Read for context… Torah is mentioned in the study, it simply means teaching or biblical instruction. Oral torah is teaching that was passed orally by the Rabbi’s…

Mark 8:1-9 This is the second feeding of the multitudes that is recorded. It hinges from a great ministry time where Yeshua had been teaching the basics of Torah. He was returning the people back to the simple basics and abandoning the oral torah that had been passed down by the sages. This was not a time where He was refuting all oral torah, but only that which conflicted with the written word of God. The evidence that we see of this teaching is in the previous chapter. Yeshua came against the oral torah of the teachers, He corrected misconceptions about dietary instructions, and followed His teaching with miraculous to validate his message. Few realize that Deuteronomy 28 promises prosperity and healing to those who turn their hearts to completely follow the instructions of God. Validation was not just a miracle to impress. It was in accordance with the promise of God.

Yeshua was teaching people in the thousands and they came a long way to hear Him. Yeshua taught Torah. He also expected the listeners to understand Torah and to make decisions according to the instructions of God. Four thousand people were present at this time. They were all hungry, they had fasted for three days while that sat under the teaching of the Messiah. One difference between feeding the five thousand and the four thousand is the three days of hunger (Mk 6:34-44). The only food available was seven loaves of bread and a few fish. When we commented on feeding the five thousand, we discussed how that Yeshua fed the people in a similar manner that God miraculously fed the people during the Exodus. This is the same situation. Let’s look back at the Old Testament for a moment, think about the correlation:

Exodus 16:3–4 (NLT) “³ “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” ⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.”

This feeding was compelled by two factors. First the people were hungry and needed to eat. This was a physical need that demanded attention. Secondly, Yeshua had been teaching according to Torah and impressed again that He was the God of the Old Testament. He was the God that was able to produce food out of nothing. It was up to the ones receiving and the disciples serving to make this correlation. When they finished eating, they were left with seven baskets of crumbs and leftovers of the fish.

Mark 8:10-13; Matthew 16:1-4 Imagine the scene. Yeshua just came from performing major miracles. All told, nine thousand people were fed to boot. Then there are a handful of teachers who demand that he perform for them like a trickster. They missed their chance to meet and fellowship with the Messiah.

The offense of the Pharisees goes deeper than it seems. By demanding that Yeshua perform an attesting miracle, they were stepping into a position of authority over Him. He would not be approved to teach unless He met their criteria. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only time in the Gospels where Yeshua leaves without ministering to a single person…

Mark 8:14-21 A teaching opportunity. They left quickly without taking any bread with them. Yeshua used this as a teaching opportunity. He tells the disciples to beware of the leaven or yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. Matthew adds the Sadducees to the mix (Matt 16:6). In Luke this leaven is identified as hypocrisy (Lk 12:1). In English we have the idea of a hypocrite as one who is fake. The word meaning in the Greek is a little deeper. It gives the idea of one who is acting a role such as an actor. The word is not a nice one since it implies intended deception. It carries the idea of self-contradiction and self-deception where a person is actually in conflict with what he proposes to be true. Yet, is this the true meaning of leaven?

Yeshua gave us one aspect of the leaven which is hypocrisy. Leaven is an interesting item. Yeast permeates bread, forever changing the property of the flour to an entirely new thing. The gasses that rise out of this change causes bread to rise. Flour is no longer flour at this point. It has become bread.

When this is applied to spiritual matters, the change is fascinating. If spirituality is leavened with falsehood, then the resulting religion is laced with falsehood. It is nearly impossible to take the false teaching out of the religion at this point. The only way to clean the slate is to go back to the flour and remake the religion. Yeshua pointed out three offenders, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod. The firs two blended oral torah with the true Torah and ended up with a religion that was laced with law instead of grace and teaching. Herod is an example of the proselyte. He was a blend of Jew and Gentile. The idea of Herod is that he blended Gentile thinking with Jewish ideas. His life was one of excessive cruelty and self-serving motivations.

Yeshua came to clean the slate. He was the YHVH God of the Old Testament come in the flesh. He was amazed that the disciples had not made the correlation yet. His question as to the application of the feeding of thousands is revealing (Mark 8:21). The teaching of the disciples begins to change at this point. Yeshua begins to teach them that He is the Messiah. He will change the focus of the teaching slightly at this point. This change of focus goes beyond teaching the disciples. It also teaches us who He is according to Torah.

His purpose was salvation. His name was literally salvation. He came to set His people free from bondage that had been put on them by the religious teachers. He came to deliver people from bondage to sin and from the penalty of sin. He came to teach the instructions of God as they were originally written. He did not come to teach anything new. The ideas and teachings of Jesus are all found in the Old Testament. In short, He removed the confusion that oral torah had put in place.