Leavening(Page 1 of 13)

Introduction

  • A major hurdle for people to overcome, even Yahweh’s people: SIN!
  • During this time of year we focus on our need to overcome sin.
  • We are shown how leavening is a representation of sin; to remind us of our sinful nature, and how we need to focus on eliminating it.
  • Leavening will alter the attitude we need to have in order to achieve; in order to have the correct relationship with our Maker.
  • I would like to discuss how the Bible addresses leavening:
  • It’s use as a food enhancement product, and
  • How it’s representation for sin can help us recognize actual sin in our lives, and how to eliminate it from our lives.

Food Enhancer

  • What is leavening?
  • It’s a substance that causes fermentation and expansion, primarily in a dough or batter.
  • What is Fermentation?
  • Fermentation is the process in which a substance breaks down into a simpler substance. For example, microorganisms such as yeast or bacteria usually play a role in the fermentation process, creating beer, wine, bread, kimchi, yogurt and other foods.
  • Yeast is an active, or live, unicellular microorganism classified as members of the fungus kingdom, typically measuring 3 to 4 micrometers in diameter.
  • Currently there are over 1,500 species identified.
  • Most yeasts reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by the asymmetric division process known as budding.
  • Perhaps the most useful yeast, having been instrumental to winemaking, baking, and brewing since ancient times, is Saccharomyces Cerevisiae <Sack-ah-roe-meece-eese Sarah-vis-ee-I>.
  • Saccharomyces derives from Latinized Greek and means “sugar-mold” or “sugar-fungus”.
  • By fermentation, the yeast species Saccharomyces Cerevisiae converts carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and alcohols.
  • One important characteristic of fermented dough is that one can reserve it for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough; a little of the fermented dough will ferment non-fermented dough.
  • This is an important principle when we think about how leavening relates to sin.
  • The spiritually-basedsin, represented bythe physically-based leavening, in similar effect, can be an altering or transforming influence.
  • Yeasts are an example of biological leavening.
  • On the other hand, chemical leaveners are mixtures or compounds that release gases when they react with each other, with moisture, or with heat.
  • Most chemical leaveners, also called leavening agents, are synthetic chemical compounds.
  • Whatever the leavening method used, biological or chemical, it incorporates the gas bubbles, normally carbon dioxide, into the dough. The CO2 dissipated, but the space created by the gas remains.
  • An alternative or supplement to chemical leavening agents is mechanical leavening, by which air is incorporated by mechanical means.
  • Using a whisk on certain liquids, notably cream or egg whites, can create foams through mechanical action.
  • One example is the meringue in a lemon meringue pie.
  • This is the method employed in the making of sponge cakes, where an egg protein matrix produced by vigorous whipping provides almost all the structure of the finished product.
  • Steam and air can also be used as leavening agents when they expand upon heating. To take advantage of this style of leavening, the baking must be done at high enough temperatures to flash the water to steam, with a batter that is capable of holding the steam in until set. This effect is typically used in popovers, Yorkshire puddings, and to a lesser extent in tempura.
  • Nitrous oxide is used as a propellant in aerosol whip cream cans. Large densities of N2O are dissolved in cream at high pressure. When expelled from the can, the nitrous oxide escapes emulsion instantly, creating a temporary foam in the butterfat matrix of the cream.
  • Leavening, whether biologically, chemically or mechanically induced,is an expansion of something (e.g. – breads, cakes, and wafers).

Removing Sin

  • The Bible differentiates the usage of leavened bread versus unleavened bread, at the appropriate times.
  • One of the more obvious differentiations is during the spring holy days.
  • The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:9 that “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”. What does that mean?
  • The Passover meal uses unleavened bread to illustrate the need to “eat and get ready to move… fast”.

Deuteronomy 16:3: You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

Exodus 12:34:So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

Exodus 13:3: And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.”

  • Since the children of Israel left Egypt hastily, they did not have time for the bread to rise, so it was made without leavening.
  • We are told that we must eat unleavened bread as part of the Passover meal. Exodus 12:8: Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
  • The week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread uses leavening to illustrate how sin permeates our lives; how it is everywhere; and why we need to eliminate it.
  • How do we do this? We make sin, represented as leavening, a priority for recognition and removal.
  • For instance, we are commanded to only to eat unleavened bread, as a sign of not allowing sin to remain with us.
  • During the 7 days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread we are commanded to:

Not eat anything leavened; bread or otherwise.

Not to retain anything leavened.

Not to retain anything to make things leavened.

  • In addition to not eating leavened products, we are told that we must eat leavened bread.

Exodus 12:15: Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

Exodus 13:6-7:

6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to Yahweh.

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

Leviticus 23:6: And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yahweh; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

  • This carried over with the same restrictions if you were to celebrate the postponed Passover a month later.

