Fox Street Church of God

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

In the first-century Greco-Roman and ancient Near Eastern worlds, children occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder. They possessed no legal rights, social status, or economic utility. Because infant mortality rates were exceptionally high, children were often not fully integrated into social calculations until they reached maturity. Therefore, the people bringing children to Jesus were seeking a traditional blessing from a respected rabbi, but the disciples viewed this as a waste of the Messiah’s highly sought-after time and energy.

On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”

Jezreel (Yizre’el): Means “God sows” or “God will sow,” referencing the fertile valley and symbolically representing God spreading or scattering the people.[1]

In the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, Ahab son of Omri began to reign over Israel; Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him.