“I was glad when they said to me,

‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’” Psalm 122:1 [NKJV]

During Old Testament times and during Jesus time on earth God’s people had to go to the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover feast no matter where they lived.  At this time the Jews remembered how God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. Jesus also came.

Only the priests could enter the rooms of the temple. The people who came to worship had to stand in the courts outside these rooms. They stayed here and prayed while the priests went in to offer sacrifices of animals for their sins.

When Jesus came into the courts he found it loud and messy; completely in disorder. He saw that the temple court had become a marketplace.  Men were selling oxen and sheep and doves to the people who had come from far away to use for their sacrifice.  The animals were noisy and they were messy. Besides, Jesus was angry that these men were charging extra high prices for the animals making it hard for the ordinary person to afford it.

Jesus was also very angry with the money changers who sat in the court exchanging coins for the people.  Every Jew who was twenty years old or older had to pay a temple tax. This money was used to buy supplies and other needs for the temple worship time. Only half-shekels were accepted so the people who came from far away had to trade their coins for a half-shekel at the temple court.  But the money changers charged them a ridiculously high price to exchange their money and then pocketed the difference.

This all made Jesus very angry. He thought, people can’t worship God here.  So He made a whip by tying small cords together and then drove the sheep and oxen out of the court.  Next He poured out the tax collectors money and overturned their tables.  He even told the people who sold doves to take their stuff away. 

He told them, “This is a house of prayer, not a market place.”

Of course the merchants and money exchangers were very upset with Jesus for what He did.  They wanted to know what right He had to do this.

“Give us a sign”, they demanded.

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” Jesus told them.

The Jews there thought Jesus was talking about the temple building in which they were worshipping. 

They answered Him, “How could you?  It took 46 years to build this temple and you think you can raise it in 3 days.”

 They were way off base.  Jesus wasn’t talking about the temple building but about His body.  He knew that soon these same leaders would bring Him to be crucified and in three days God would raise Him from the dead.

And ever since Jesus rose from the dead God’s people no longer have to sacrifice animals for our sins.  Jesus was our sacrifice on the cross.  We are forgiven because we believe He died for our sins.

Also we no longer have to go to the temple to worship.  We can go to our own church just down the street. We can even worship God right in our own house or when we’re camping in the mountains or surfing on the ocean.

And we can be glad to go to our church to worship without our leaders making us.  There are no messy loud animals there. We can worship in peace.

I know.  I hear you saying, “But it would be fun to have animals in church.” Maybe you’re lucky enough to attend a church where they use animals during the Christmas and Easter dramas or other events. That’s a fun time to enjoy them but be happy that you’re not forced to buy them and break your piggy bank doing it. 

After Jesus went back to heaven God sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts when we receive Jesus. So now our heart and our body is the temple of God.  He is always with us. That means we can worship Him and pray to Him any time, anywhere.

Going Deeper for Parents:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach their neighbour, and none his brother, saying, ’Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”  Hebrews 8: verses 10 and 11. [NKJV]

For years I envied the people who lived during Jesus’ time.  I thought they were so lucky to see Him and to hear Him, to touch Him.  I believed it must have been a lot easier to believe in Him and to obey Him in everything because He was right there.  But being a man limited how many people He could reach in His day.

Since Jesus returned to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us we can have an in depth personal relationship with Jesus.  The Holy Spirit makes his Word plain to us when we read the Bible.  He is always with us.

God leads each one of us in the plan He has for us. We can go directly to God because Jesus is our intercessor.  We don’t have to depend on our pastor or other church leaders to intercede for us with sacrifices.  God hears us as ordinary lay people too.  Although we are blessed to be taught and lead by our pastors who are learned people of the Bible.

My favorite time to seek God’s presence is when everyone is sleeping at night. I developed a co-dependency for people to fill me when I was growing up because I come from a huge family and I was just never alone.  Often at night I would feel lonely because there was no one to connect with; everyone was asleep. 

Now night time is my favorite time to connect in depth with God.  I can sense His presence best because everyone is asleep, the house is quiet and nothing is requiring my attention and His peace steals over me.

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