Numbers 9:11: On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Numbers 28:17: On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

  • After the Babylonia captivity Israel continued to followed the prescribed practices. Ezra 6:22: And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for Yahweh made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of Elohim, the Elohim of Israel.
  • These practices will be enforced in the future, during the Millennium and beyond. Remember that Ezekiel 40 to the end of the book speaks of the future.Ezekiel 45:21: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
  • Not only do we ingest unleavened bread and not ingest leavened bread, we need to eliminate leavening from our homes.

Exodus 12:19:For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.

Deuteronomy 16:4: And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning.

  • So, should we only focus on active, biological yeast? After all, it’s what was used back then.

Used in Offerings

  • In addition to its use during the spring holy days, unleavened bread has a vital role in sacrificial offerings to Yahweh.
  • Why? Same concept of the relationship of leavening to sin.
  • Mostofferings to Yahweh required unleavened bread.

Leviticus 2:11: No grain offering which you bring to Yahweh shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to Yahweh made by fire.

Leviticus 2:4-5:

4And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

5 But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil.

  • The exceptions to the unleavened bread rule used in sacrifices is for offers of Thanksgiving and the 2 leavened loaves of bread presented at Pentecost; the Feast of Weeks; a presentation of the firstfruits, the chosen of Yahweh who, while once driven by a sinful nature (leavening), have repented and are now symbolically unleavened.

Exodus 34:22: And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest.

Leviticus 23:17: You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to Yahweh.

Consecration of the Priesthood

  • Unleavened products (breads, cakes and wafers) are part of the consecration of the priests.

Exodus 29:1-2, 29:23-24:

1 And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish,

2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour).

23 one loaf of bread, one cake made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread that is before Yahweh;

24 and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh.

  • Unleavened bread and other products, beside the sin and burnt offerings,is also used in:

The ceremony for the vow of the Nazarite.

The offering before war.

Lot’s meeting with the angelic visitors heading into Sodom. Genesis 19:1-3:

1Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”

3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Other Symbolic Uses

  • One interesting use of leaven is how Yahweh’s kingdom will be established; it will start out small, but eventually will encompass all of humanity.

Matthew 13:33: Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

Luke 13:20-21:

20 And again He said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of Elohim?

21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.

  • So how do we make that connection? Look at the preceding parables in both books: Luke 12:18-19:

18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of Elohim like? And to what shall I compare it?

19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”

Expanded Understanding?

  • Biblical references to leaven/leavening implies a biological leaven (i.e. – yeast)?
  • They really only had the active, biologically-based leaveners back then.
  • They may have also used chemically-based leaveners, but the emphasis was on the yeast organisms.
  • For our purposes of identification at this time of year, does leavening extend to mechanical leavening (e.g. – fluffing up egg whites)?
  • Many believe leavening goes beyond yeast, such as baking powder and baking soda.
  • Does chemical leavening also apply to other expansion processes, such as carbonation of sodas?
  • Do other mechanical efforts to expand food need to be considered (e.g. – creaming; integrating tiny air bubbles into a mixture, often used in cookies)?
  • Some Church of God Movement groups believe that other leavening products also fall into the same category as biblical leavening:

Active Dried Yeast: A dormant organism until proofed with moisture; when activated, is a microorganism that will continue to grow and spread with more nutrients (e.g. – bread dough), so it acts as the biblical leavening does at that point.

Chemicals such as:

Baking Powder.

Baking Soda.

Cream of Tartar.

Ammonium Carbonate.

Ammonium Bicarbonate.

Potassium Carbonate.

Potassium Bicarbonate.

Dipotassium Carbonate.

All these are salts that release CO2 in an acid-base type of reaction.

What is the difference in these types versus biologically-based yeasts?

All of the chemically-based leaveners are expended after their chemically alteration is complete.

  • So, should non-active leavening agents be treated the same as active yeast cultures?
  • Not only should we consider this in chemical salts, but also mechanical leavening.
  • If we do treat them the same, then what about other products, such as carbonated drinks, mechanically puffed cereals, etc.?

Conclusion

  • Leavening is used in the Bible as a method to illustrate hidden flaws and motives in people.Matthew 16:6, 11-12:

6 Then Yahshua said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”

11 “How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? – but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

  • And again inLuke 12:1: In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
  • Spiritual leavening is not good; it will expand and corrupt you if you allow it to.I Corinthians 5:6-8:

6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

  • Consider that whenever a little bit of sin in a person or a church is permitted, overlooked, and compromised, it works much like leaven in bread.
  • It will eventually leaven the whole lump, affecting the whole church or the whole world.
  • This permitted sin will lead to other sins and will eventually draw a person or church completely outside of the will and favor of Yahweh and our Savior Yahshua Messiah.
  • As you reflect on eliminating sin during this season, please keep in mind the task ahead of you, and the great reward that awaits you when you prevail!