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Daily Devotions

The Cleaning of the Temple

By October 30, 2013No Comments

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Matthew 21:12-13 KJV

Jesus had just ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey before a large multitude of people officially presenting Himself as their Messiah. We often refer to this as His Triumphant Entry. His first act was to go to the courtyard of the Temple. This was to be a gathering point for the nations where they could worship and pray, but it had become something else. It is not hard to imagine the scene; it had the sight, the sound, and the smell of a marketplace. As Jesus had done at the start of His ministry (John 2:13f), now, near the completion of it, He cleanses the Temple once again. His action declared who He was, God the Son, it condemned the misuse of the Temple, and promoted its proper use.

Lord, this passage serves as a good warning even today of the proper use and misuse of places set aside for worship and prayer. We tend to use them for all kinds of activity, and diminish the primary purpose for which they were built. Help us do our own cleansing so that our places of worship and prayer stir up Your pleasure and not Your anger.

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