Of Such Is the Kingdom Part III—The Early Church and the Roman Empire

"Linus," Herod bellowed, "send the page to find my half-brother, Manaheem and tell him I wish to see him at once."  He then turned to Herodius.  “I shall hire Manaheem again, this time to foment an insurrection against Agrippa."

"Do you think that wise dear?  Remember the last one failed."

"Yes, I think that was because it wasn't given enough time or careful planning.  I shall tell Manaheem to supervise things more closely."

She sighed.  "If you say, so dear."

"You can stay and make sure I cover everything with him when he comes."

"No, my dear.  I’m getting a splitting headache."  She pushed away her half eaten meal.  “I can’t eat anymore."

"Me either" he said, pushing his plate aside as well.  "Well, you stay here and rest, my dear.  I shall go to the throne room to await my visitor."

***********

Manaheem and Claressa had just arrived home after another uplifting believer's meeting and were reminiscing.  Manaheem said with a sigh, "it was good I remembered to request that we pray for Herod.  I had almost forgotten about him, since our last encounter over a year ago.  I really should have kept praying for his soul."

Claressa frowned. "That old reprobate.  Do you really think there's any hope for him?"

"It's hard to say, Claressa, but I think we should never give up until we know for sure it's too late."

"But if he hasn't listened to your arguments in the past, what is there to make you think he will listen now?"

Before he could answer, there was knock on the door.  Opening it, he found Herod's page, the same one who had once told him of john's beheading.  "Manaheem, sir, king Herod would see you right away, sir."

Claressa smiled from across the room and said, "Well, this may be your next chance.  God go with you, Manheem, I shall be praying for you."

************

As Manaheem entered the throne room, he noticed that the queen was absent from the room and that the king's crown was in his hand.  As the door closed behind him and he walked toward the throne, Herod placed his crown back on his head and smiled.  "Ah, Manaheem!   Thanks for coming."

Manaheem bowed politely.  “I assume you wish to continue our conversation concerning Jesus of Nazareth."

"Well you assume wrong brother dear.  But then you always were a dreamer.  No, I don't wish to hear any more of your foolishness.  I have a much more important matter to discuss with you.  It seems my nephew, Herod Agrippa, has been released from prison by the new emperor, Caligula and given control over several territories.  He and the new emperor are close friends, so my sources say, so there's no telling what territory the emperor will bestow on him next--maybe mine."

"Manaheem smiled sarcastically.  "Well, that sure is an interesting state of affairs, if I do say so."

Herod cringed and reached for the half full wine glass on the table beside the throne.  "Oh, Manaheem, I suppose I should have known you'd say something like that.  But I didn't call you here to gloat over the situation."

"Well, why did you send for me, brother dear?"

“I sent for you to ask you to do something about it--try to instigate another insurrection--this time against my dear nephew."