Today's Favorite Verse: Leviticus 2:11

Today's Favorite Verse: Leviticus 2:11
"No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire."

I was drawn to the word "Leaven" and why it was not to be included. I looked it up in the Bible Dictionary.

"Anything that in cooking produces fermentation, a lump of old dough being generally used. No leaven was allowed during the Passover Feast or in offerings made to God with fire. It was probably forbidden because there was associated with it the idea of corruption. In the New Testament it was as a rule symbolic of sin but in Matt. 13:33 it is compared to the inward growth and influence of the kingdom of heaven (church) upon the earth."
(Bible Dictionary, Leaven)

"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
(Matthew 13:33)

There is a change in leaven and it being associated with good when Jesus was ministering upon the earth. Though he did teach them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

"Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."
(Matthew 16:6)

I pondered on how it wasn't until after Christ's resurrection that the gospel began to be taught to all the world. In its restoration in the latter-days the leaven for the whole world is even more vital.

"We are to live in the world but not be of the world. We must live in the world because, as Jesus taught in a parable, His kingdom is “like leaven,” whose function is to raise the whole mass by its influence His followers cannot do that if they associate only with those who share their beliefs and practices. But the Savior also taught that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments"
(Dallin H. Oaks, "Loving Others and Living with Differences", Oct 2014 General Conference)

"I believe these are promises to the nations in which we reside. When the people of God withheld their tithes and offerings, Malachi condemned “this whole nation” Similarly, I believe that when many citizens of a nation are faithful in the payment of tithes, they summon the blessings of heaven upon their entire nation. The Bible teaches that “righteousness exalteth a nation” and “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”
(Dallin H. Oaks, "Tithing", Apr 1994 General Conference)

"It is said, in one of the parables, that “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.
In 1830, on the 6th day of April, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with only six members. Joseph, in one of his letters in relation to Alexander Campbell, in December 1835, said that “the three measures of meal might be compared to the three witnesses who were called upon to testify of the Book of Mormon, and who selected and ordained twelve Apostles to go forth and be special witnesses to all the world.”
Whether the application was really intended to be laid down as a rule I will not say, but it is very evident that when Joseph Smith laid the foundation of this kingdom he commenced depositing the leaven of truth, and that that leaven has continued to increase up to 1856, when an assemblage of the Saints, who are here as representatives of this people, is crowded out of such a spacious building as the Tabernacle, and obliged to assemble in this large Bowery, also densely filled.
It shows that the leaven is operating, and I may say gives fair and conclusive ground upon which to expect that the whole lump will eventually be leavened."
(George A. Smith, "The Leaven of the Gospel, Etc." JD 3:280)

“And another parable spake He unto them. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.” It may be understood that the Church of the Latter-day Saints has taken its rise from a little leaven that was put into three witnesses. Behold, how much this is like the parable! It is fast leavening the lump, and will soon leaven the whole. But let us pass on."
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 100)

Day 3776