The leaven of the Pharisees
Matthew 16:6-12
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
The brutal bloody war in Ukraine by Russia’s Vladimir Putin has brought to light an ugly debate inside the Zionist Israeli state as to the problem of accepting Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian war on Ukraine who are non-Jews is going to dimmish or dilute the status of “a Jewish state for a Jewish people” the notion on which the Jewish Zionist state was founded.
The New York Times article, Ukraine War Ignites Israeli Debate Over Purpose of a Jewish State reported that:
Of the more than 15,200 Ukrainians who have arrived in Israel since the war began last month, nearly 11,000 do not meet the citizenship threshold. Even though most have relatives or friends in Israel, they are considered refugees, not immigrants, and subject to stricter rules.
The influx has ignited an emotional debate over what it means to be a Jewish state, pitting the national imperative to maintain Israel’s Jewish character against Jewish values that demand caring for those in need.
Some right-wing politicians and commentators have warned that the continued flow of non-Jews into the country could dilute its Jewish identity. Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right lawmaker, warned that Israel’s acceptance of refugees would “flood the state of Israel with gentiles.”
For Christians, this further proves that the Jewish Israeli secular state built loosely upon the foundation of Pharisaical Judaism is not the fulfilment of Bible Prophesy according to the prophets of YHWH (possibly pronounced as Yahweh) in the Holy Bible.
The Israeli Jewish state of Israel is based on the prejudicial and racist doctrine of the Talmudic Judaism, which followed Pharisaical Judaism, which was a post-exilic doctrine formed in Babylon after the destruction of the temple and the exile of the house of Judah from the Babylonian Captivity of 586 BC.
Pharisaical Judaism interpreted YHWH’s written Law to discriminate against the Gentiles or strangers who were not consisting of physical Israelites. This was contrary to YHWH’s holy law of God and Jesus rebuked and denounced this prejudice and corruption of God’s Holy Law before he died on the cross fulfilling the Old Covenant law.
Jesus repeatedly taught about and denounced the Jewish prejudice of Pharisaical Judaism just as he taught and superseded the Pharisees' misunderstanding of the law of God and its application toward Israel and the Gentiles.
When Jesus was questioned by the scribes to try Jesus and attempt to find a flaw in his doctrine, Jesus revealed the true nature of God’s law.
Mark 33:28-34
¶ And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
Jesus was teaching about God’s coming Kingdom of God on the earth and a Kingdom which would encompass both Jews, or Israelites, and Gentiles, non-Israelites.
The Jewish Pharisees and scribes understood their “neighbor” meant only Israelites, not the stranger but Jesus taught otherwise.
Luke 10:25-37
¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Pharisaical Judaism in time becomes Talmudic Judaism named after the Babylonian Talmud, which was based on an oral law (Halakha) based upon Gods Holy Written Law (Torah) and the addition of the commentary of the Jewish Rabis and finally codified and written some down 600 years after Jesus the Christ of Israel had shed his blood on the cross in 33AD for the sins of the children of Israel and the fulfillment of the New Covenant YHWH made with Israel superseding the Old Covenant God made with Israel.
Furthermore, the Talmud (Doctrine) came 600 years after the creation of the Kingdom of God, fifty days after the Passover (holy blood sacrifice) of Jesus the Christ, which began on the day of Pentecost when Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, was now a reality within the believers of Jesus the Christ--God’s Spirt indwelling in the hearts of the people of God according the Prophesy of Israel’s prophets.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Behold, the days come, saith YHWH, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith YHWH: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith YHWH, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know YHWH: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith YHWH: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The fact is the Jewish scribes and Pharisees and people of Judah rejected Jesus as their messiah and Christ. They sought after and understood from their reading of the scriptures, a messiah who was going to free Israel of her enemies and establish a Jewish kingdom on earth and that when their messiah would come, he would reign over an earthly powerful Jewish kingdom and put all his enemies of the Gentiles under his footstool.
This brings us to the irony of the current problem some rightwing Zionists have with Gentile Ukrainians fleeing to the Jewish State of Israel and their fear of compromising their “Jewish homeland for a Jewish people.”
The Irony is that Jewish Israeli state today could not been possible if were not for the Gentile Christians who supported and ultimately worked to bring about a Jewish statehood.
Long before Theodor Herzl, the father of Jewish Zionism, was born and had developed his booklet Der Judenstaat on the Jewish question of statehood, a homeland for the Jewish people, Christian Zionism, as we know it, was being formulated from the 1830’s theology of Irish cleric John Nelson Darby and his classical theology of dispensationalism.
The theology ideas of Darby were later encompassed in the work of Cyrus I Scofield and his Scofield Reference Bible, which took the King James Bible and cut it up and rearranged it alongside Scofield’s own bible study commentary notes and published it as a new bible in 1917.
Scofield’s Refence Bible spread like wildfire throughout America, Europe, and beyond, propagating the ideas of Darby’s premillennial dispensationalism.
