The Mystery Of Iniquity (Leaven In Three Measures Of Meal).

The Mystery Of Iniquity (Leaven In Three Measures Of Meal).



In Mathew 13:33 the Lord spoke a short parable which is one of the 7 prophetic parables the Lord delivered in Matthew 13, forecasting mysteries that will play out in the kingdom(field of professed christendom/discipleship) & the harvest which is the end of the age.

In this short parable of the 33rd verse, the Lord spoke of a woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal, until the whole of it was leavened👇🏼

"He spoke another parable to them: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it had been all leavened."

Three measures of meal as in the old testament represents the meal/meat offering to God...an offering of fine flour(See Genesis 18:1-6).

Of all the offerings in the book of Leviticus, the meat offering is the one that leaven is forbidden to be mixed with - "No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven." 
See Leviticus 2:4-11.

Now in the parable, the "three measures of meal" are just this "fine flour" of the offering/meat offering unto God, which is also man's food...for Aaron & his sons(vs.10). The woman hid the leaven in three measures of meal, to the end that it may gradually corrupt the meat/word of God.

Some have wrongly & literally interpreted the leaven in three measures of meal as the kingdom of heaven itself, and "leavening the whole lump" as the internal, systemic & endemic growth/spread of the kingdom to inundate and take over the world.

The parable does not say that the kingdom of heaven is a leaven but that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, the likeness however, as in the rest of the parables of matthew 13, is to the entire activity described in the parable & not just a likeness to an object.
It is thus wrong to say that "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven" and stop there for what the parable says is "the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it had been all leavened."

This activity forecasted in the parable is in itself strange & a mystery for no where in scripture is leaven spoken of as a symbol of what is good, so the introduction of leaven and it's leavening activity/effect here, clearly speaks of an infiltration in the kingdom/field of christendom, and just like other parables, it is a mystery that such would be playing out in the kingdom, the parables are thus referred to as the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven(Matthew 13:11).


How Does This Affect The Church Today?

Like leaven, the mystery of iniquity was already at work in the early days of the church, and is still at work till this day; the leaven of sin, the leaven of malice, bitterness and wickedness, the leaven of legalism/judaism, the leaven of false brethren, of false teachers, of false doctrines/damnable heresies. etc.
1 Corinthians 5:1-8; Hebrews 12:15; Galatians 5:1-9; 2:4-5; Acts 15:24; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 18; Jude vs 3-5, 12-13.

The mystery of iniquity is that which is preparing the ground and paving way for the apostasy, however, it cannot have it's full sway, it cannot leaven the whole lump till the true people of God(the unleavened ones and wheat) are taken out of the way.

Of this the apostle says in 2nd Thessalonians 2:7-8: "the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed..."

The word "letteth" here in the original greek is "katecho" and it means to hold back, to hinder, to detain, to restrain.
In other words, "only he who now restrains/hinders....until he is taken out of the way"

This same word(Katecho) is translated as "withholdeth" in verse 6 which reads:
"And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed..."
In other words: "you know what restrains/hinders him from being revealed"(him here speaks of the man of lawlessness/son of perdition).

The phrase "until he be taken out of the way" is "heos ginomai ek mesos" in the original greek and it means "till it becomes/comes to pass that he is taken out of and away from the midst".

Note: The singular pronoun "he" is silent in the greek, thus there is no ground to insist that it's a single individual that is being spoken of and not a company,  however, it's clear that whoever/the company being spoken of, is in the midst of where the mystery of iniquity is working/playing out, and is thus the vessel of restraint upon it, until 'he or they' are taken away from the midst, then shall the mystery of iniquity/lawlessness have it's full sway & the man of lawlessness be revealed/made manifest to head the open apostasy of christendom.

God's restraint on evil has always been his righteous people in the midst.

The mystery and leaven of iniquity is working in the field of kingdom profession, however by reason of the true people of God who are in the midst, it's being held back/restrained from having it's full sway; the man of sin is thus being held/kept back from being revealed, for he cannot be revealed until the mystery of iniquity gains the entire ground, until the whole lump is leavened and what is left on the field of kingdom profession are tares and unfruitful professors given over to apostasy and the awful prospect of damnation.

This is why the apostle went ahead to say in the later verses of 2nd Thessalonians 2(vs.11-12): "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

The harvest marks the end of christendom/day of grace & the beginning of the end of the age(the last week of the 70 weeks determined upon Israel - the Jewish age).

In the harvest the wheat are taken off the field(which is the world according to the parable of wheat & tares) and harvested into the heavenly granary/barn in the Father's house, while the tares and unfruitful professors are left on the field as bound in bundles to be burnt up...they are given over to apostasy and the prospect of damnation, thus when the man of sin(son of perdition) shows up, their fate is sealed as God will send them a strong delusion to believe a lie and accept the man of sin(antichrist) as the Christ; thus solemnly the day of christian profession ends in open apostasy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

False Assertions About Sin. Part 6.

False Assertions Addressed By John.  (3.) "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."  1 John 1:10. This is the third false assertion about sin, which John the apostle dealt with. I know you must have heard some preachers/christians today teaching that the new creation man does not have a past; that the new creation man is not the man that Christ died for, that the new creation is not the redeemed for he never existed prior to his birth in Christ. I was once in a service in 2001 when a renown preacher/televangelist, in a bid to demonstrate and pass across this teaching, brought out two men, and put one of them infront and said that is the sinner, that is the man that Christ died for, the man that was redeemed; he can sing: 'Amazing grace...that saved a wretch like me'; he can sing the songs of redemption.  He then led the second man out and said that is the new creation man, the man who has no past; that is
Read more

Who Is A Man Of God? Part 1.

The Man Of God Or The Man Of Himself.  A very thin line exists between a man of God and a man of himself. Many today are called men of God but they are men of themselves or men of the people. They speak of themselves, represent their own interests and concerns, even in the things of God. It's high time we defined who a man of God is. The general tendency we have is to refer to people as men of God, simply because they carry the bible and preach or because they set up a religious organisation, and have a building where they use a microphone to speak to a congregation. There's also the tendency to think that those called into the word ministry like apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors, are automatically constituted men of God. The appellation or designation 'man of God' was not carelessly used in scriptures, and should not be carelessly used by any bible believer. Scriptures scarcely referred to men as 'men of God', thus we should be c
Read more

GREATEST ENCOUNTERS FROM THE PAGES OF THE BIBLE.

GREATEST ENCOUNTERS FROM THE PAGES OF THE BIBLE.  By Dipo Ecclesia When I gave my heart to Jesus as a teenager and later staggered in faith, I became agnostic and showed complete apathy to the things of the spirit and I stopped going to church. I began to doubt everything about  Christianity and the bible and will try hard to argue the bible logically with anybody I see. After some years (Five years precisely), there was this strong and serious desire for me to seek God again (I actually embraced Islam at a point but just didn't practice). The desire to seek God was so strong and compelling that it became a struggle with me and the Lord before I finally yielded and bent to the will of the Lord and was restored. Back then I made up my mind that if there is really a Living God and since I HAVE JUST ONE LIFE, then I want to know Him myself before I die and not just what preachers have being telling me, in fact I asked God to show Himself to me and He did by some encounter
Read more