Numbers 15:8-9

The next time it is used is in I Samuel 1:24 where Hannah dedicates Samuel (gives him to the Lord so he could live with the priest there)—another huge moment in Israelite history because Samuel became the prophet, and he is the one that anointed David as king, and he was a judge. So big things happen when three measures of meal are in these offerings.

Here we have it being told us that the grain offering is three-tenths of an ephah (or basically one-third of an ephah).

Now you need to know a little bit about Israelite measures here because this is not the same thing as three measures of meal. The omer is the smallest unit of capacity and it takes three omers to make one seah, which is the unit of measure transliterated in Matthew 13:33. We are talking about seahs here (which is one-third of an ephah, because it takes three seahs to make one ephah). So you have three omers make one seah and then three seahs make one ephah. This is not exact at all because ten omers make one ephah. So it is a little bit inexact.

But what you see here is that the normal meal offering was one-third of an ephah, which is one-third of one seah—one measure of meal. If something is three measures of meal, then what is being said here is that this offering is great, it is for a huge purpose—just like Abraham’s offering there to the three men was three measures of meal. It was way above and beyond what was normally required. It was three times as large.

So what Jesus is talking about here in the parable is that this thing, this entity, that is represented by the fine flour—the three measures of meal—is to do a great work or do a great thing for the kingdom of heaven. It is what may be called a meal offering on steroids.