Awhile back, a long while back, I took my Grandmother a quarter cup of fast acting yeast. I was getting into bread baking. I wanted bread like she made. She said she hadn't made bread in a long time and was afraid she had forgotten. I encouraged her. "You've got a bread recipe around here somewhere."
We talked a little about how she remembered her mother making bread. Grandma told me her mother would make her own leaven for their bread. Well, I thought I knew what leaven was. To me, leaven was just her old fashioned word for yeast. It was in the Bible about a woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of meal until it leavened the whole lump (Matthew 13:33). In my mind that was a tablespoon of yeast in three cups of flour. But Grandma said they made their own yeast. They took the leaven and spread it out on pans in the sun and let it dry. It was then broken in pieces to be used to leaven the bread. I asked for the recipe for making my own. She didn't remember if she had ever known. She helped as a child.
After I left, Grandma tried to use the yeast I'd brought. Her bread was hard and inedible. She had used it all in one loaf. It was not the leaven she knew how to use.
Grandma has been gone for twenty years. I've learned to bake bread in different ways. I've learned to make sourdough bread from a starter that can be refrigerated, frozen, and DRIED! If you stir about a cup and a quarter into three cups of flour, add a little water and it will begin to spread and rise. I don't have to knead it. Every hour I simply fold it over four times and let it rest again for another hour. I do this four times and let it rest a complete seven hours from the beginning. This longer rise time allows the WILD yeast to consume many of the carbs that regular bread contains, thereby giving me healthier bread.
When Jesus told the story of hiding leaven in three measures of meal there was no fast acting yeast. These are modern inventions supposedly to make bread faster, but the kneading is a real workout for the baker and the bread. I think Jesus was talking about sourdough. The baker takes the growing sourdough and mixes it into the flour. Finally after seven hours, it's ready to be baked.
The gospel can't be like a package of yeast that is worked into flour and worked and worked and worked. After the shorter rise, it is shoved into the oven. The gospel needs to be well delivered, revisited, and gently turned, never punching it down, but lovingly turned and allowed to incorporate on its on by the Holy Spirit into a person's heart for the complete work. Remember the seven hours — seven — a number of completeness.
Scripture says when the fullness of time has come the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. That's what the Lord is waiting on (II Peter 3:9) He's not in a hurry. He wants us to fully understand and our hearts permeated with the gospel so we don't turn away when things aren't perfect, when suffering comes. He wants us fully matured, filled with the gospel, being a witness through thick and thin until the whole earth is filled with the glory of the Lord.
Maybe your family or your Sunday School group would like to experience a more Biblical bread, a healthier bread, a bread of purpose, and remembrance. Enjoy the taste of good bread as we taste and see that the Lord is good as He fulfills His purpose through us filling the whole earth with the glory of the Lord.
Blessings,
Gail
4 comments:
Beautiful analogy, Gail!
A beautiful analogy, Gail.
Deborah, thank you for your encouraging comment.
Jean, thank you for always encouraging me.
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