Nebuchadnezzar, `until the fulness of the Gentiles come in'.  This stage is

marked by the words, `it becometh a tree, and the fowls lodged in its

branches' (see Daniel 4).  That which should have been pre -eminently the

kingdom of righteousness, becomes the habitation of Satan and his angels.

The third reason for delay is that the leaven of evil has been put into

the meal of God's truth.  This will work its course until the rise of

Antichrist, and the complete corruption of the visible witness for God (see

use of leaven, Matt. 16:6,12).

Thus we see that the Lord Jesus had no idea of the gradual uplifting of

the masses, and the permeating influence of the gospel.  He saw that man had

corrupted his way upon the earth, even as it was in the days of Noah.  Hence

it is that He uses the same words to represent the end.  Blessed be God, that

out of all this corruption and apostasy He will yet bring His treasure and

display His grace.

We have considered the first four parables and discovered something of

their bearing upon the course of the rejected kingdom of the heavens.  A

division is now observable, emphasized alike by the structural arrangement,

the teaching, and the different place in which they were spoken.

After the parable of the Leaven the Lord dismissed the multitude, and

went into the house.  There He explained the parable of the Tares, and then

proceeded to unfold the inner or Godward aspect of the kingdom in the four

parables that followed.  Their relation to each other may be summarized thus: