SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2023 8:35 AM
My Worship Time PT-3 “He
Showed He Was On A Divine Mission”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 21:2a
Message of the verse: “And Jesus entered the temple”
I want to begin by looking at the fact that God
would repeatedly send prophets to warn His people of their idolatry and other
sins and to call them back to Himself. I
think of the book of Judges and of the very early times when Israel was a
nation and as one looks at that book they see that Israel began to sin and then
the other nations around them would come and invade their land and then after a
while they would cry out to the Lord and He would send a judge to them who
would lead a battle against the nation who was oppressing them and then they
would go back to the Lord. The overall
things that happened to Israel at that time was they went downhill spiritually,
but God would answer their prayers and send someone to give them victory.
John MacArthur writes “The Lord never stops declaring His
will to His people, no matter how often or how wickedly they reject it. Revealed truth that does not result in
repentance becomes the source of greater condemnation.”
As Jesus entered the temple, it was doubtlessly filled
with thousands of Jewish worshiper, milling about the outer Court of the Gentiles,
where everyone was allowed to enter. It
is possible that the Jewish leaders reasoned that if Gentiles could be there so
could anything else. During the past
several decades the area had come to be used as a religious marketplace, that was
operated under the auspices of the high priest, Annas. This man was corrupt and He was also a vile
man, who saw the Temple in his exalted position only as a means to personal
power and wealth. The business
enterprises in the Court of the Gentiles came to be known as the “Bazaar of
Annas,” whose chief priests had concessions for selling sacrificial animals,
wine, oil, or salt, or for exchanging money into the proper currency and
denominations used in Temple offerings.
In addition to the franchise fees the operators would often be required
to pay a certain percentage of their profits to this vial man.
John MacArthur writes “According to levitical law, and
animal approved by the priests could be offered in the Temple. But the chief priests made certain that
animals now brought in one of their franchises would be judged unacceptable,
giving their concessionaires the de facto right to provide all the
animals. According to Jewish-Christian historian
Alfred Edersheim, a person would often have to pay as much as ten times what an
animal normally cost. As if that
extortion were not enough, those who needed to have foreign currency exchanged
or who had to have their money converted
into the exact amount for an offering were charged a twenty-five percent fee. Jesus was therefore speaking quite literally
when He called the Temple marketplace ‘a robbers’ den’ (V.13).
When He was compelled to cleanse His Father’s house of
sacrilege, Christ demonstrated He was on a divine mission for His heavenly Father.” 6/11/2023 8:55 AM
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