In this message we shall continue to consider Christ’s person in the parables of the New Testament.
In Matthew 13:33 the Lord Jesus says, “The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.” This parable reveals the matter of mixture. The three measures of meal refer to fine flour made of wheat grain, fine flour that was used in the meal offering (Lev. 2:1). Those who served God as priests fed on the fine flour of the meal offering. The meal offering was for the satisfaction not only of the priests but of God Himself. Thus, the meal offering was food for both the priests and for God. The meal offering is a type of Christ in His humanity, with the fine flour signifying the fineness and evenness of Christ’s humanity.
When the Lord appeared to Abraham, Abraham told Sarah to prepare a full meal with three measures of fine flour (Gen. 18:6). Hence, in the Bible three measures of meal denote a full meal. As three measures of meal, Christ, the reality of the meal offering, is food for God and man.
The fact that in Matthew 13:33 three measures of meal have been leavened by the woman indicates that everything related to Christ has been leavened by this evil woman. Leaven in the Scriptures signifies evil things (1 Cor. 5:6, 8) and evil doctrines (Matt. 16:6, 11-12), and the woman signifies the apostate Catholic Church, which has mixed the teachings concerning Christ with pagan practices, heretical doctrines, and evil matters “until the whole was leavened.” This is absolutely against the Scripture, which strongly forbids putting leaven into the meal offering (Lev. 2:4-5, 11). The church, as the practicality of the kingdom of the heavens, should have only Christ, the unleavened fine flour, as its content.
Matthew 13:44 says, “The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid, and in his joy goes and sells all, whatever he has, and buys that field.” The treasure signifies the kingdom with the true Israel, God’s peculiar treasure (Exo. 19:5; Psa. 135:4). The field is the earth, which signifies the world created by God for His kingdom (Gen. 1:26-28). Therefore, the treasure hidden in the field signifies the kingdom hidden in the God-created world. Christ is the man who found the treasure and then hid it, and in His joy sold all and bought the field. Christ found the kingdom of the heavens in Matthew 4:12 to 12:23, hid it in 12:24 to 13:43, and in His joy went to the cross in 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; and 26:1 to 27:52 to sell all He had and buy that field—to redeem the created and lost earth—for the kingdom. Christ first found the treasure when He came out to minister, declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 4:17). When the Jews’ rejection of the Lord reached its peak. He forsook them. From that time onward, He hid the treasure. Then He went to the cross to buy not only the treasure but also the field and thereby redeem the earth created by God. He redeemed the whole earth for the sake of the treasure.
Christ went to the cross to redeem the God-created earth because within the earth there was the kingdom, the treasure. In order for Him to have the kingdom on earth, Christ had to redeem the earth because it had been polluted and damaged by Satan’s rebellion and man’s sin. The Lord sold all that He had and bought the earth; that is, He sacrificed all He had on the cross to redeem the earth for the treasure of the kingdom. No doubt this kingdom is realized in the church life, but its manifestation is related to the redeemed nation of Israel. During the millennium the earth will become the kingdom of Christ (Rev. 11:15). At that time the nation of Israel will be the center of Christ’s kingdom.