Good Tuesday morning! Though it may be hard to believe in the heat of the day we did in fact hit 59º this morning, a sign of the cooler mornings to come. The news we read and view is much like that; we see the heat of the times and that makes it easy to forget that the signs of Christ's return are like the brief cool morning. I pray that you were able to get out and enjoy the morning today. The horses along my route actually stayed to let me take some photos this morning. This is surprising in the light of how bad I smell by the time I dowse myself in Deep Woods Off® and then hoof it up and over the big hill before I get over to their pasture. That reminds me, I look forward to our Tuesday morning breakfast in a couple of hours! (I'll take a shower first...really!)
The devotional from the Hour of Power seemed appropriate to the verse this morning. This one is the start of one of the familiar stories from John: Jesus cleansing the temple for the first time.
In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. (John 2:14)
This is one of those "Uh oh!" verses that speak of a storm to come. Like the big clouds gathering on the horizon last night (praise God for the good rain we had!) we can see that the storm is about to break. If the verse had begun with something like, "In the town square he saw..." or "In the country market...", but no, it starts with the Temple. We live many years later and still we know that commerce in the Temple is just wrong. Imagine if Jesus walked into your church sanctuary right now and saw a big flea market going on. Those who believe in Jesus would give a startled "Uh oh!" and immediately head for the door. We would know that our Lord is about become very angry.
Somehow over the years since another cleansing of the Temple, the Jews of the time had once again fallen into allowing the Temple to be misused. Whether a priest started it or a corrupt king, the Temple was now open to buying and selling in the court of the Gentiles. Not only this, but we know from other scripture that the money exchangers and merchants charged exorbitant rates to the Jews coming from far away. A racket had sprung up where a priest would refuse to accept the sacrificial animal brought from home and then take a cut of the 'approved' animal bought at an absurd price right there in the Temple. This was surely a part of Jesus' righteous anger.
It is interesting that the one, Jesus, who would become the only acceptable sacrifice for all sin was refused by these same corrupted priests. Of course there was no way to buy a new Jesus in the Temple at any price. We must accept the one God has sent; no other sacrifice will serve as propitiation for our sins.
Enjoy the wonderful heat of August...agh, that's even hard to write. Have a great day in Christ and look forward to his return!
Bucky
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