Truths of the Kingdom of God Discovered While Making Sourdough Bread

Almost two years ago my husband had a yen to make sourdough bread.  He had a book that was given to him awhile before we met called Alaska Sourdough by Ruth Allman.  He had tried once to make an Alaskan Sourdough starter and it didn't work.  I think it might of been because when we were first married and had no kids, we both worked, so we turned the heat down when we were gone during the day.  Sourdough starter needs to be warm to work right.

 So, like I said he got a hankerin' to try it again.  He did and it was a success and we have been making sourdough bread with the starter every week now since then and really love it.  On our journey with sourdough we did some reading about it on the Internet.  We found out that sourdough not only tastes really good, it is really good for you!

We also found out the practice of using a starter to make bread is age old.  Almost from the beginning of time up until recent times, bread has been made from a starter.  In 1382 John Wycliff translated the very first English version of the Bible.  In the words of his day Matthew 13:33 went like this:  "An other parable Jhesus spac to hem.  The Kyngdom of hevenes is like soure dowz, the whiche taken, a womman hidde in three mesuris of meel, til it were all sowrdowid." 

So back in 1382 they were using starter as the leaven because that is what the starter has in it is yeast from the flour.  Not only does it have yeast in it, it also has beneficial bacteria, lactobacilli.  Back then they knew about the yeast because they saw the effects of the bubbles but they didn't know the symbiotic relationship the yeast had with the bacteria.  The yeast could break down some of the starches into sugars, the digestion of the sugar in the yeast caused it to produce gas which is what the bubbles are and give the dough it's lift.  The bacteria are able to break down sugars that the yeast can then digest.   The bacteria produces lactic acid and that is what keeps the starter and the bread from molding and gives the bread that wonderful sour flavor.

Another discovery of sourdough is that the bacteria break down the gluten in the flour.  So you may say, I have heard a lot of talk about gluten lately because of all the allergies there are to it and this allergy causes a lot of problems in people's digestive tracks and can make them very sick, but what is gluten?  Gluten is a protein that is a large and complex molecule.  It is the thing that gives dough its elasticity and enables it to rise into that beautiful dome shape.  It may be a pretty thing on the outside but it is not pretty what it does to your intestines.  The gluten acts like sandpaper, microscopically, on your sensitive intestinal lining.  This irritation causes the intestine to form a mucous lining to protect itself but in the process this mucous lining also blocks important nutrients from being absorbed that the body needs to have for a healthy immune system.  A damaged immune system can cause auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalsia, chronic fatigue and also cancer, to name a few.

   

So sourdough bread for thousands of years has been good for mankind in that it supplied people with beneficial bacteria in their gut, but also broke down the gluten so it didn't harm their insides.  Also the bacteria was a natural preservative by extending the freshness of the bread making it last several weeks without refrigeration.  The only disadvantage was that it took the dough a whole day to rise.

In our modern age, here enters the commercial bakeries.  Scientists discovered if you isolate certain yeasts that consume all the sugars in the wheat, it will multiply rapidly and the bread will rise very fast, within a couple of hours, but it did not leave enough sugar for the bacteria to live on.  Without the lactic bacteria, artificial preservatives will be needed to make the bread last on the store shelves.  With commercial bakeries, it was all about production.  Faster production meant more bread produced which meant more money.  So there you go, even though the sourdough is tasty and way better for you, the commercial breads won out.  I have read some sources that have said since the onset of commercial bakeries and fast rising breads the cases of cancer and autoimmune diseases have mushroomed.  The staff of life has become a loaf of destruction to a lot of people. 

You maybe thinking, what does all this talk about sourdough have to do with the Kingdom of God?  Well in the modern translation of the Wycliff Bible it reads in Matthew 13:33  "Another parable Jesus spake to them [He spake another parable to them], The kingdom of heavens is like to sourdough, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it were all soured." 

When I read this verse before I learned about sourdough I though that it was just talking about the Kingdom of God spreading everywhere.  Knowing that Jesus being God, knew every tiny detail of the universe, he knew exactly what was going on in that bread flour.  The starter was changing the flour.  It was purifying it by keeping out the bad things like mold, it was simplifying the gluten molecule by breaking it down, it was enriching it, making it easier to digest and get the good nutrients out of it.  Also you had to wait for it to rise.  So too the Kingdom of God changes us, it purifies our hearts and lifts the power of sin over us so that we do not practice it,  it simplifies our approach to Him without the need of hierarchy and a physical temple/building and humbles us, breaks us down,  it is to enrich us, strengthen us against our struggles in this life and it is to teach us to wait on Him.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

Isaiah 40:28