Luke 13 - mustard seeds and leaven

If you take the simple straight forward reading of the parable with a little knowledge of Jesus' other parables and the idioms in The Law... It makes sense... But it's a bit startling/terrifying.

First observation. Jesus is speaking in the present tense "now" (in his day) of the Kingdom of God - not some future state....

So... The kingdom of God right now is like....

We know the birds are something bad, etc etc.... We also know leaven is bad etc etc......

A planter planted a seed (in the past) and it grew up into something bearing fruit in the present (as planned) - but right now, it's a nesting sanctuary for the minions of Satan...

In the case of the leavened lump... The present tense of the condition of the kingdom of God (in Jesus day) is that sin is so completely incorporated that it is inseparable and has changed the nature of the Kingdom.

In the one case - the evil external forces can be driven off because it's external and doesn't change the nature of the tree...

In the other case - the sinful doctrines incorporated into the holy rendered the nature of the kingdom unsuitable for God's purposes. (Profane).

It's pretty scary to think about this sort of judgment.....
 
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Along these lines.... I think it's kinda interesting to see how things shake out in this regard today.

I would call The Scripture, The Church, and The Gospel things that minions of satan have tried to foul up - but it does not change the inherent nature of it. The bad parts can be separated, and driven off and it returns to fruitfulness.

Doctrines and traditions on the other hand seem to clearly fall into the "leavened lump" category - where the holy part of the doctrine or tradition is now basically inseparable from the profane part - yielding the whole thing profane. Unsuitable for God's purposes. I will pick one.... Easter. Jewish first fruits mixed into Babylonian Ishtar celebration and add a huge heaping scoop of modern commercialism and it's a hot mess... Don't get me wrong... I dont want to lay a guilt trip on anybody here.... Egg hunting with the kids is fun and all - but the tradition of chocolate bunnies, painted eggs, marshmallow animals, jelly beans, and a big ham dinner has nothing in the least to do with Jesus.... It's "leavened"..... You can't "fix" it - you just have to throw it out and start fresh if you really want a "holy" holiday that clearly communicates the Gospel and God's plan of redemption.

Thanks
 
Just as the mustard seed is put in the ground to take root, so too the leaven is put in the dough and becomes part of the lump and affects it greatly. The kingdom of God should be planted in our lives.
 
I guess I have never seen a good connotation towards leaven in the bible within the idiomatic use... Including the reference in Matt 16..

My reading is that idiomatic leaven is never good - because it represents the doctrines of man... And the idiomatic remedy is to remove everything leavened (a Passover tradition)

Thanks
 
I guess I have never seen a good connotation towards leaven in the bible within the idiomatic use... Including the reference in Matt 16..

My reading is that idiomatic leaven is never good - because it represents the doctrines of man... And the idiomatic remedy is to remove everything leavened (a Passover tradition)

Thanks
Matthew 13:33 (KJV)
Another parable spake 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.​

In Hebrew, barak means both bless and curse. Leaven means to infect others, with good or bad, a blessing or a cursing.

Daniel 2:35b (KJV)
...and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.​

Mountain holds the meaning in Hebrew for peoples. Jesus is the Stone and by Him the whole earth is filled with His people.
 
Leviticus 23
17 You shall bring from your dwellings two waveloaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.

Leaven isn't considered bad, it's just the most descriptive analogy for the small amount of influence which can affect the whole of the body.
 
Where Jesus needed to connote a small amount of something beneficially changing everything around it - Salt was the analogy... Never leaven.

As in "you are the salt...."

My personal perspective on Leviticus 23 and the leavened wave offering is that this points forward to God's acceptance of Israel in the future as they are.. "Leavened" with all sorts of bad doctrines and such. That's not too hard to imagine given the current state of rabbinic Judaism. Compare vs Ezekiel 36:24-27 - where The Lord proclaims that He will regather Israel and then subsequently wash/cleanse them.
 
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