The Story

Does it make any difference what our thoughts and feelings are? Can anybody see them? Does it make any difference what we do alone or in the dark? The Lord sees everything. (Psalm 139:11, 12) Soon after we go into the other world our real feelings and thoughts are plainly seen. Even if they are bad and unkind we cannot hide them. They show just as they are, and if there is any need of it everything is seen that we have ever done. (H. 507, 462) Even now what we do in secret is as plain in heaven as what is done in midday light. (A.7454) We often forget this, and the people to whom the Lord spoke knew nothing about it. Among them were Pharisees who cared only to appear well before men.

Who can tell about leaven? (Verse 1) It was a bit of old sour dough put into new dough to raise it. What does the leaven of the Pharisees mean in Matthew 16:6-12? Here it seems to mean the pride of the Pharisees in outward show of piety with a selfish heart.

When are the hidden things revealed? They are open now to the Lord, even our most secret thoughts (Psalm 139:1-4), and they come plainly to the view of all when we come into the other world. The flat housetops were much used in that country, and a voice from the housetop

might be heard through all the village. Does it seem as if the Lord could not notice all our little thoughts and acts? He knows every little bird. He knows every hair, and the most trifling thing connected with our life. Much more does He know the little thoughts that flit through our minds.

Confession and denial of the Lord, mentioned in verses 8 and 9, are not only confession and denial in words. To be loyal to the Lord and to do right for His sake is to confess Him, and to be disloyal and do wrong is to deny Him. By loyal or disloyal conduct here, we are establishing our spiritual companionship which will remain in the other world.

How little the people who heard the Lord understood His words! Even while He was speaking, one asked His help to get money from his brother. Read verses 13-21. One is rich toward God whether he has much or little of natural good things, if his mind is full of kind and trustful feelings and true thoughts.

1. Where were the great multitude of people to whom the Lord was speaking?

2. When are all hidden things revealed?

3. By whom are they even now clearly seen?

4. In what way should we fear the Lord?

Consider the Lord's warning against the leaven of the Pharisees in Matthew 16:6-12, and in verse 1 of our present chapter. Their teaching and example of a merely external sanctity put a souring, spoiling influence into life. Because of such meanings of leaven, it was forbidden at the Passover season. (Exodus 12:15) When the kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:21) the reference is to temptation occasioned by the intrusion of evil things. If they are promptly resisted, the heart is left more pure. (P. 25, 284; A. 2342)

Verses 4 and 5 tell us not to fear outward trouble or suffering, but to fear wrong things within. We should fear the Lord with the holy fear which fears lest it disobey and grieve Him. Wrong is the thing, and the only thing, to be afraid of. (E. 696) Verse 6: consider the sparrows with the ravens in verse 24. Verse 7: the hairs mean the most external and least living things of our life. That they are numbered by the Lord means not only that He knows how many they are, but He knows the quality of each little thing and the use that it should serve. "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalm 90:12; A. 10217; E. 453)

Confessing or denying the Lord by reverence or irreverence, obedience or disobedience, in daily life, determines our spiritual companionship now and our home forever. It also opens or shuts our minds to Divine truths, which in a more abstract sense are angels or messengers of the Lord. If some who know only the natural side of the Lord's life and of His Word, ignorantly speak against Him, they do not so cut themselves off from His help as if they knew His goodness and still denied Him. (E. 960, 778)

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