Daily Devotional for Monday, March 2

The Attitude of Hypocrisy

“Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,” Luke 12:1.

Last year, I bought a bag of yeast for making bread. After I opened it, I poured the rest into a jar to keep it sealed. I do not bake bread or make pizza every week, so the yeast will take a while to use up.

Lately, my bread dough was not rising well. Good thing my family likes flatbreads and thin crust pizzas! When I want fluffy bread dough, I use a small packet of fast-acting yeast. My bread balloons up nicely. The yeast agitates the dough, consumes the sugar in it, and releases carbon dioxide, making the dough puff up.

In Luke 12:1, Jesus was in “an innumerable multitude.” He had just publicly pronounced woes on the corrupt Pharisees. They repeatedly tried to trap Jesus in His words but needed an actual accusation that would stick.

Jesus turned to that huge crowd and said to the disciples, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees” (verse 1). Yeast is leaven, and what does yeast do? It agitates the dough, consumes the sweetness in it, and blows a bunch of hot air! Jesus described their hot air as hypocrisy. Their hypocrisy was spreading like wildfire, or like yeast permeating a whole batch of dough. They were puffed up and leading others to be puffed up. 

Jesus warned that nothing is secret. Moses warned the two and a half tribes who stayed on Jordan’s east side that they must keep their promise to the Lord. To break it would be sinning against Him. Moses said, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Jesus said what is covered, hidden, spoken in the dark or in private would be revealed, known, brought to light and proclaimed from housetops. Pharisees vowed to lead Israel in truth and godliness, but they were not keeping their promise. Jesus, like Moses, was saying: “be sure your sin will find you out.”

THOUGHT

“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known”

(Luke 12:2).

Kelli Reynolds