“Another parable spoke He unto them: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” — Matthew 13:33.
OF old there was to be no leaven in the sacrifices or in the meal offering (Lev. 2:11; 6:17), and all leaven was to be put out of the Israelite’s home at the time of the Passover (Ex. 12:15; 13:7). This is explained for us in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 as representing malice and wickedness. The disciples were warned against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy and self-righteousness, and the leaven of the Sadducees, which is false doctrine (Matt. 16:6,11, 12), also of the leaven of Herod, which is worldliness and political corruption (Mark 8:15). The Corinthians were warned against the leaven of immorality, which, if unchecked, would leaven the whole Church (1 Cor. 5:6), and the Galatians were warned in the same way against the leaven of legality (Gal. 5:9). Nowhere is the gospel likened to leaven, and certainly it is not to be “hidden,” but openly declared.
The woman here represents the false Church who corrupts the truth of God. It is our responsibility to set forth that truth in the Spirit’s power.
“Men tear the old faith into fragments,
And build, on the truth they deny,
Strange towers of fancy and fable,
And deem they can mount to the sky.
Away with ‘New Thought’ and ‘New Knowledge’
That voice the old lies of the past;
That only perplex and bewilder,
To leave us in doubt at the last.
To Thee, the Life-Bringer, Life-Giver, ―
To Thee, the one Truth, the one Way,
The one Light that lightens our darkness.
The one God who hears when we pray;
Who looseth the chains of the captives,
And setteth the prisoners free;
O Jesus, Thou Son of the Father.
To whom shall we go, but to Thee?”
―Annie Johnson Flint.