Scofield included in his bible ideas of a future return of the Jewish people to their land, a new state or kingdom, by which all the Jews would be converted to Jesus Christ and then Jesus would return to reign over the Jewish kingdom a thousand years.
Scofield also at the time of first writing the Scofield Reference Bible incorporated the ideas of then present Herzl’s Jewish political Zionism into his bible commentary as well as Darby’s ideas of a secret rapture and incorrect teachings that Israel had a separate purpose and salvation than the Church.
It was Gentile Christian Zionism which pathed the way for and ground swell of international support, both financial and political support, for the later Jewish Zionism and the promotion and establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in the land of Palestine. Gentiles in Christ who whole heartily believed in Zionism and therefore were the main thrust of the state of Israel’s founding.
But both interpretations of biblical prophecy, by the Pharisaical, Talmudic, rabbinical Judaism and Jewish Zionism and Christian Zionists and millions of premillennial dispensational evangelicals today who support the Jewish state and believe Jesus is going set up Jewish millennial kingdom on earth whereby all the Jews will be converted and saved when he returns again, are wrong interpretations of the Scriptures.
Jesus said
John 5:39
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Jesus is the fulfillment of Scriptures and his Kingdom of God is the fulfillment of the prophesy for the children of Israel.
YHWH did not decree a new Jewish state would be set up as salvation to the Jewish people of Israel, His prophets decreed that he would bring his Christ who was to bring salvation and reign over all of Israel and his kingdom would be established forever. Not an earthly kingdom of Israel, but an earthly and heavenly kingdom of God of the Spirit of God.
Zechariah 4:6
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of YHWH unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith YHWH of hosts.
It would not be a messiah who would by military might defeat his enemies, but a Messiah who by the Spirit of God would save his people Israel, defeat Satan, and all of God’s enemies.
Not a Jewish kingdom of whereby messiah would reign and save the Jews from all their Gentile enemies, but a Kingdom of God and Messiah King who reigns of over all his people both Israel and the Gentile/stranger within the realm of Holy Spirit of God.
This is the Israel of God, comprised of both Jews (Israelites) and Gentiles (Israelites lost into the Gentiles and non-Israelite strangers) with the Spirit of Almighty God, dwelling within the children of God, the people of God.
As the apostle Paul taught on Israel.
Romans 2:28-29
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Romans 1:16-17
¶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Ephesians 2:10-21
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 11 ¶ Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 ¶ For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
This is the prophesied kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of God!
Today the Jews in the man-built political state of Israel are concerned with upholding their established prejudicial Jewish state for a Jewish people based on proof of Jewish identity, but the true kingdom of God encompasses all people whether they are fleshly Israelites or strangers, all who have faith in YHWH’s Christ, Jesus the Messiah, are welcomed into the present Kingdom of God on earth. That physical and Spiritual kingdom based on one’s faith will be established forever when Jesus returns to reign over God’s Kingdom in the new earth and the new heavens.
Another irony is that most of modern Israeli Jewish state’s Ashkenazim ‘Jewish’ population are descendants of ‘Gentiles’ who converted to Judaism --“the leaven of the Pharisees”--in particular Talmudic Judaism from which they adopted as their religion.
When Jesus died and bled his atoning blood on the cross, he invalidated the Old Covenant ways of proselyte conversion of Gentiles becoming Jews, or part of Israel, by acceptance and adherence to the Law of YHWH (physical circumcision).
When this happened Jesus voided Judaism, a religion which is based upon the decommissioned Old Covenant law!
YHWH made a New Covenant and Jesus fulfilled that New Covenant on the cross; now both Jews and Gentiles were acceptable to God without the deeds of justification of the law of YHWH, rather by their faith in YHWH’s Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.
Romans 3:27-31
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Romans 9: 30-10:4
¶ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 1 ¶ Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
This means that there is not a separate salvation path for the Jews.
The Jewish people too must in faith truly accept Jesus the Christ as their Messiah in order to be saved, receive the Spirit of God, and join the Kingdom of God to become part of the Israel of God.
John14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Will you now join me in praising our God!
What a greater and wonderful plan God had envisioned for his people Israel and all mankind, that he would open up universal salvation of his glorious kingdom to the strangers and the Gentiles not be prejudicial like that of corrupted ill-conceived man-made racist Judaism.
What a glorious Kingdom of God that God would dwell within his people and be their God, not a human king and man-built kingdom, but the KING of Kings and a Spiritual Kingdom!
What amazing Grace and Love Jesus the Son of Man and Son of God was given to us to free us from the constraints and curses of the Old Covenant Law and bring in a better living law of the Spirit of Almighty God within hearts of his people in the New Covenant relationship—a personal relationship with God based on our faith and love of God, not a man-made religion or our race.
Truly, what a wonderful God we serve!
Do you know this wonderful God?
Do you know about Jesus the Christ?
He died for your sins!
Are you covered by his blood sacrifice to free you from the deeds of the Law?
Are you a part of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven?
What shall you do to be a part of the kingdom of God?