a new moon which will be a “long weekend” of two to three days. This also is in the bible. For example, Passover is the 14th day of the first month. You can check, it will always be on a full moon, however, since it is the 14th day it is also a sabbath day and that also is in the Bible referring to it as the “Passover sabbath”. So then he said that he decided that he would celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. To which I responded, “oh, that is like me deciding to celebrate the Lord’s day on Sunday”.
Teaching of Herod
Likewise with the teaching of Herod. This has really been brought home this last year with the pandemic. We were told to “respect the science”. That is the teaching of Herod. When someone said that the Pandemic was the China virus they were being racist, not respecting the science where we were told matter of factly that the evidence of a natural origin was overwhelming. That was a lie, no evidence at all that it was natural origin and instead the evidence that it was created in a bioweapons lab in China that was all but conclusive. We were told that we needed to socially distance and be at least six feet apart. This was based on science we were told and it was, what they didn’t tell you is that this study showed that being 3 feet apart was virtually as good. If we were 3 feet apart we wouldn’t need to shut down the schools, or restaurants, or churches, or many other events. Once again “respect the science” is simply code for trust us we know what we are doing. When we began to ask questions of Dr. Fauci we were told that to question Dr. Fauci is to question science. So even though science is all about asking questions Herod’s teaching to “respect the science” is about shutting up, doing what you are told, and don’t ask any questions.
So then in a nutshell the leaven of the pharisees is to shut up, do what you are told and don't ask questions because we know the Bible. The leaven of Herod is to shut up, do what you are told and don't ask questions because we know science.
Yeast makes the bread rise, it is fluffy, it is easier to eat. This is why people allow this. They don't have to think, just do what they are told.
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