One of the most wonderful smells, to me, is the smell of fresh, homemade bread, and the taste is even better. I love the bread warm, just out of the oven so it melts the butter, and then maybe with a little strawberry jam on it. Yum!
Let’s sit down in the kitchen and watch how it’s made. Surprisingly, the recipe is fairly simple and it has only a few ingredients. Flour, water, yeast, a little sugar, a little salt and maybe some shortening, and that’s it.
First, my wife takes yeast (the Bible calls it leaven), water and sugar and mixes them together in a big bowl. The yeast becomes active and begins to feed on the sugar.
“Hey, wait a minute! Do you mean there is something alive in my bread?”
“Yes, the yeast is actually a plant called fungus, which works to expand the dough, otherwise you would be eating something more like a cracker rather than bread. But don’t worry, it won’t be alive by the time you eat it.”
Next, she slowly stirs in the flour with a little salt. She continues to add flour until she can no longer stir it. Instead, she begins to knead it with her hands. She continues to add flour till the dough is no longer sticky, and then she stops. Next she covers the bowl with a cloth or lid and sets it in a warm place, letting the yeast, or leaven, do its work. Slowly it expands the dough, making it light and porous, until the dough has nearly doubled in size.
While we are waiting for our bread to rise, let’s talk about leaven. Although it is useful in making good bread, the Bible always uses leaven as a picture of sin or evil at work. Jesus told His disciples to “beware of the leaven [sinfulness] of the Pharisees.” These people outwardly were very religious, but inwardly they were not right with God. Jesus called them hypocrites. That means they pretended to be better than they really were. Have you honestly admitted to God that you are a sinner and need to have your sins washed away in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus? Or are you pretending? If you are, you have the leaven of being a hypocrite, just like the Pharisees. Be honest with God because He knows if you are only pretending. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:1313Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13)). He can see the leaven in your life.
Now let’s go check the dough rising on the counter. After punching down the dough so it doesn’t have big bubbles in it, the dough is formed into several loaves and put into pans. The yeast is still active, so the loaves rise again. When they are the right size, they are popped into the oven. The heat of the oven stops the action of the yeast, and soon the bread will be ready to eat.
Our lives as Christians need what those rising loaves need. Even after we are saved our old natures like to sin. If we allow sin to work in our lives, it will continue to expand until it affects every area of our lives and the lives of those around us as well. What is needed is the hot oven of self-judgment and confessing to the Lord Jesus when we have sinned. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:1313He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)).
Enjoy that fresh, homemade bread, and don’t forget to give thanks to the One who gives you your daily bread.
ML-05/28/1995