Scattered: Cleanse the TempleSample

SCATTER

When Jesus saw what people were doing in the temple in John 2, He wasn’t angry because people were making money. He was angry because of the corruption in the hearts of the sellers. Let’s set the scene. It’s almost Passover, and people – foreign worshippers or Gentiles (non-Jews) have traveled a long distance to celebrate. Two crucial things for these foreign worshipers were animals for sacrifice and coins that local merchants would accept. These merchants charged high rates for these essential items because they knew the Gentiles had no other option. So instead of making it easy for Gentiles to come into the temple and encounter the Spirit of God, they became a hindrance. Jesus drove them away so that the Gentiles could have unrestricted access to the temple of God.

Anything that defiles our temple is there for the purpose of hindering us from experiencing God. The chief priests and scribes were comfortable allowing the house of prayer for nations to be perverted and turned into a den of robbers. Others may have thought the merchants were just helping out the foreigners. But Jesus, without speaking to them, saw they were thieves and robbers polluting and perverting the use of God's temple. We must pray for our eyes to see what the physical eye cannot grasp. It is important for us to discern the spirit behind ALL things – even our own actions and intentions.

May we never be comfortable with perversion! Our body is for the use of the Spirit of God alone. May our spiritual eyes be open to see when lust and any of its siblings have come disguised as love, comfort, or opportunities. This is a time for us to reflect and dig out the things that hinder us from operating as the temples of God that we were destined to be. To reject and renounce the beliefs, agreements, desires, and spirits that oppose the Spirit of God. To renounce is the act or practice of giving up or rejecting something once enjoyed or desired – It is a formal declaration of separation. Today, we make a formal declaration that we renounce and scatter everything and anyone standing in our way of getting more of Jesus Christ.