Time and Leaven:
Leaven is a little easier to
explain than time. Bread makers know that leaven is the yeast that makes bread
rise. Wine makers know that yeast is what makes juice ferment. Fermentation is
a byproduct of both wine and bread making. It’s often time what transforms the
lesser to the better. Everyone knows that leavened bread is tastier than flat
bread but the issue of wine to juice is more subjective. Most believe it is for
the better but personally, I don’t see it that way. Drinking engine fuel is not
my idea of wisdom, nor is lighter fluid the tastiest! However, that is not the
point.
Yeasts are single-celled
micro-organisms of the fungus family as are molds. 787 Of the
numerous types of fungi several are pathogenic and many fungi are poisonous. 788
Although the thought of fungi is disgusting to some, many can transform the
mundane into delicacies. Hence, fungi are associated with pleasure. Some even
treasure the dregs left behind in expensive wines. On the other hand, if fermentation
is incomplete the moldy taste remaining is reprehensible. Thus, yeast has both
good and bad characteristics. Sometimes what appears to be good is bad when it
is tasted.
Leaven, as yeast is, uses bad to
propagate goodness. If one has tasted yeast from the package it is repulsive.
On the other hand, the flavor derived from yeast makes bread and wine tasty as
most people prefer. “Light bread” – or leavened bread - can cause body acidification and other issues.
789 What looks and taste so good may surprise those who love their
leaven. Too much is not a good thing!
Time is the enemy of leavening.
There must be time for it to transform from bad to good. Because of the nature
of yeast and the restrictions of time, in some things God dictates that the
leaven be omitted. The “Passover” is a good example of this. 790 Passover
is when the angel of death passed over the first-born Israelites while not
doing so with the Egyptians provided, though, that the blood of a lamb without
blemish was applied to the door posts and upper lintel, and those therein ate
of the roast lamb and unleavened bread.
Time was to be taken to roast
the lamb because of the commandment against the eating of blood which represents
life. 791 On the other hand, time was not to be taken to allow
leaven to raise the bread. They were to leave “in haste” for their own safety.
The pleasure they would receive from eating leavened bread just may be their death,
while on the other hand, the time it took to roast the meat was to honor God by
obedience.
There is a connection then
between leavening and time. The leaven represents pleasure, and if not enough
time, uncleanness. That is the two points of this chapter. Uncleanness and time
are mankind’s enemy, and they both wither us and the Church. Men and women
prefer pleasure although it leads to destruction. Time is their enemy because
it is necessary to transform. Of course, God can make the transformation
instantaneously but Satan delays the transformation or even prevents it. Leaven
is his method. The bread (mankind) is not ready to transform because of the yeast
in our lives and the time is not yet right! 792
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? 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.
There
is much said therein: The leaven – or sin – within us has changed the entire
creature. Pleasure transformed innocent man into a guilty creature back in the
Garden. Throughout the ages, the pleasure principle is still the Serpent’s way.
Furthermore, “Christ is our Passover” because he is the Lamb which sacrificed
for God’s people both in Egypt – the land of sin – and the world at Calvary. Leaven
is disrespectful to the Lord when we do so to honor him.
It is not by coincidence that
the Passover and the crucifixion and resurrection happened on the same dates. Passover
is what became known as Easter. Rather than the bread rising, Jesus did. The
unleavened bread represented the resurrection and the defeat of sin. The lamb back
at the exodus was representative of the Lamb at Calvary. When Moses and company
obeyed at the Passover it was in remembrance of Jesus, and in advance!
Leaven, representing impurity,
takes time. Mankind’s leaven is the pleasure of the world. Everyone wants to
enjoy the flesh until the last moment. God desires that the lump of dough – us –
not be leavened because the time is always near for our death. Satan wants men
to be leavened and God desires that they be unleavened, and without sin.
Before, I was born-again, I was
honest about it. I will wait until I’ve had my fill of leavening. Knowing that
all men are destined to die, then judged, 793 I desired to enjoy the
leaven until the last breath knowing that I could die the next moment. That was
my Egypt! I had to get out and with haste.
There was a Red Sea which had to
be crossed. That was the obstacles Satan placed before me. He kept showing me
the beautiful package of yeast and causing me to remember the light bread I
loved so well. God had me look at the sea before me which would wash me clean,
and only demand that I not look back. (Lot’s
wife learned that not only the leaven but the salt should be left out as well because
she looked back for the leaven!) 794
How does time kill God? Because
Satan says, there is always time. God
says, “Mankind is to make the best
use of time because the days are evil.” 795 Survey says, waste time because it is long, as they say
on the game show Family Feud. There is time for everything: 796
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven:
A time to be born, and
a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and
a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a
time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones
together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time
to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence,
and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time
of peace.
Notice that there is a time for
everything, but no time for God! All those things
are all about us. What about God. Satan keeps us busy so that God gets little
time. One of Satan’s tools is misuse of time. Rather than it be to revere God
it is to nourish, emote, enjoy, and even to hate. Solomon, if he indeed wrote
this, was like the rich young ruler of the New Testament who had time for
everything but God! Solomon was right, “there is nothing new under the sun” 797
and Satan uses the same old leaven which still works by the way!
Even as Christians the leaven
still transforms us. It’s what makes the flesh weak although the Spirit is
willing. I am committing the same tiresome sin as I did as the old creature,
although I have been retransformed. The yeast, unless I choose the leaven as a
lifestyle, cannot reverse transform me. Regardless, of that Satan never admits
defeat. He continues to provide the leaven all the time. Leaven is patient just
as love is supposed to be! As hard as men try we still look back at the leaven.
We enjoy the good leavened bread and the bread of life is sometimes tough to
swallow because it must be eaten in
reverence.
The yeast will always be there
until the end of our days. As we get nearer the day of our salvation, though,
the Lord diminishes the strength of the yeast until it loses its potency, but “behold,
now is the day of salvation!” 798 Satan says, “Not now; there is
plenty of time. Enjoy the yeast.”
Taking time and enjoying the
yeast can kill. That is from the exodus story. Since God wants that none should
perish, taking too much time and enjoying life diminishes his authority. People
kill God by wasting time on the things of the flesh, and for as long as they can!
Satan, as the deceiver, deceives even Christians who at some point in time may
not even consider the will of God.
787
Wikipedia; “yeast”.
788
Wikipedia; “fungus”.
790
Holy Bible; Exod 12.
791
ibid; Lev 17:14.
792
ibid (KJV); 1 Cor 5:6-7.
793
ibid; Heb 9:27.
794
ibid; Gen 19:26.
795
ibid; Ephes 5:16.
796
ibid; Ecc 1:3-8.
797
ibid; Ecc 1:9.
798
ibid; 2 Cor 6:2.
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