Early rabbinical literature echoed the imagery of Yeshua’s description of Herod as “that fox.” There may not be a coincidence that Yeshua then refers to the love of God for rebellious Israel as a hen caring for her chicks. Some have claimed the “house left to you desolate” in this passage refers to Israel in favor of “the church,” but similar parables related by prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) suggest otherwise.
There are parallels between the “punch lines” of the parables of the narrow door, narrow gate and 10 virgins. Some think the key to the oil in the 10 virgins parable is the Spirit, and some say it’s the Torah. Rather, it’s knowing God, which involves equal measures of both Torah and God’s Spirit.
Yeshua heals a woman with a back deformity, but the condition may have also been symbolic of the spiritually oppressed. Kingdom parables of the mustard seed and yeast in dough teach that God will build the kingdom from humble, oppressed beginnings to become greater than any superpower.
Many ask something like, “Why do the good die young and the evil seem to live forever?” Yeshua answered two questions about whether sin brought on two tragedies at that time by saying those weren’t punishment for sin, but all need to take notice that a big disaster for Israel — Rome’s destruction of Yerushalayim — was coming and need turn back to God.
Some believers in God’s Messiah become enraptured with Bible study and/or prophecy to understand “hidden” meaning and timelines for the Day of the Lord. In Luke 12 and Matthew 6, Yeshua continued a parable-filled teaching on how God wants one to be truly prepared for that day: preparing one’s heart and mind then doing God-ordained tasks in the real world.
God instructs His people to open their hands and share the abundance of God’s blessings with those who need help. Yeshua weaved together teachings on greed, charity and wealth.
Prayer is one of the ways we communicate with God and this communication is a two-way street. We check what we hear from God and what we say to God via what He’s already said to us through His recorded words in Scripture.
In the secular world, when we send emails to each other, the servers that route these messages around the world have error-checking methods to make sure that the pieces of information received make up the same message that was sent.
On other hand, we are to be persistent in humility, asking the Lord to give us good things and not treating Him like a safe with a stubborn lock to be picked.