Verse 33. Another parable spake He unto them. "The kingdom of heaven [the heavens] is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”
THIS parable corresponds in chronological order with the address in Revelation 2 to the fourth Church, the Church in Thyatira. The historical type is found in the account of the reign of Ahab, with his wife Jezebel. "There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of Jehovah, whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up" (1 Kings 21:2525But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. (1 Kings 21:25)).
In His address to the Church in Thyatira, the Lord says, "Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols" (Rev. 2:2020Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. (Revelation 2:20)).
It is the Papal system represented by the woman Jezebel, through the dogma "Hear the Church," which has corrupted Christian doctrine, and by that means has leavened the Church wherever that doctrine prevails. Thus, it is that the Papal system corresponds with the woman that puts the leaven into the meal.
(1) The MAN sows the good seed (verse 24).
(2) The ENEMY mingles tares with the wheat (verse 25).
(3) The MAN sows the mustard seed, but the EARTH adds its own increase, changing the herb into a tree (verses 31, 32).
(4) The WOMAN puts the leaven into the meal (verse 33).
(5) The MAN takes up the work again, and purchases the field for the sake of the treasure (verse 44).
(6) The MERCHANT MAN seeks and buys the pearl (verses 45, 46).
(7) The FISHERMEN cast the net and draw it to the shore (verses 47, 48).
(8) The ANGELS at the end of the age complete the work (verses 49, 50).
The three measures here mentioned are, according to the Greek, three sata, each saton being equal to one seah in the Hebrew, and the three measures are equal to one ephah.
In the parable of the mustard tree, the Lord Jesus had foretold the appearance which the kingdom of the heavens would assume during the present Church dispensation, in outward, worldly form. In the parable of the leaven, He foreshows its internal doctrinal corruption.
The Church of God, represented by the three measures, or one ephah, of meal, looked at as in Christ, is said to be unleavened. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened” (1 Cor. 5. 7).
Leaven, in Scripture, is sour dough beginning to ferment or corrupt, which diffuses its influence throughout the entire mass into which it is inserted: hence always used to typify corruption in morals or doctrine.
It is the woman who puts the leaven into the meal, and it is the woman Jezebel that calls herself a prophetess who teaches and seduces the servants of Christ. The apostle Paul says, "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1 Tim. 2:1212But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. (1 Timothy 2:12)); and in Ephesians v. 24, "As the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be.”
The Church's true position is that of entire subjection to Christ, both as to practice and in doctrine; she is to learn rather than to teach, to obey rather than to rule; and even as to discipline, it is only in so far as the Church carries out the mind of the Lord Christ, that what is done on earth is ratified in heaven.
In the temptation in the garden of Eden, Satan does not make his first assault on Adam, who had received the prohibition as to the tree of knowledge of good and evil directly from the mouth of God, but on Eve, who had probably heard of it from the lips of Adam; and God reprimands Adam for hearkening to the voice of his wife in thus being induced to transgress the Divine command (Gen. 3:1717And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; (Genesis 3:17); 1 Tim. 2:1414And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (1 Timothy 2:14)). And that old serpent the Devil, encouraged by that first success of his wiles, still continues to act on his former tactics.
What we learn in direct communion with and communication from God, by His Spirit, through His Word, becomes fixed and immovable in the experience of the soul. It is when doctrines are learned at second hand on human authority, or on the teaching of the Church, that we are open to Satan's seductions. In Jesuitism the authority of Christ is substituted by that of the human will; and in Romanism the teaching of the Church is substituted for the teaching of God, by His Spirit, through the Scriptures. Rome does not permit God to speak directly to man through His Word; hence the possession and perusal of the Bible is discountenanced, and the Scriptures themselves, she says, are only to be received on the authority of the Church as explained by her.
Thus it is that the woman introduces the leaven into the meal, and thus not only are souls corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ, but the whole system of revealed truth has been vitiated by her.
Before the manifestation of the Son of Man for the execution of judgment, two things must first take place: first, "the falling away," or literally, the apostasy; and, secondly, the revelation of the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:1-81Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 5Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: (2 Thessalonians 2:1‑8)).
Ecclesiastically, the leaven of false doctrine, working in professing Christendom, will culminate in Babylon the Great.
Politically, the mystery of iniquity or lawlessness, which already works, will be, headed up in the Wicked or Lawless One, the man of sin. During the present dispensation, whilst the Holy Ghost, as Comforter, maintaining the authority of the Lord Jesus, is on the earth, there is a restraining power keeping down the full development of ecclesiastical and political evil.
But when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and God shall have taken out from among Jew and Gentile a people for His name, and a bride for His Son, this restraint will be removed; the living saints being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the outward shell of nominal Christianity will become apostate, and during the first three years and a half of Anti-Christ’s reign will become the harlot of the beast, and during the latter three and a half years "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18:22And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (Revelation 18:2)).
This is strikingly foreshadowed in the vision of the ephah (Zech. 5:5-115Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. 6And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. 7And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. 8And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. 9Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. 10Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? 11And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base. (Zechariah 5:5‑11)). The prophet is shown first an ephah going forth (verse 6), then a talent or weight of lead (verse 7); thirdly, a woman who is to sit in the ephah (verse 7). The ephah, as we have seen, is three measures; the talent of lead is a restraining power; and the woman herself is said to be "wickedness" -literally, "lawlessness," in the feminine, or the lawless woman; just as Antichrist is styled the "Lawless One," masculine, or the lawless man.
In the parable of Matthew 13 the woman is said to put the leaven into the three measures, or ephah, of meal. In the vision of Zechariah, the woman herself is cast into, and sits in the midst of, the empty ephah; as also the Lawless One-will sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God (2 Thess. 2:44Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4)).
Two women are seen in the vision with the wind in their wings, which may represent their going forth in the full current of popular favor; "their wings as the wings of a stork," that is, with the outward appearance of great piety; the stork being remarkable for its care of its parents, and for its affection for its young, and is, as its Hebrew name implies, the emblem of kindness and piety.
They lift up the ephah between the earth and the heaven, giving it a position in reality neither earthly or heavenly; this is just the character of worldly religion, and it is this mixture of the carnal and the spiritual which makes it so fascinating.
These women carry it forward to establish it on its original base in the land of Shinar, which was the site of ancient Babylon.
Thus the Babylon of the Chaldeans, in the land of Shinar, becomes the type of the mystical Babylon of the Book of the Revelation, which represents apostate Christianity, when the leaven of false doctrine originally inserted will have accomplished its design in corrupting the entire mass.
The spirit of lawlessness which began to work in the apostle's time, and the manifestation of which is becoming more and more apparent in various forms, will reach its full and final development in the empire of the beast, with the Lawless One, or man of sin, at its head.
Intellect, apart from the teaching of the Holy Spirit, or science without God, will find its adequate representative in the false prophet.
But the apostasy of Christendom, developed and matured in Babylon the Great, will be completely and forever overthrown by the combination of the ten kings: "For God will put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled" (Rev. 17:1717For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. (Revelation 17:17)).