Posted on 09/19/2019 3:15:51 AM PDT by metmom
“The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, ‘Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for Your house will consume me’” (John 2:13–17).
The Feast of Passover in Jerusalem each year meant big business for Jerusalem-based merchants. They sold animals necessary for the sacrifices at inflated prices to Jewish pilgrims who found it impractical to bring their own from their homes in distant lands.
Also, every Jewish male twenty years of age or older had to pay the annual temple tax (Matt. 17:24–27). But it could be paid only by using Jewish or Tyrian coins, so foreigners had to exchange their money for acceptable coinage. Because they held a monopoly, money changers charged an exorbitant fee.
What should have been a place of sacred reverence and adoration had become a place of abusive commerce and excessive overpricing.
Realizing that the purity of temple worship was a matter of honor to God, Jesus took swift and decisive action. The intensity of His righteous indignation was unmistakable—Christ would not tolerate any mockery of the spirit of true worship.
Ask Yourself
Are there instances in which we have turned the worship of God into something less than it should be—perhaps into something it should never be? What kind of heart do you intend to bring with you the next time you join with others in the Lord’s house for worship?
Studying God’s Word ping
Well, yes, I can think of something. 😁 You probably can figure out what I am thinking. 😁👍👊😆🤗😂
Mark17: Well, yes, I can think of something. 😁 You probably can figure out what I am thinking.
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This meditation of JMac's is kind of interesting, because it reminds me of the cleansing of the temple that the good King Hezekiah had to perform after his godless father Ahaz had defiled the remaining nation. Here are some pertinent excerpts from that story, found in the chronicles regarding the Jewish kings, but not in other places. Here is the story:
2 Chronicles 28:1,22-23,17; 29:1-11,17; 30:1-5 (AV):
28:1Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. 23For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.
27And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
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29:1Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.
3He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. 4And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, 5And said unto them,
"Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. 6For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.17Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.
7Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. 8Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
9For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 10Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. 11My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense."
It comes to me that there is a parallel here that reminds me of the restoration of leadership of our country to a fellow who wants to try to do the right American thing and make us great again, after the horrid depredations of his predecessor. yje Kenyan criminal, who tried to destroy our heritage.
I know that this is a poor comparison to what Jesus did for His nation, and more so for all mankind with His personal sacrifice of himself, but give this a thought.
Something to ruminate on. Recall, that even the priests who were still in support of Hezekiah, yet they too had been contaminated with the doings of the previous leader, and needed cleaning up themselves, so much that they could not even celebrate the national remembrance of the Passover on its traditional date, but had to postpone it.
Just a though for y'all, my FRiends.
Our religious assemblies need as much--nay, more!--cleaning up from the filth that is defiling them. Rather than representing The Great Physician that cleanses hearts and minds, they are serving the god of this world who is determined to defile us all, even by importing, recognizing, supporting, and bowing in homage to false gods from third world countries that oppose the Christ, the Prince of Peace, and His Faith, which Obama tried to say and enforce that we are not governed by His principles.
Our major widespread denominations, every one ofthem, meeds cleaning out, with a whip, if need be. As they are, they cannot heal our nation's ills. In fact, they are the typhoid Marys of the disease through their colleges, universities, seminaries, and graduates thereof.
some of them are beyond cleaning out and need to be shunned such as the ELCA
. I deliberately did not pin the asses tail on any particular denomination. Any one of them that permits extra-church (and I mean the localized assembly) administration has already failed the test of being a body of Christ with Him as its head.
A denomination is not, repeat not a church (singular). It is a collection of local assemblies who have forsaken their Head, the One Who loved the, for the illusory power of solidarity.
Any one whose allegiance is aligned with one of these ought not to talk too loud about following Jesus.
My point was across the spectrum there are some that need reforming and some that are probably beyond repair and those who truly follow Christ need to flee them. That tipping point may be different for different traditions and congregations. I speak of the ELCA as I had family members caught up in that fiasco that finally did leave so I am familiar with the struggle
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