Chapter 7—Like Unto Leaven
This chapter is based on
Matthew 13:33
;
Luke 13:20, 21
.
Many educated and influential men had come to hear the Prophet of
Galilee. Some of these looked with curious interest upon the multitude
that had gathered about Christ as He taught by the sea. In this great
throng all classes of society were represented. There were the poor, the
illiterate, the ragged beggar, the robber with the seal of guilt upon his
face, the maimed, the dissipated, the merchant and the man of leisure,
high and low, rich and poor, all crowding upon one another for a place
to stand and hear the words of Christ. As these cultured men gazed
upon the strange assembly, they asked themselves, Is the kingdom of
God composed of such material as this? Again the Saviour replied by
a parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took,
and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”
Among the Jews leaven was sometimes used as an emblem of
sin. At the time of the Passover the people were directed to remove
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all the leaven from their houses as they were to put away sin from
their hearts. Christ warned His disciples, “Beware ye of the leaven of
the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
Luke 12:1
. And the apostle Paul
speaks of the “leaven of malice and wickedness.”
1 Corinthians 5:8
.
But in the Saviour’s parable, leaven is used to represent the kingdom
of heaven. It illustrates the quickening, assimilating power of the grace
of God.
None are so vile, none have fallen so low, as to be beyond the
working of this power. In all who will submit themselves to the Holy
Spirit a new principle of life is to be implanted; the lost image of God
is to be restored in humanity.
But man cannot transform himself by the exercise of his will. He
possesses no power by which this change can be effected. The leaven—
something wholly from without—must be put into the meal before
the desired change can be wrought in it. So the grace of God must
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