Mt 13 – Kingdom of Heaven like leaven

The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened -Mt. 13:33

“Jesus was a Jewish rabbi, speaking to Jewish disciples. Leaven is always used as a symbol of sin. The Feast of Passover emphasizes the use of unleavened bread. …It is interesting that the Feast of Israel that prophesizes the Church is the Feast of Pentecost, the only feast that features leavened (Gentile?) bread….Why is leaven used as a symbol of sin? It corrupts by puffing up. The origin of sin was in Lucifer’s pride….So to a Jewish ear, when Jesus described a woman putting leaven into the three measures of meal, they probably gasped in horror! What can this mean? ” -Chuck Missler

Feast of Pentecost featured in Acts 2 is the same feast that in the Hebrew is usually called the called Feast of Weeks (50 days after Passover = ~7 weeks)

“On the pentecost, God gave his law on Mount Sinai, accompanied with thunderings and lightnings. On the pentecost, God sent down his Holy Spirit, like a rushing mighty wind; and tongues of fire sat upon each disciple, in order that, by his influence, that new law of light and life might be promulgated and established. Thus, the analogy between the Egyptian bondage and the thraldom occasioned by sin – the deliverance from Egypt, and the redemption from sin – the giving of the law, with all its emblematic accompaniments, and the sending down the Holy Spirit, with its symbols of light, life, and power, has been exactly preserved.” -Clarke

“Pentecost was a celebration. Taking place in the early spring, fifty days after Passover, it celebrated the completion of the winter harvest. Pentecost was a commemoration. As outlined in Leviticus 23, the Jews were to bring two loaves of bread as an offering representing the two stone tablets on which the Law was written. Pentecost was an illustration. Three thousand people died the day the law was given (Exo 32:28). But on the day the Spirit was given, three thousand were saved (Act 2:41). Thus, the two loaves commemorating the tablets of stone came to illustrate Jew and Gentile coming together in one new organization called the church. Unlike most other sacrifices, these loaves had leaven in them, a picture of the sin that would exist in a church made up of sinners saved by grace.” -Jon Courson