Matthew 16:6-10
Mat 16:6 (KJB)
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees.
Then Jesus turns the situation into a teaching for the benefit of the disciples
concerning the Sadducees and Pharisees. The disciples would have understood that
leaven was a picture of evil which had the ability to completely permeate
whatever it attacked. A person could tempt himself with a little leaven of sin
and pretty soon they are permeated with that sin. We could see that principle in
drug use, cigarettes, alcohol, sex, etc., anything which causes an unhealthy
addiction. Here is the only addiction the Christian should have. (1 Cor
16:15 KJV) I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is
the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the
ministry of the saints,) What Jesus was warning the disciples against here
was that they should not adopt the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It had
nothing to do with physical bread but their teachings and their lifestyles. They
had misled the people of Israel in their teachings and Jesus wanted to make sure
they had checked themselves regularly to make sure they were not drifting in
that direction since pretty soon they would become teachers of the Gospel.
Mat 16:7 (KJB)
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no
bread.
The disciples then reasoned among themselves concerning what Jesus had just
said. It was obvious that they did not understand what Jesus had meant. Jesus
was looking at the spiritual bread which was the Gospel and the disciples were
looking at the physical bread. They probably thought that once they reached the
shore, they would look for a place to buy bread.
Mat 16:8 (KJB)
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason
ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
Then Jesus was listening to them and placed them all in the same boat as Peter
when he sank while walking on the water, as men of little faith. They reasoned
among themselves instead of asking Jesus what He meant by the statement. Many of
our misunderstandings can be solved by going to the Scriptures. They seemed to
have forgotten that they just recently witnessed two major feedings of thousands
of people. The fact that they forgot physical bread should not have even been an
issue since Jesus could take even one left over and feed them in the same way.
They had focused on the physical and when a Christian does the same, their faith
level plummets and that is why they would then be of little faith. Jesus had
referred to the Pharisees and Sadducees as evil and adulterous. That should have
been the hint as to what Jesus was speaking about.
Mat 16:9 (KJB)
Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand,
and how many baskets ye took up?
Then Jesus begins His response by causing them to remember the two feeding which
just took place. He refers to these two feedings to help with their
understanding and specific knowledge. When a person responds to a specific
event, it is responded to according to their faith. For example, two cars crash
and both drivers escape injury. One states that God saved them from death and
the other states they were lucky. One has faith in God and the other has a
random faith in something which does not exist. Jesus was trying to narrow the
faith of the disciples by bringing up the two miracles which they partook of.
They were unable to make a connection between the spiritual lessons of the two
feeding miracles and the leaven of the Pharisees and how different having faith
and not having true faith is. Unfortunately, it seems the disciples did not
learn any spiritual lessons from the two miracles. They did not understand that
since Jesus was able to take care of the 5,000 plus, He could take care of His
disciples.
Mat 16:10 (KJB)
Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
Then Jesus refers to the second miracle concerning the four thousand the seven
big baskets of leftovers. He wanted them to cogitate on both specific miracles
so they would see the spiritual picture that Jesus will take care of them. The
Pharisees and Sadducees concerned themselves with hoarding all the world’s goods
they could because their trust was in material things, especially money. Jesus
wanted His disciples to know that He could take care of them much better than if
they had all the gold in the world. Material possessions are a deception because
they look like they can sustain a person when in reality they could be valuable
one day and valueless the next, or someone could steal the possessions but no
one can steal the relationship between Christ and His children.