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God is not willing that anyone should be lost. The parable of the fig tree warns Israel to bear fruit. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son indicate the joy in heaven when that which has been lost is restored.

In Mark 3 and 4 Y'shua switches from speaking plainly to speaking in parables. This is after He was accused of having demonic powers. This set of kingdom parables is slightly different from those in Mat 13. After saying that a strong man's goods cannot be stolen unless he is first bound, He begins with the parable of the sower and then gives four more parables. The question is, what is He concealing from His listeners that He then speaks plainly to His disciples?

The question of meat sacrificed to idols was important in a predominantly pagan world. Paul's answer to the problem was a variation of "don't ask, don't tell." If, by whatever means, one discovers that meat has been part of a sacrifice, it is forbidden. Otherwise it is permitted and one need not conduct an investigation.

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man's deficiency is not his wealth per se. Rather, he is not handling that wealth as indicated by Moses and the Prophets. Lazarus' condition is evidence that the rich man did not love his neighbor. In the Luke 12 parable of the servants awaiting their master's return, the message is that His return will be at an unexpected time and He wants His servants to be found faithful to their charges.

The parable of the sower marks the point in His ministry where Y'shua gives up on trying to convert Israel's religious establishment because they do not want to believe that He is the Messiah. From that point his public messages are in cryptic parables. In the parable of the sower, there are four regions where seed falls. They represent Satanic interference with the Word, societal hostility, individual distraction and the faithful heart respectively.

Paul continues his advice to live in the expectation that Messiah's return is imminent. In this he speaks of both employment circumstances and marital arrangements. As mentioned in last time, he advises to avoid concentrating on romance unless such might lead to sin.

Y'shua was frequently in conflict with the Pharisees who were lovers of money and prestige. The parable of the rich fool who decided to build bigger barns. The parable of the dishonest manager.

At the end of Leviticus, Moses talks about the seventh and the fiftieth years of release. There debts are forgiven, Israelite slaves are freed, the land is allowed to rest and, on the Jubilee, people return to the land that Joshua allotted to their clans. This is not a test of faith, because God promises a bumper crop on the sixth year so there is no fear of hunger. Rather it is a test of people's attitude toward wealth. Will they be satisfied with the blessings that God has promised and provided or will they be greedy and work their land and keep their slaves in the seventh year?

In the 7th chapter, Paul is responding to a question that we can only infer from his answer. In this he sounds lukewarm on marriage. Later in the letter we learn that he expects Y'shua to return very shortly. Hence, the inference is that he believed that spiritual pursuits were more important than romantic ones given the times.

After having being accused of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, Y'shua's speech becomes more cryptic - except when dealing with the self righteousness of the Pharisees and the Lawyers. Their constant demands for supernatural signs beyond the ones He has shown openly bespeaks a heart that doesn't want to learn the truth.

Leviticus, the central book of the Torah, is where God tells Israel how He wishes to be approached and worshipped. Many believe that those instructions were only for Israel and have been superseded by the Resurrection of Christ. That is not true. Sacrifice is an act of love and is always acceptable in that spirit. God promises that when He regathers Israel and the Temple is rebuilt, He will once again accept sacrifice. That will be both from Israel and from the gentiles.

It appears that some in the Corinthian church mistook the liberty that we have in Messiah for license. In this they had descended into debauchery. Paul writes against this in the strongest of terms, telling the church to expel those who engaged in flagrant sin.

Y'shua's disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray. That means that prayer is a skill that can be taught. The Lord's Prayer, the Friend at Midnight, the Unjust Judge and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

In Leviticus, God tells Israel to be holy because He is Holy. In the subsequent verses, He gives them laws on the basis of His own authority. The explicit purpose of these laws it to differentiate Israel from the nations that they are to destroy. The reason for those nations' destruction is that they practiced all of the abominations that God forbids. So too, our society has degraded to the point that we have made all of the forbidden abominations commonplace.

As Paul writes to correct the hubris of the Corinthian church, he compares himself and the other Apostles to builders working on the living Tabernacle. In this, he directs merit away from himself and toward God where it rightly belongs.

This set of parables emphasizes the cost of entering the Kingdom of God. Several people desire to follow Him but have things to do before they can begin. Others are encumbered by the things of the world. The Good Samaritan, the Rich Young Ruler, Zacchaeus.

Speech is important.. It can either build up or destroy. In the Torah, leprosy is twice associated with negative speech. This indicates that Biblical leprosy is a physical manifestation of a heart condition. Although Biblical leprosy no longer manifests, a person's speech still can expose his heart condition.

The first four chapters of the letter deal with divisions in the church caused by intellectual pride. Since Paul had planted the church, they had heard the teaching of others and factions had formed. Each of the teachers mentioned were perfectly sound but perhaps each had said things differently. in their inexperience and pride, members of the church had seized on stylistic differences and elevated them to the level of doctrine.

During His final journey to Jerusalem, Y'shua told a series of parables. These parables are arranged as a chiasm. The first and last element of that chiasm concerns a noble who goes away to obtain a kingdom. His subjects try to stop him from becoming their ruler. He also leaves resources with his servants and expects an accounting upon his return. His servants are rewarded or punished according to what they did with the master's resources while he was away.

Mark chapter 1 contains an outline of Y'shua's entire ministry as well as that given to His apostles after His resurrection. The outline boils down to: preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons. Demons are barely mentioned in the TANAK but have almost 100 references in the New Testament. What changed? What does that mean to us today?