August 21, 2021

Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” Luke 19:45-46

This was the second time in His earthly ministry that Jesus cleansed the temple. His usual demeanor which can easily be described as “calm” or “never-in-a-hurry” is in dramatic contrast with these two episodes. These cleansings, which punctuated the beginning and the end of His earthly ministry, flashed an “EMERGENCY!” sign, illustrating the pressing urgency of making distinctions between the actions of people under the direction of Satan and those submitted to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The war going on is a supernatural one and we are invited to engage accordingly.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Ephesians 6:12,13

We know that, in the time of Jesus’ ministry, indeed there were those few—God be praised!—who responded positively to the flashing “EMERGENCY!” sign. But the majority did not respond. With pain in His heart, He departed the beautiful edifice of the temple. Earlier He had called it “My house,” but, as He departed, He said, “See! Your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:28) The word “desolate” means uninhabited by God. Centuries earlier, King David expressed his joy in seeing the LORD’s glory settle on the temple:

“LORD, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells.” Psalm 26:8

In Jesus’ day, the glory of God had dwelt bodily in the temple while He was there teaching and preaching the gospel. But the hardness of the collective heart of the people meant that Jesus had to “change churches,” so to speak. Those who responded positively to His message came out of the temple with Jesus and became the leaders of the New Testament church. They would rather be with Jesus under an oak tree than to attend teachings in a beautiful and popular building with a congregation who rejected Him. Later on, we see that, like the Hebrew worthies of Daniel 3, they would rather die than disobey Him. The decades that lay between His departing the temple and its permanent destruction, are a representation of His grace. We are all beneficiaries of divine “grace periods” when the Lord has allowed time for us to wrestle with popular teachings that conflict with foundational truths of Scripture. Beloved, be assured that the Holy Spirit will never lead you to embrace any doctrine that conflicts with His Word. God’s will for you is that you choose to be so settled in the truth that you cannot be moved.

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Hebrews 12:25-27

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13

HAPPY SABBATH, BELOVED!