Good Morning Friends,
“Then he entered the temple area and began
driving out those who were selling. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house
will be a house of prayer'; but you have made it “a den of robbers.”’ Every day
he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law
and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not
find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.” (Luke
19:45-48)
In Jesus’ day, the Jewish leaders had allowed
the temple to become a place of business – even corrupt business. They profited
from the extortion they allowed with vendors charging unfair prices for the
sacrificial animals and huge exchange rates for changing the common coins into
coins acceptable to pay the temple tax. The temple was no longer focused on the
worship of God; greed had infiltrated and corrupted it.
Not much is sold in places of worship today and
very little of what is sold is done so at corrupted prices. Generally, what is
sold in places of worship is focused on providing ministry and help to people
at reduced cost, not at extortionary rates. It doesn’t seem like such things as
that would have upset Jesus so.
But I wonder are there ways in which we use our
places of worship today for things which are not right? Would that be true if
we were using our places of worship as venues to say what people want to hear
instead of preaching that is faithful to the message of God? Would that be true
if our worship assemblies were more about their entertainment value than about
an honest focus on the Lord? Perhaps another way we could misuse our places of
worship is to focus them on own needs instead of a focus on God? Perhaps you
can think of other ways it is possible to misuse our places of worship today.
The point is that when we gather our focus
should be on the Lord – on what He says – on what He desires – on His honor and
glory.
His, by Grace, Steve
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