Not ''Save Thyself!” But "Remember Me!” The common crowd reviling our Lord as He hung on the cross wagged their heads saying, "Save thyself, if thou be the Son of God.” The chief priests, scribes and elders declared, "If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.” The Roman soldiers, mocked Him, saying, "If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself” and one of the malefactors railed on him, saying, "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” Only one in all that motley company rebuked the universal sentiment, "Save thyself.” The dying thief said, "Remem ber me!” He alone discerned who our Lord Jesus Christ really was. He saw that if Jesus would save others He could not save Himself. Dysmas, the penitent thief, alone realized that an event of divine reconciliation was occurring un der the guise of human tragedy. This condemned felon openly con fessed Jesus as Lord and certainly must have believed that God would raise him from the dead for he said, "Lord, re member me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.” The dying thief is a beautiful picture of another event that is yet to come when the remnant of Israel "shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourn- eth for his only son.” (Zechariah 12: 10). Meanwhile this task of Gospelizing the Jews occupies all our energies. Many believe that the time of Israel’s awaken ing is close. Your fellowship in bringing the gospel to the brothers of our Lord in the flesh will qualify you for the blessed promise o f Genesis 12:3. AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS TO THE JEWS, INC. |230 W. 72nd St. Dept. 8 = : New York 23, N.Y. ! ; In Canada: ■ j 39 King William St., j ■ Hamilton, Ont. ; ; God bless you in your stirring work; ! of evangelizing Israel in which I join! ■with the enclosed offering of $ .......... ; ! sent you as a token of my fellowship.! ¡Y ou may please send me your month-; ! ly magazine, "The Chosen People.” ! ! n a m e ........................................ !
WORDS fromthe WORD fay Charles L. Feinberg, Th.D., Ph.D., Director, Talbot Theological Seminary
Leaven
works. Plutarch speaks of the pro hibition of eating bread with leaven, saying leaven is “itself the offspring of corruption and corrupting the mass of dough with which it is mixed.” Thus far all is agreement. Is it not, then, passing strange that when com mentators come to Matthew 13:33 (with its parallel passage in Luke 13: 21), they make leaven signify the opposite of its meaning everywhere else? It is said to refer “ to the saving power of the gospel, which from a small beginning will gradually per vade and transform all mankind.” Again we read: “ In one of the par ables the Saviour uses it in a good sense, as an emblem of the pervasive power of the Kingdom of God.” It is claimed that the “ Kingdom in which the will of God is acknowledged until it becomes supreme is to spread from soul to soul until all are brought with in His sovereignty.” The great ma jority of commentators interpret in this way but this cannot be correct.. In the first place it has been shown that leaven means evil everywhere else in the Old and New Testament. It would require strong proof from the Matthew 13:33 context to under stand it otherwise. That proof is not forthcoming. Secondly, the opposite is true. The context in Matthew forbids us to hold that the gospel will over come and be all-pervading. None of the other parables show complete vic tory for the seed of the Word. Thirdly, this view has affinities with the con cept of the betterment of the world which has never been substantiated, and which rims full in the face of the many passages of Scripture which speak of apostasy in the last days of the Church age. Fourthly, this posi tion has been used to build up an en tirely erroneous view of the coming kingdom of Christ, a view that is de nied throughout the Word of God, known as post-millennialism. Finally, why must leaven mean the gospel? Just because of its pervading power? But does not evil have a permeating, spreading effect also? Never doubt it; leaven is always evil. Beware of leav en both in doctrine and in conduct.
y^ebster defines leaven as “ any sub stance acting or used to produce fermentation, as in dough or liquids.” In the Old Testament hamets as a noun and as a verb is found 16 times, practically all in the Pentateuch. Seor occurs five times, all in the books of Moses, with the same significance. The noun zume appears 11 times in the New Testament, while the verb form (zumeo) is found in four pas sages. Leaven was used to produce fermen tation in dough. In Bible days it con sisted of a bit of dough in a state of fermentation. Yeast is now used for this purpose. Bread prepared in haste was without leaven (Gen. 18:6; Ex. 12:34). Leaven was forbidden in all offerings made by fire to the Lord (Lev. 2:11). When the offering was to be eaten by man, leaven was per mitted (Lev. 7:13; 23:17). The pro hibition was made because leaven or fermentation is initial corruption and thus symbolic of corruption. During the Feast of Passover leaven was for bidden in Israelite homes. Unleavened bread symbolized the purity of life God required. In rabbinical literature leaven sym bolizes evil desires; in Jewish theology it is used figuratively for the inherited corruption of human nature. The rab bis, in speaking of man’s inclination to evil, called it “ the leaven that is in the dough.” It was thus widely used by the mystical writers (the cabbal- ists) of the Middle Ages. To Jews leaven could symbolize only one thing •—evil. A ll references in the New Testa ment have a figurative or symbolic force. Our Lord used it to indicate corrupt doctrine in Matthew 16:6,11, 12; Mark 8:15; and Luke 12:1. The apostle Paul employed it to speak of the wickedness of the heart and its contagion (1 Cor. 5:6-8 and Gal. 5:9). The Greek lexicographer Thayer states it is used “metaphorically of inveter ate mental and moral corruption” which has a “ tendency to infect oth ers.” Leaven and corruption are asso ciated not only in the Old and New T e s t am e n t s but in extra-biblical
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The King's Business/April 1958
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