shall be made with leaven." Here we see that both the sacrifice with blood, and the

wonderful bloodless meal offering, must alike be free from leaven. Amos, speaking of

Israel's sins, says, "Come to Bethel and transgress. . . . and offer a sacrifice of

thanksgiving with leaven. . . . for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith

the Lord God" (Amos 4: 4, 5). Leaven is undoubtedly a type of evil as used by the Holy

Spirit in the inspired Word.

What of the three measures of meal? They certainly cannot typify the corrupt human

heart any more than the corrupting leaven can represent the blessed truth of God.

Neither can the three measures of pure meal represent the "Protestant, Roman Catholic,

and Greek sections of Christendom." If they do, then the Protestant expositors who are

largely the supporters of this interpretation must confess that Rome is looked upon by the

Lord in the same light as their own community, and will finally be "leavened the gospel"

(to use their own phraseology), like the Protestant and the Greek. Of course the answer

will be that the measures of meal represent "Christendom, the professing church," not the

true church of Christ. This again yields another difficulty. Will "Christendom, the

professing church" be so "leavened with the gospel" that at the end it will be true that

"the whole was leavened"? When the Son of man cometh, will He find a completely

evangelized and believing Christendom? Facts of everyday life as well as prophecy

testify to the exact opposite.

Can we find the Scriptural meaning of the three measures of meal? The word meal in

the original is aleuron, and means by its etymology meal produced by grinding. The

word occurs nowhere else in Scripture apart from the parable of the Leaven. In the O.T.

meal and fine flour were typical of the spotless purity of the offering of the Lord Jesus,

and of the perfect character of the Word of truth. In Lev. 2: we have the "meat offering."

The word "meat" is an old English word for food (we still say "grace before meat"), but

there is no flesh or blood in the "meat offering" of Lev. 2: The instructions given in the

first verse tell us of the perfect purity of the offering; "his offering shall be of fine flour;

and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon. . . . no meat offering which

ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven" (verse 11).

Meal was used by the prophet Elisha to counteract the "death in the pot" caused by the

"wild vine" which had been gathered, symbolizing the deliverance to be wrought by

Christ (II Kings 4: 38-41). In Jer. 23: we have the Lord's severe indictment of the

false prophets. "They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the

Lord" (verse 16). "The prophets. . . . that prophesy lies in my Name. . . . they are

prophets of the deceit of their own heart" (vv.25, 26). "I am against the prophets. . . .

that steal my words. . . . that use (or smooth) their tongues, and say, He saith"

(vv.30, 31). "He that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the

chaff to the wheat? Saith the Lord" (verse 28). These passages must suffice to show that

corn, meal, or fine flour typify the Word of God, living and written.

There is one other symbol to consider and that is "The woman." In the preceding

parables it is a man who sows the seed, but now the symbol changes. Students of the

Scriptures are familiar with the fact that a woman is used many times to represent a