There was something remarkable about the faith of the centurion Jesus encountered in Luke 7. After the conversation he had with the centurion’s emissaries, Luke notes, “When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.’” (v9).

As if being besieged by a superpower wasn’t enough to test Hezekiah, in today’s reading from 2 Kings 20, he learns that he is going to die. God sent the prophet Isaiah to tell him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover.” (v1).

Being besieged by a superpower is something of a problem. Nothing had stood in the way of Sennacherib and his army. As the Rabshakeh asked, “Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?” (2 Kings 18:33). They had decimated everyone else, and now it was Jerusalem’s turn.

One of the things Hezekiah did when reforming the kingdom of Judah, aside from cutting down idols, was “he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” (2 Kings 18:4).

The first verse and a half of Luke 3 should be read with a commanding voice, kind of like introducing dignitaries at a function: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas” (Luke 3:1-2).

Jesus had a spiritual maturity beyond his years. Luke 2 records the time when, at age twelve, Mary and Joseph found him in the temple or, as he said, “In my Father’s house” (v49).

Luke chapter 1 is all about the birth announcements of John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ. The two of them were to become a team, with John’s preaching preparing the way of the Lord. Straightaway, in this chapter, we get little hints of the grand purpose of this partnership; how Jesus’ work would replace the Old Covenant with the New.

The apostle Paul was in a difficult situation. The so-called super-apostles (2 Cor. 11:5) had exerted their influence on the new community of believers. They were threatening to lead people away from the true gospel as well as were maligning Paul.

We read in the New Testament about the opposition the apostles received from those who called themselves followers of Christ but were straying from apostolic teaching.

As Paul traveled through Gentile lands preaching the gospel and strengthening the ecclesias, he began collecting resources to help the brethren in Jerusalem.

The main difference between how Christadelphians differ from mainstream Christianity concerning the meaning of the death of Christ is about whether we are spectators or participants.

The grisly end of Jezebel’s life recorded at the end of 2 Kings 9 is a fitting testimony to the justice of God.