Mark 8:14-21 Leaven of the Pharisees
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 14, 2018, Mark 8:14-21
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”
(Understanding the Text) The Pharisees had been arguing with Jesus asking for a sign, and after telling them no, Jesus and the disciples got into the boat and went to the other side of Galilee. They must have left fairly quickly and forgot to get supplies before they left. In my mind, I picture Jesus brooding about the Pharisees’ stubborn refusal to be saved as He strode to the boat. I picture the disciples scrambling to keep up with Him and asking Him what He wanted to do. Then, I see Him saying in a distracted and aloof tone to cast off to the other side of the lake. In their confusion over the abrupt withdrawal and Jesus’ brooding over the Pharisees, they forget their normal routine of buying bread to take with them. After they have gotten a little ways out into the sea, one of them realizes that they had forgotten the bread and they start looking at what they have and discussing it. Suddenly, Jesus, who had been brooding quietly since they left the shore, tells them to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees. The disciples, whose minds are focused on the missing bread, associated the leaven with the missing bread and thought that Jesus was making some cryptic statement about not having bread. They continuing talking to each other about the missing bread, now with their Master’s words thrown into the mix.
(Revelation of God) I always wondered at the seemingly abrupt way that Jesus interrupts their conversation with a spiritual lesson and is then disappointed with them when they do not understand. However, if you take this with the larger context of the previous events-the Pharisees’ refusal to believe and Jesus abruptly leaving, it makes sense that Jesus’ mind is still on how the Pharisees not only cannot be saved, but also on what made them that way and how their teachings have spread to others making it more difficult for others to come to God. He is always more concerned with the spiritual, which He cannot force, than the physical, which He can take care of by simply breaking a little bread. He is asking His disciples why their priorities are all screwed up even after being with Him for so long.
(Understanding the Text) I find it ironic that they only had one loaf of bread left after they had collected 7 baskets after the feeding of the 4,000. It seems that they have been focused on bread and the lack of it for days. Jesus remonstrates with them to stop focusing on what they don’t physically have. He thinks they are foolish to worry about only having one loaf of bread since He had already shown them that He could take a few loaves and feed 4,000 and 5,000 with enough left over for them to have plenty to eat. He is reminding them that He has always provided for them and not forgotten their physical needs. He is trying to get them to stop thinking about their bellies and start thinking about the mission that He is sending them on. He wants them to focus on the people’s need of salvation and the problems imposed by having to deal with the Pharisees’ hold on the people’s thinking rather than their own comfort. In His eyes, they were blind and deaf because they ignored the mission He was preparing them for and focused on the physical needs of the immediate future.
(Application) Jesus has been thinking about the Pharisees and why they refused to believe and how they poisoned other people with their unbelief so that other people refused to be saved also. He tries to give a lesson about how the Pharisees’ teaching could corrupt the gospel. This was a lesson they needed later as Christianity became more successful. The Pharisaical Christians tried to impose Jewish ways including circumcision on the Gentiles. They also did not want Jewish Christians to stop following the Jewish traditions. They wanted to add the old rules to the new ones, thus, making a hard road to follow for Christian Jews. Unfortunately, too often today we have the same spirit where we add rules and traditions to the rules that God gives us making being a Christian into a desert experience of deprivation instead of the joyful experience of being heaven bound. Even today, we need to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
(Revelation of God / Prayer) This is an example of the limitations imposed upon Jesus by His human body. He was not omniscient or omnipresent but instead depended on the Holy Spirit to compensate for His human limitations. Of course, He did this quite well and so at times, seemed to be all-knowing. I think we are often at cross-purposes with God where He is trying to tell us something important, but we are so focused on ourselves and our own pet worries that God’s message just can’t get through. I pray to be open to Your message and willing to follow it.