"The Kingdom of Heaven"
Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven, often describing it with parables. Every mention to the kingdom of heaven in the New Testament is contained in Matthew’s gospel. He recounts twelve parables. The first seven are included in his 13th chapter, and five are scattered throughout the remaining ones. Some are prophetic, some descriptive, and some bespeak its value. All of them paint a picture of a different kingdom than any world kingdom. Together, they foretell the triumph of righteousness over evil, of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of the devil, in a long, patient, and uplifting struggle.
Consider the parable of the leaven. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matt 13:33). It recalls an ancient event when YHWY (Jehovah) appeared to Abraham “in the plains of Mamre” (Gen 18:1). Abraham saw three approaching men. A careful study (omitted here) discloses that one was the pre-incarnate Jesus and the other two were angels. After reverently welcoming them, he asked Sarah, “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth” (Gen 18:6). Since Sarah needed to be quick, she made the cakes without leaven, for the dough had no time to rise. The pre-incarnate Jesus told Abraham, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son” (Gen 18:10). Sarah laughed because she was 89, barren, and beyond the age of childbearing, but God keeps His promises.
When Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven was like leaven placed in three measures of meal, He revealed the power and patience of His promise that He infused in the meal. At the time, God could not find but one man who would worship Him and not turn after other gods. The rest of the world was lost in the superstition, barbarism, immorality, even debauchery, and bondage of sin. God, in the person of the pre-incarnate Jesus, placed the leaven of His promise in the offering that Sarah prepared.
Leaven infuses air into a lump of dough, but it takes time. The mystical meaning of the Hebrew letter ה (hey), which is represented by the English letter h, denotes the divine breath, revelation, and light. Its numerical value is five. Because light is mentioned five times on the first day of creation, ה bespeaks that light.
When God made covenant with Abraham, he placed the letter ה (h) in his and Sarai’s name. Abram became Abraham and Sarai, Sarah. The change indicated that God put His breath, revelation, and light in them, just as He had put them into creation when He brought order and life from the darkness and void. That covenant is the basis of the kingdom of heaven. For that covenant to bear fruit, it needed to pass through Abraham’s and Sarah’s offspring until the end. It was like leaven hidden in the three measures of meal.
As leaven takes time to raise the dough, even so the covenant with Abraham took time to raise the nations of the world from their hardened, encrusted, and carnal state. Slowly and surely, with a few leaps and several setbacks, the presence of the divine breath has filtered through the Israelites and gradually raised nations from their dark, violent, and dreadful past.
The promise hidden in the three measures of meal offered on the day that God told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son was perfected when Mary gave birth to Jesus, the promised and only begotten Son of God. He was the promised seed sent to crush the head of the serpent. Jesus’ atoning death followed by His resurrection opened the windows of heaven for the divine breath to fill the multitude from many nations who gathered at Pentecost. While those baptized that day were Jews living in the diaspora, they represented the multitude of Gentiles who would soon hear, believe, and obey the gospel. They, too, would receive the abiding gift of the Holy Ghost, the divine breath that brings revelation and light. They, too, would be lifted out of superstition, immorality, and bondage.
We are living close to the end, when the kingdom of heaven will come to earth, just as Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matt 6:10). Missionaries empowered by the Holy Ghost have preached the gospel around the globe and begun raising heathen lands to light and truth. The latter-day light has come. As the sound of the gospel has been repeatedly preached for the last 195 years, the world has come closer to heaven, but evil has not surrendered its stubborn resistance. On the contrary, “The enemy is combined” (D&C 38:3c), attracting those who prefer darkness over light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19) and forming a secret combination dedicated “to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations and countries” (Eth 3:99). That clandestine confederation is now established within all Gentile nations as Nephi foresaw (1N 3:229), linked with thuggish and terrorizing partners around the globe
Jesus also said, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away” (Matt 13:47). The worldwide polarization that has develop over the past few generations has concentrated people on one of two opposing sides. One aligns with the champions of freedom, truth, and light, while the other affiliates with the advocates of power, control, and conformity. The Book of Mormon prophesied it: “For the time speedily cometh, that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people” (2N 12:90). Jesus referred to this ongoing process when he foretold how the net would be drawn to shore and the fish separated into good and bad vessels. The propaganda of those who oppose freedom has attracted thousands who have never learned why Europeans fought to shake off popish power or fled the unholy alliance of church and state that developed in England and other nations several centuries ago. But God is shaking the world, for its inhabitants “must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger and perish” (2N 12:23). He is saving as many as will accept His Son from the fiery end of the wicked.
The kingdom of heaven is also like ten virgins. This parable refers to the bridal party in any Galilean wedding when Jesus lived. Some bridal attendants were wise and some foolish (Matt 25:1-10). Five took oil with their lamps as they waited, but five did not (Matt 25:2-3). Foolish indeed, for the groom’s father almost always called guests to the wedding while it is still dark. When the announcement came in the parable, the foolish could not immediately go to the wedding and were shut out. The obvious meaning is that believers who are waiting for Jesus must possess the oil to light the way at the time the Father summons people to the wedding.
The oil represents the Holy Ghost, the divine breath, revelation, and light that God placed in His covenant with Abraham. It is the Holy Ghost, the evidence of the New Covenant that Jesus mediated for all people who believe in Him and repent. He said, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezek 36:26-27).
Every repentant person who confesses Jesus as Savior and Lord and is baptized receives the abiding gift of the Holy Ghost. If we nourish the Spirit, He will grow and bear fruit, adorning us with “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal 5: 22-23). We must cling to the Holy Ghost and continually nourish Him if we want Him to constantly abide in us. Doing so, especially during the approaching night when we expect the Father’s summons to the wedding, if we want to be ready. We will not be deceived by the propaganda broadcast by the secret conspiracy of which Mormon prophesied. Latter-day revelation explained, “They that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived . . . shall abide the day, and the earth shall be given unto them for an inheritance” (D&C 45:10b-d).