The Bible references itself and builds upon itself a crazy number of times. No Bible scholar would claim to see all the connections clearly. Are certain links simply random, or is there a subtle message there for us to glean as we gaze upon Scripture even more carefully and repeatedly? Take for example a verse we learned from this past Sunday, Matthew 13:33: “He told them another parable. ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’”
It’s been noted that this is the exact same quantity of flour that Abraham told Sarah to work with in Genesis 18:6: “And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, ‘Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.’” The surrounding narrative relates a very interesting situation. Yahweh appeared to Abraham “by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, ‘O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’” That’s when he runs to tell Sarah to make bread. He also tells a servant to cook a calf, and he sets milk before the men as they eat and drink.
So basically these three men suddenly appear in Abraham’s line of vision. He seems to immediately know that the leader is divine. Perhaps this is a Christophany, an Old Testament appearance of the pre-incarnate second person of the Trinity? As for the other two, the following chapter has them separate from the Lord as they go to destroy Sodom and rescue Lot’s family. They are angels. But before the Lord speaks of Sodom to Abraham, He has another purpose for His visit – to give certain promise of the timing of Isaac’s birth. Abraham had been promised that it was through his family that redemption would come to the world. But at an incredibly old age, he still had no offspring. Yet God promised, over this quickly prepared meal, that within the next year Sarah would miraculously give birth. It would be through that son that blessing would come to all clans of the earth. But Sarah, overhearing this conversation, let out a laugh of cynical unbelief. After waiting so long, could the promise really come true?
This quantity of flour was immense – some estimate it would be enough to feed 100 people. In Ancient Near Eastern culture, the provision of an abundance was way to show honor to an important guest. So as Sarah, through the work of her hands, was preparing an abundance to give to the Lord, He was preparing an abundance, through her womb, to give honor to Himself down throughout all generations. The cakes of bread she was making were unleavened, as was the custom whenever unexpected visitors arrived. Abraham wanted to put the bread before the guests right away, so he says, “Quick!” There was no time for leavening and allowing bread to rise.
Jesus, 2,000 years after Abraham, tells his disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven is like the situation where a woman hides yeast in three “measures” (Greek ‘saton’ is the equivalent of the Hebrew ‘seah’) of flour, till it was all leavened. Is it a coincidence that these are the only two times in Scripture when “three measures” are discussed, both in relation to a woman making bread where the unfolding plan of God is being discussed? Maybe, but I don’t think so. If bread is to be symbolic for the fruition of the Kingdom, Jesus is emphasizing two things here. One is the continuity with that blessing that started with Abraham and Sarah. There is ultimately one story, one family of faith, and one blessed offspring (Isaac was a placeholder for his far descendant, Jesus the Christ).
But secondly, Jesus is saying, you’ve got to change your expectations regarding the Kingdom’s fruition. It won’t be “ready” like quick, unleavened bread, or like a baby born in a year. It wouldn’t be fully baked, if you will, right at that time of the Lord’s (Jesus’) sudden appearance on the scene. Instead, we’re told to look for the Kingdom to rise slowly. See that lump growing in the bowl under the kitchen towel? So also the Kingdom of Heaven is expanding its reach slowly, subtly, exponentially. It’s spreading to envelop every tribe of the earth. And that’s why in Isaiah 54 the people of God are addressed in the “Sarah – barren woman” archetype: “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For [because of the work of Christ detailed in Isaiah 53] the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married…enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.”
But it would not all happen immediately. Like Abraham and Sarah during those long years of waiting, or like the people in Jesus’ day expecting the Messiah’s coming to bring quick closure to history, we too can grow impatient. We desire peace and justice to reign. We feel homesick for the realm we have tasted but not yet seen. When we long to see the kingdom fully manifest before us, we can remember it’s now time for the long process of leavening. Yet as surely as Isaac was born to Sarah, so surely also, through Jesus, will the descendants of Abraham one day be complete, and as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. When we on that day stand among a great multitude that no one can number from every tribe, tongue, and nation, we with Sarah, might let out a laugh—not one of unbelief, but rather of wonder; a chuckle at how we could ever have doubted the designs of our wise and faithful King during the time of the “slow rise”.