Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20-21
The Parable
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 all leavened.’”
Luke 13:20-21
“And again He said, ‘To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.’”
Lesson
Leaven is a living organism; it feeds upon the dough and multiplies rapidly, until it spreads throughout the entire lump of dough.
And so it is with us; once we receive the Word into our hearts, it begins to work upon us until it has changed our entire being. We no longer act the way we did before, but our live has changed as our heart has changed.
But unlike the dough, which will become fully leavened, we can stop the growth and spread of the leaven within us, or corrupt it with competing leaven, Matthew 16:5-12, 1Cor 5:6-8, Gal 5:7-10, 1Cor 15:33-34. See also Song 6:12, Eph 4:24, Col 3:10.
As leaven works its way through the dough, so the kingdom of God, begun in Israel, would work its way through the whole world.