PARABLES 8 Leaven in three loaves

This is the shortest parable of Jesus in the Bible and it occurs in Matthew Ch.13 and in Luke Ch.13. Jesus taught this after he had taught the parables of the mustard seed and the growing seed. Reading now from Matthew.

Matthew 13:33 Another parable He spoke to them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was fully (holos) leavened.’

Three measures of meal means three portions of flour made into three loaves of breadcake. The leaven is ‘hidden’ and the Greek word for hidden that Jesus uses here is (egkrypto – encrypted) and this word is not found anywhere else in the Bible. The usual word that is used for hidden in all other Scriptures is ‘krypto’. The word Krypto means something hidden but egkrypto means not only hidden but encrypted with a code, and there is a big difference between the two words.

Encryption is a two-way process because encrypted information has to be decrypted by someone who has the appropriate code or key. You can find documents hidden in a room if you look hard enough but if they are in a fixed safe in the room you need to know the combination or the code for the safe.

The phrase ‘three loaves of bread’ occurs in three stories in the Bible and in each story that phrase hides truth concerning the Trinity of the three Persons of God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But there is also an encoded message of the ‘End Times’ beyond what is hidden in each story of the ‘three loaves of bread’ because Jesus was speaking in that parable of the loaves being fully leavened - speaking of the work of the Kingdom of God until it is being expressed fully (holos) in the earth in the last days before Jesus returns.

This parable of the leaven in three loaves of bread is followed in the Gospels by another ‘End Times’ ‘three loaves of bread’ parable in Luke Ch. 11 about the man who comes to his friend at the midnight hour desperately requesting three loaves of bread, and we will look more fully at both those parables in our next episode of the Gospel parables.

But today we will deal with the first ‘three loaves of bread’ story in the Bible in Genesis 18 where three men appear to Abraham to announce to Abraham and Sarah that Sarah will have a son in her old age, in a year’s time. When Abraham sees them, he greets them as ‘My Lord’ – Adonai – which is only ever used to mean Almighty God. That alone hides the fact that Abraham must have been given a revelation of God as being three persons. He didn’t say ‘My Lords’, plural. He then asks Sarah to make three loaves of bread for the three guests. The three loaves of bread was a visible representation of the Trinity of God as was the appearance of the three men. This was a veiled appearance of God as the Father and Son and Holy Spirit in angelic form. That is called a Theophany - and this appearance of a Triune God sets the pattern of the three loaves of bread in the Scriptures as a symbol of the Trinity and it also unveils the three distinct natures of the different Persons of the Trinity.

To this day when Jewish families celebrate the Passover feast, they place three small cake loaves of bread on the table in front of the guests. They then hide the middle cake of bread somewhere in the room and the children have to find it. The feast cannot be completed until the second loaf cake is found. That piece of bread is called the ‘Ransom’ and the child who finds it gets the Ransom reward.

That of course represents Jesus as the second person of the Trinity who is currently hidden from the spiritual eyes of the Jewish people. This is an encrypted message to the modern-day Orthodox Jew, and the key to decrypting this message is in receiving the gift of faith and grace through the Holy Spirit that brings a revelation of Jesus into their hearts.

After the three messengers deliver the message to Abraham about Sarah giving birth to Isaac they set off towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and one of them, whom Abraham calls ‘The Lord’, stays aside and declares to Abraham that he will bring severe judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, but Abraham pleads with him, finally getting him to agree to save the cities if ten righteous men are found there. Meanwhile the other two men have gone down to Sodom and Gomorrah as angels (malak – messengers). Abraham’s plea was a prayer to the Father, the Person of the Trinity who represents judgement and justice. The other two Persons represented mercy and truth, with Jesus being mercy - in saving Lot’s family, and the Holy Spirit being truth – in shining light and truth and exposing the deviant culture in that place.

So the reality of the Trinity was revealed in the three Persons of Father, Son and Holy spirit, but encrypted in that story was also the nature and activity of the three Persons of the Trinity. And what is even more deeply encoded in this story and in the other ‘three loaves’ parables is a prophetic message of what will happen in the last days before the return of Jesus.

We see that message in the story of Abraham and the three messengers at Mamre which finishes with the judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the judgement on that wicked culture is spoken about in the Book of Jude 1:7 in the New Testament where Jude speaks of prophesies that liken the judgement upon the wicked culture of Sodom and Gomorrah to the ‘End Times’ dealings of God that will come upon the wickedness abounding in the world before Jesus returns.

The Holy Spirit who shone light and truth into the wickedness of that culture is shining light into our culture today. The Bible foretold that these days would come and that when they did there would arise a polarity between darkness and light in the earth. And that brings us great hope. Isaiah prophesied these things to Israel and was speaking beyond Israel to us as well as followers of Jesus all over the world. Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you (who follow Jesus). For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the people; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and people shall come to your light…

When we see the work of the Father as being the justice and judgement of God, we have to ask ourselves how we relate to that regarding our faith in a loving God. In fact my personal experience is that the judgement of the Father is critical to the final reality of my faith. We can easily relate to Jesus as being the author and finisher of our faith and as being the one who enables us with his grace, and we gladly accept that the Holy Spirit takes what Jesus says to us and reveals that to us and leads us into all truth. However, the judgement of the Father isn’t just about bringing us to account for the consequences of our wrongdoing – his judgement means his capacity to bring his absolute love and wisdom into what he regards as being best for our lives.

The question I ask myself is. ‘Can I trust the judgement of God to decide what is right for my life?’ and ‘Whose judgement should I trust to guide my life and bring the best future for my life to me each day? Should I despise and disdain and complain about disagreeable circumstances that come upon me? Should I question the integrity of God for letting me go through loss and affliction?

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all agree as one about what is right and good for my life. But it is the Father who supernaturally works the things that are good into my life experience. The Father takes all the imperfect things that I do, that have negative or nuisance consequences, and the testing things that others might do to me, and the unavoidable challenging tasks and difficulties, and he supernaturally works them all together for my good. But it is difficult to experience that goodness if I do not know or believe that that is what he is doing. ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God ‘(Romans 8:28)

My faith is not about summonsing a more intense effort to believe that God will give me my judgement of what is good and right for me. Only the judgement of the Father is critical to the reality of my faith, and thanking the Father in all things is the greatest expression of my faith. Moments of thanksgiving to our Father are moments to be cherished no matter what. If God is hidden from us it is only because he wants to be discovered by us. Thank you Lord for drawing us aside to be with you even in the midst of all the other things that are going on round about us and thank you for reminding us that you are unceasingly working your good will into our lives as you have done from the very beginning.