346
The Desire of Ages
The disciples were inclined to think that their Master should have
granted the demand for a sign in the heavens. They believed that He
was fully able to do this, and that such a sign would put His enemies
to silence. They did not discern the hypocrisy of these cavilers.
Months afterward, “when there were gathered together an innumer-
able multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another,”
Jesus repeated the same teaching. “He began to say unto His disci-
ples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is
hypocrisy.”
Luke 12:1
.
The leaven placed in the meal works imperceptibly, changing the
whole mass to its own nature. So if hypocrisy is allowed to exist in the
heart, it permeates the character and the life. A striking example of the
hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Christ had already rebuked in denouncing
the practice of “Corban,” by which a neglect of filial duty was con-
cealed under a pretense of liberality to the temple. The scribes and
Pharisees were insinuating deceptive principles. They concealed the
real tendency of their doctrines, and improved every occasion to instill
them artfully into the minds of their hearers. These false principles,
when once accepted, worked like leaven in the meal, permeating and
transforming the character. It was this deceptive teaching that made it
so hard for the people to receive the words of Christ.
The same influences are working today through those who try to
explain the law of God in such a way as to make it conform to their
practices. This class do not attack the law openly, but put forward
[409]
speculative theories that undermine its principles. They explain it so
as to destroy its force.
The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was the product of self-seeking.
The glorification of themselves was the object of their lives. It was this
that led them to pervert and misapply the Scriptures, and blinded them
to the purpose of Christ’s mission. This subtle evil even the disciples
of Christ were in danger of cherishing. Those who classed themselves
with the followers of Jesus, but who had not left all in order to become
His disciples, were influenced in a great degree by the reasoning of
the Pharisees. They were often vacillating between faith and unbelief,
and they did not discern the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ.
Even the disciples, though outwardly they had left all for Jesus’ sake,
had not in heart ceased to seek great things for themselves. It was
this spirit that prompted the strife as to who should be greatest. It