Matthew 21:12-14
New International Version 1984
(NIV1984)
12 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. 13 “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.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he
healed them.
The temple was built to house the Ark of the Covenant, it
was a place where sacrifices were made, and was a place where the Holy Spirit
dwelt. In the verses above, the place
where sacrifices were brought was now a place where trading and bartering took
place. It was no longer about the
repentance of sin but was a place where you could go and buy your sacrifice and
those selling were asking more than what they were worth. As I thought about this I first started to
compare it to the church as a whole and quickly stopped when I remembered
verses in I and II Corinthians.
I Corinthians 3:16
16
“Don’t
you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in
you?”
I Corinthians
6:19 - 20
19 “Do you not know that your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have
received from God? You are not your own; 20 you
were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
body.
II Corinthians 6:16
16 “What agreement is
there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the
temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will
be their God,
and they will be my people.”
Stop,
put on the brakes, where is the temple of God?
Where does God dwell? He dwells
within those who have received Him, who have been called according to His
purpose. Is that you? If it is, let’s step back a little and
evaluate what Christ would do if He were to step into the temple courts of our
lives. Would He be pleased with the
actions taking place in the temple or would He become angry as He did in the
temple courts so many years ago?
If
the temple is to be a house of prayer, how are we doing in that category? Do we spend time worshipping Him, listening
to Him through His word, and expressing to Him the desires of our hearts? Or are we robbing Him of the joy of our
Salvation? Are we acting as though we
have complete ownership of our bodies and that we can decide when, where, what,
how much? As I think about my body being
the temple of God, I believe I need to use it for what it was designed to be. It was designed to be a place where the Holy
Spirit could dwell. It was designed as a
place of sacrifice. In the outer court,
I need to be willing to sacrifice my own desires in order to bring glory to
God. This is where people will see the
way I live. The blood of the Lamb of God
has been sprinkled on me making me white as snow but I need to live my life
that others may know that I am changed because of that sacrifice. I need to live a life that reflects the
forgiveness that He has given me.
As
for the inner room, my inner most quiet place, I need to talk to Him. I don’t have to fear being struck dead as the
priest did. I don’t have to have
something tied around my ankle in case I don’t make it out of the inner
room. The inner room is in my inmost
being. The Holy Spirit dwells and walks
with me all the time. I should not
ignore Him but talk to Him and keep my heart pure for Him and Him alone. The temple, as Christ said, is a house of
prayer. Prayer is not only talking to
God, as I mentioned above, it is talking, listening, and communing with
Him.
Acts 17:24-28
says it much better than I;
24 “The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples
built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he
needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and
everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that
they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them
and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that
men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not
far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have
our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
As you seek Him, look within. Have you invited Him in? If so, spend time with Him through reading
His word, worshipping Him, thanking Him, and serving Him.
Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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