"Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.""It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"
Matt.21:12-13
Jesus overturned the tables in the physical Temple, disrupting corruption in a holy place. Men had taken advantage of conditions there, and with the High Priest's permission, established businesses inside of this holy place, perverting it from a place of worship to a place of dishonest commerce. This is the only place I can think of where the Lord expresses such great anger that He physically attacks an adversary.
In our own temples - our bodies, mind, heart, and spirit - Jesus desires to overturn unholiness also. The same zeal that He had for His Father's house is at work today,(He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it, Phil.1:6) so great is his desire for us to move in holiness - to revolutionize our existence - this is where abundant life is. It's not really a revolution at all though, this is what we were actually made for...that perfectly God-shaped vacuum inside of us that He comes in and fills when we hear Him knocking at the door of our heart and we don't just look through the peep hole, but answer and swing it wide open for Him.
Today my prayer is for ongoing revolution as the Lord continues His good work, rearranging our "temples".
Hey again Mr. Nemets!
ReplyDeleteFurther to the "cleansing". As I understand it, that temple had the "outer court", or Court of the Gentiles. I believe this was the area where non-jews could come to worship the Lord. All Nations coming before Yahweh. So not only was Jesus angry at the commercialisation of temple property, such business was also preventing Gentiles from worshipping the One True God, and He was certainly desiring that all peoples be able to come to Him in true worship! Psalm 67 aamong many others.
Amen brother!
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