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The most isolated fortress in Herod Antipas' territory, which was called Perea, was Machaerus.  Here you can see the flat topped mountain of the Machaerus fortress.  There are excavations of the fortress at the top. John the Baptist baptized along the Jordan in...

An important concept  . . . the parables of servant-hood are grouped together in the text. Luke 14:7-11. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.  "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the...

In Matthew 20 there is the parable of the workers in the fields.  Some workers started early in the morning and were promised a day's wages.  Some started at noon and were promised a day's wages.  Some came just before quitting time and were paid the same wages.  The...

"What do you think?"  Remember this means sit down and hold on because the illustration is going to be different than human standards. God is like a shepherd who left ninety-nine sheep on the hillside to look for the lost sheep. (Matthew 18:12-14, John 15, 4-7)  Wrong...

Reversal of human priorities is a common theme in parables of the kingdom and they are meant to shock.  Whenever you hear the phrase, "The Kingdom of God is like," sit down and hold on because the illustration is going to be different than human standards of power and...

Walled mother cities had stores of weapons and grain so they could withstand an enemy siege.  The army, wealthy merchants, and the priestly class lived within the walled city while the poor lived outside the walled city, in the daughter villages.  Kings and priests...

In the Bible it is presented to the prophet Samuel, and later to Nathan, that the Lord is not so hot on the idea of the people having a king who might abuse his power.  Nor is the Lord hot on the idea of them having a temple.  What is wrong with the tabernacle?  The...

Samuel went to Bethlehem looking for a king and found David, a scrawny boy who kept the sheep. Let's look at the kingship more in relation to David.  David spilled innocent blood when he killed Uriah the Hittite because of his lust for Bathsheba.  Nathan would not...

Where does Jesus get his notion of servant-king?  He gets it from scripture.  Kings are to be servants.  The two on the road to Emmaus were in despair because the person they thought was to be king was killed by the very Romans he was to overthrow.  The stranger...

Let us continue to look at how Jesus presented the kingdom of God as he spent time with people who others forgot in Luke chapter 7. There were two healings at Nain.  The widow who had already lost her husband has now lost her only son through that husband.  The...