SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 10/17/2012 8:22:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Cleansing the Temple
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
11:15-19
Message of
the verses: In Today’s Spiritual Diary we will look at
the second part of the main point which is entitled “The Servant –Judge.” Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following in his
introductory commentary on this section:
“Our Lord’s condemning of the tree and cleansing of the temple were both
symbolic acts that illustrated the sad spiritual condition of the nation of
Israel. In spite of its many privileges
and opportunities, Israel was outwardly fruitless (the tree) and inwardly
corrupt (the temple).
Cleansing the Temple (vv. 15-19):
“15 Then they came to
Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were
buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money
changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; 16 and He would not
permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. 17 And He began to teach
and say to them, "Is it not written, ’MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF
PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS’? But you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN." 18 The
chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him;
for they were afraid of
Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. 19 When evening
came, they would go out of the city.”
The Gospel of John teaches us that
during Jesus’ first Passover after He began His ministry, which would last
about three years, that He cleansed the temple is a similar way that He did at
this time as recorded in the section written above. “13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were
selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their
tables. 15 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; 16
and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things
away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business." 17 His disciples
remembered that it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME
ME." 18 The Jews then said to Him, "What sign do You show us as your
authority for doing these things?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews then said,
"It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in
three days?" 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 So when
He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and
they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.” We can see that this section from John’s
Gospel is very similar, but the problem is that the Jews did not learn or
remember from the first cleansing.
Another thing to think about is that we see in John’s account of the
first cleansing that Jesus told the leaders that the sign that He would give
them for His authority to do this was to destroy the temple and He would raise
it up in three days, and now within less than a week the Jews would destroy the
temple, that is crucify the Lord Jesus Christ, and in three days He would be
raised from the dead, thus fulfilling His prophecy.
The Jews were doing this for a
service to those who came from faraway places so that they would not have to
bring a sacrifice with them in order to make it more convenient for them. There were a number of problems in this and
the first one is that they were setting up shop so to speak in the court of the
Gentiles. The problem with this was that
this was supposed to be a place where missionary work was to be done, but they
did little of this because the Jews would look down at the Gentiles because
they believed that because they were children of Abraham that they were much
better than the Gentiles. Another
problem was that they would cheat the people who came to exchange their money
in order to buy their sacrifices. I have
even read that some people would bring a sacrifice with them and then the Jews
would say that it was unclean or not good enough to be a sacrifice and then
they would buy it cheap and turn around and sell it to another person stating
that it was actually clean enough for a sacrifice. This was a business that made money for the
priests and took advantage of the crowds especially the poor who could only
afford a dove for their sacrifice as this is mentioned in both of the
accounts. It was Joseph and Mary who
came to the temple in order to dedicate Jesus when He was a newborn and all
they could afford was a dove.
Jesus quoted from two OT prophets
when He cleansed the temple: Isaiah
56:7, “’Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My
house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable
on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the
peoples.’” He also quoted from Jeremiah
7:11: “’Has this house, which is called
by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen
it," declares the LORD.’” Dr.
Wiersbe states that Campbell Morgan points out that “a den of thieves” is a
place to which thieves run when they want
to hide.”
We see that when the scribes and
chief priests heard of what Jesus was doing that they wanted all the more to
kill Jesus. We read that these leaders did
not want to kill Jesus during the Passover celebration for they feared the
people, and we read here that they actually feared Jesus. However it was in the plan of God to have
Jesus die at the exact time that the Passover lambs were killed and these Jewish
leaders were powerless were powerless to stop the plan of God.
Dr Wiersbe concludes
this section with some stinging words:
“Before we quickly condemn the Jewish religious leaders for their sins,
we should examine our own ministries to see if perhaps we are making
merchandise of the Gospel. Do the
outsiders in our community think of our church buildings as houses of prayer?
Are all nations welcomed there? Do we as
church members flee to church on Sundays in an attempt to cover up our
sins? Do we ‘go to church’ in order to
maintain are reputation or to worship and glorify God? If the Lord Jesus were to show up in our
house of worship, what changes would He make?”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: There are
times when I have to stop and to ask the Lord to examine my motives to make
sure that I am doing things in the power of God’s Spirit and not in my own
power for this story shows that this was not the case for these Jewish leaders
during the time of Jesus. Having a clear
conscience is important in doing things for the Lord and that can only happen
if I ask the Lord to search my heart (Psalm 139:23-24).
My Steps of Faith for Today: “23 Search
me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there
be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Memory verses for the
week: 1Cor. 13:8-10
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of
prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if
there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part, and we
prophecy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes the partial will be done
away. 11 When I was a child I use to
speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a
man I did away with childish things.”
10/17/2012 9:14:17 AM
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