Leviticus 2 — Thoughts

Where Do You Keep Your Yeast?

As someone who enjoys baking, I need to make the dough rise. I usually use baking soda or baking powder, but in Ancient Israel it was yeast. Either way, all of these ingredients have the same effect — add just a little, and it affects the whole batch.

That’s a good thing in baking, but a little can go a long way in a negative sense, too.

Sin works that way.

It’s why James tells us that whoever keeps all of God’s law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

It’s why Paul used yeast as a metaphor for “malice and evil” and bread without yeast as a metaphor for "sincerity and truth.”

And it’s why Jesus warned us to beware “the yeast of the Pharisees” (the fake religious people of His day).

This is alarming to consider, because it means the bar for holiness is higher than any of us can reach. We’re hopelessly sinful on our own. We need someone else to save us.

Thankfully, Jesus did.

That’s why the bread offerings in this chapter had to be unleavened — without yeast. They’re pointing us to Jesus, our sinless Bread of Life.

He lived a sinless life and then died in our place for our sin. Because He did that, when we put our faith in Him, our sin transfers to Him, and His holiness transfers to us.

He takes our yeast and makes us unleavened bread.