Paid in Pennies?

Depiction of Roman Coins.
Biblical era.
Are they worth pennies?

When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, who will throw you into prison. And if that happens, you won't be free again until you have paid the very last penny. Luke 12:58-59 

Meditate on disagreements that could go to court.

 

I’ve never understood the whole idea of keeping a person in prison or jail until they have paid their fine. How can they pay when they can’t work to earn money? Did their family have to raise the money? Was there a possible servanthood established to work off the payment? The same thing happens in the court system today. A person can be fined as well as sentenced to jail or prison time. How do they pay? The pennies all add up.

Jesus recommends that the person try to settle the matter with the accuser before going in front of the judge. No jail time is involved unless the court assigns it. Wise advice.

Consider who the judge is if you put this into a spiritual context. Jesus is our ultimate judge.

What do we learn about Jesus from this passage?

 

Prayer – Lord Jesus, You give such wise advice. I guess that is because You know everything! Thank You for providing us insight into any problem we might have—especially those we create for ourselves. Most of all…Thank You for taking our sins to the cross. We would be lost, forsaken, and eternally dead without You. You’ve shown us amazing grace.

 

Verse of Salvation ~ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. Colossians 2:13-15

 

Friday’s Feast at the King’s Table

The key to enjoying a good meal is to have good health. Good health depends on a good immune system. Garlic is a healthy food that supports our immune system to prevent disease and to help restore good health. Garlic is very effective at destroying bacteria and viruses. Interestingly, garlic is only eliminated from the body via the respiratory system. As it goes, it takes the bacteria and viruses with it. So breathe deeply…always…and have some garlic and honey regularly.

We can’t live on bread alone. Sometimes, we just crave a little something sweet. A spoonful—even a very small spoonful—of honey may be just what we need. Honey is a great anti-inflammatory food with antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. Combine it with another antibacterial and disease fighting food, garlic, you actually get a symbiotic effect. The two together work better than either one alone. To combine these two miraculous foods, you can pickle or ferment garlic in honey.

Cold season is upon us…and the flu is not far behind. Remember the old adage…Feed a cold, starve a fever. I find that with a cold and sore throat, some chicken soup is best along with some lemon and honey. Actually, fermented garlic honey is the very best. I still had a little left from last year and have brewed up a couple more pint jars with local honey and fresh garlic from my garden to use this fall and winter.

 

Essence of Garlic-Honey

Heads of roasted garlic.
You can ferment these with honey.
To your health!

A head of fresh garlic

            Local pure honey

Simply crush the cloves of one head of garlic and place in a sterile pint jar. Cover with raw, unpasteurized local honey, filling to within one-half inch of the top of the jar. Seal and set on your counter for a few days, turning the jar over to gently shake it a couple of times daily. After about a week, simply use the honey, by the spoonful in anyway you would use honey, and use the garlic in the way you normally use garlic. Both together would be good in salad dressings, in meat or vegetable marinates, or even in soup or stew. Store for a month at room temperature.

 

Over the years, I’ve had a bit of a sore throat, from postnasal drip—not Covid—and a tiny spoonful of this honey-garlic mixture amazingly takes away that scratchy soreness. Recently, I drizzled it over thinly sliced apples for a quick dessert. You could do that for a snack, too. Yum.

 

Do you like honey? Don't eat too much, or it will make you sick! Proverbs 25:16

 

© 2026 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

Portions of Friday’s Feast comes from March 4, 2016, and January 21, 2022, Banquet With The King blogs

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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