October 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Luke 13:18-30:

¹⁸Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
²⁰And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
²¹It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
²²And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.
²³Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,
²⁴Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
²⁵When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
²⁶Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.
²⁷But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
²⁸There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
²⁹And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.
³⁰And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

Devotional

The usual explanation of this parable is that the leaven is symbolical of the Word of God. That as leaven penetrates the meal, till the whole is leavened, so the Word of God penetrates the hearts of men and overcomes all resistance. We do not deny that the Word of God works that way. But there is another explana­tion of this parable which to us seems quite possible. Evil, too, infiltrates into the kingdom of God, and enters into men's hearts readily, because men's hearts are inclined unto evil. Now leaven, where mentioned in the Bible in other places is symbolical of evil. The Israelites, when they kept the feast of the passover, had to put all leaven out of their houses; they were not to eat it. If anyone did eat it, "that soul should be cut off from Israel." No meat offering should be made with leaven. Leaven should not be burned in any offering to the Lord made by fire. In the New Testament leaven is symbolical of the corrupt doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which is hypocrisy. And a little of such leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Was it not this way with the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' time? Jesus likened them unto "whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." He told them, "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

Therefore, let us beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is false teaching and hypocrisy.

Prayer

O God, our Father, may we come unto Thee in up­rightness of heart. Remove all hypocrisy from us. May we, not (like the scribes and Pharisees of old,) consider ourselves better than the publicans and sinners, and standing in our own self-righteous­ness, may be greater sinners before Thee than they. May we with all humility confess our sins, also the sin of spiritual pride, and wilt Thou graciously pardon, and cleanse us from all unrighteous­ness. Sanctify us through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Ex. 12:15; Lev. 2:11; Matt. 16:6-12; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor. 5:6; Matt. 23:28.

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