Tuesday 26 March, 2013

PASSION WEEK - Cleansing of Temple (March 26, 2013)

Today's Promise

The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceit. (Proverbs 12:5)

SO THEY CAME TO JERUSALEM. THEN JESUS
WENT INTO THE TEMPLE AND BEGAN TO DRIVE
OUT THOSE WHO BOUGHT AND SOLD IN THE
TEMPLE, AND OVERTURNED THE TABLES OF THE
MONEY CHANGERS AND THE SEATS OF THOSE
WHO SOLD DOVES.
( Mark 11:15 *NKJV )

Did you ever wonder why there were money changers, and
other merchants in the Temple? This week we will follow
Jesus' last week on Earth, day by day. The following event
happened on a Monday.

Well, the Passover was almost at hand, and Jews came
from all over the World to take part in the Passover Festival
each year, and to pay their Temple taxes. Those from foreign
Countries had to have their money changed into Temple
currency, because it was the only money accepted to pay for
the purchase of sacrificial animals, and pay for their taxes as
well.

Often the inflated exchange rate enriched the money
changers, and the exorbitant prices of animals made the
merchants wealthy. Further, their stalls were set up in the
Temple's Court of the Gentiles, frustrating the intentions of
the Non-Jews who had come to worship God as well.

Thus Jesus became angry because God's House of Worship
had become a place of extortion, and a barrier to Non-Jews who
wanted to worship there as well. For; THEN HE TAUGHT,
SAYING TO THEM, "IS IT NOT WRITTEN, 'MY HOUSE SHALL
BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS'? BUT
YOU HAVE MADE IT A 'DEN OF THIEVES.'" AND THE
SCRIBES AND CHIEF PRIESTS HEARD IT AND SOUGHT HOW
THEY MIGHT DESTROY HIM; FOR THEY FEARED HIM,
BECAUSE ALL THE PEOPLE WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS
TEACHING. ( Mark 11:17-18 )

Finally, if you are wondering why we don't follow the
sacrificial laws anymore, please know that Christ became our
Sacrificial Lamb to pay for our sins once and for all! For indeed;
CHRIST, OUR PASSOVER, WAS SACRIFICED FOR US.
THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST. THE FEAST OF THE
PASSOVER OR "EASTER DAY" THAT CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE.
AMEN. ( 1 Corinthians 5:7 )

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