How does God’s Temple become a den of thieves?
Welcome to Good News in the Morning, a program of words and music bringing a
Christian message of hope and encouragement to those looking for intelligent
meaningful and spirited approach to faith and life. This program is sponsored
by the Good News Christian Ministries,
Box, 184 Rideau Ferry, Ontario K0G 1W0. This is Brian Wilkie speaking.
Today
our theme is a curious one I suppose: How does the temple become a den of
thieves? In each of the Gospels we can find an account of Jesus coming into the
temple in Jerusalem, turning over the tables of the money changers and
declaring that God’s temple, which was to be a house of prayer for all nations,
has been turned into a den of thieves. We might well ask not only how did such
a terrible state arise in that day and age, but whether such a thing might also
occur today.
To begin, let’s look at the message from centuries before Christ
in the Old Testament book of Malachi chapter 3 verses 6 to 18. God
speaks to the prophet Malachi saying,
“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.” But
you ask, “How do we rob you?” “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse, the
whole nation of you, because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the
storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord
Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour
out so much blessing that you will not have enough room. For I will prevent
pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast
their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you
blessed for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
“You said harsh things against me,” says
the Lord, yet you ask, “What have we said against you?” “You have said is
futile to serve God; what did we gain by carrying out his requirements and
going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the
arrogant blessed certainly the evildoers prosper and even those who challenge
God escape.”
Then those who fear the Lord talked with
each other and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written
in his presence concerning those who fear the Lord and honored his name. “They
will be mine.” says the Lord Almighty. “In the day when I make up my treasured
possession I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who
serves him, and you will again see the distinction between the righteous and
the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not.”
Now here is a song that exalts God, as
Mercy Me, declares “You Reign.”
How can a temple turn into a den of
thieves? The gospel has such power that there are always people trying to
exploit it for their selfish gain. There were unfair practices in Jerusalem’s Temple.
I’ve been told over and over again about the false practices of the money
changers who would take people’s Roman coins, which had the image of Caesar and
exchange them for coins that were suitable for use in the temple, and they seem
to make a great profit on the exchange. I’m told there were deceptive practices
where people would bring in their animals for sacrifice and the sellers in the
temple precincts would tell them, “Oh, your animal’s not good enough, it has a
blemish” and they sell you what they called an unblemished lamb. Then, some
people say, they would take your lamb and sell it to the next person as an
unblemished lamb were these the practices that Jesus was crying out against
when he overturned things the temple? That’s certainly part of it. Deceptive
practices and false measures: The Bible
is clear that the Lord desires justice in the everyday dealings of life, would
he not also be zealous for justice in his own temple?
But you know there are
other ways of exploiting the religious sensibilities of people, other ways of
profiteering from genuine faith in others. There were preachers for profit in
Paul’s day, he identifies that there are some who were going about spreading
the gospel only to profit themselves; and in the present day we’ve seen the
same. There seems to be no shortage of people who are ready to try and gain
their own comfort, even as they preach against the evils of money and greed.
But Malachi is not complaining about those preachers. Malachi is not
complaining about money changers. God complains through Malachi about ordinary
worshipers robbing God. Now how does that happen? Now in Malachi’s day it was
quite simple. They lived in what you might call a feudal system. A feudal
system is where there is a Lord who owns the land and allows people to work the
land in exchange for some of the of the produce of the land.
Now in human
feudal systems we’ve seen many people, many lords that exploited. Whether it was
the seigniorial system of old Québec or the feudal system of medieval Britain,
there were those lords who would exploit their people taking everything they
could possibly grab from them and leaving them impoverished and constantly in
need. Now in Israel there was a feudal system, but the Lord of the land was God
Almighty, the one who owned the land was God, and he distributed it among the
people of Israel and gave it to them as an everlasting gift. Now if you compare
it to a feudal system, God was an extraordinarily generous Lord. He not only
gave the land, but also the sun and the rain that was required to produce
crops. He was the God who watched over them, and defended them from their
enemies, and unlike other feudal lords He only required 10%.
Could you imagine the
days when Israel was established under Moses and Joshua the law was given, and
for the first generations there were no kings extracting their taxes. There was
only the tithe, 10%, which was used not only to support the priestly work of
the Levites who themselves had no land of their own but also met the needs of widows
and orphans. Those who were widowed had no children to care for them in their
old age and those orphans had no parents to provide for them. That 10% did a lot of work didn’t it? But even
though they had it so good they were holding back their tithe and God said they
were robbing him.
Now they were happy to receive from God and ready to complain
if God didn’t come through on his part, but they weren’t ready to accept God’s
requirements. They were happy to go to the temple to receive forgiveness, but they
were unwilling to obey God, or even turn from their sins. Self-centered and
selfish as any pagan, they complained that doing right had no profit: that
since the evil prospered there was no point in obeying God. These are the words
of people looking for an excuse to do wrong and yet, to those who still feared
God, God replies to that accusation from the faithless people. He says a day
will come when he will again show what the distinction is between the righteous
and the wicked. He promises a day when the righteous will receive what is
coming to them and the wicked will receive their due.
Let’s pause here for a moment and
listen to a song that really exhibits the attitude that we want to have because
there is in each of us a tendency to love God, only when things are going well:
how much we long to be like Job whose attitude is reflected in this beautiful
song of praise. Let’s listen to Tree63, singing, Blessed Be Your Name.
Now what is a den of thieves? Jesus
said to the money changers and to all who were gathered, “My house was to be a
house of prayer for all the nations, but you have turned it into a den of
thieves.” What is that den of thieves? Now we could call a corrupt marketplace
a den of thieves because of a den of thieves is a gathering place for thieves
and criminals. A den of thieves is where they all group together and sometimes
even when they’re not in their den the setting that they gather in become so
corrupt that we could call a den of thieves. The place where deceit and crime
takes place could be called a den of
thieves. But think about it.
Most of the time a den of thieves is not where
thieves do their crimes, but where they go to take shelter from their crimes,
to hide from punishment. A den of thieves is their place of security, a place
where they relax knowing that the police are never going to get them there. It
is a place where they enjoy their ill-gotten security. When Jesus clears the
temple, it’s easiest to point the finger at the money changers, but is it
possible that the thieves in this den are more than just the buyers and sellers?
When Malachi points to the ordinary worshipers as robbing God, he’s pointing a
finger at cheap grace. Cheap grace is when we run to the temple for refuge, but
we only hide our sins instead of turning from them. In Malachi’s day, the
people were even willing to talk about obeying God. They were fed up because
they said they were doing so well, and yet the wicked prosper. They were doing
so good, and yet the wicked we doing better. But Malachi points out that they
were already missing the obedience to God that was required of them, yet they
still came to the temple, thank you still came and made their sacrifices, going
home, feeling that there they were forgiven. They were a little bit surprised
to find that God wasn’t happy with this arrangement.
Yet was it unique in Malachi’s day
that people would come to the temple to make a sacrifice for sin with no
intention of ceasing from sin? No, unfortunately not, No, we are robbers in
God’s temple when we come to confess, but we don’t come to repent. When there
is confession without repentance that’s cheap grace: and really cheap grace is no grace at all. Do
you think that we have to stop sinning because that’s the punishment that God
wants to place on us? To cease from sin is the joy that God wants to give us! To
confess and to say you’re sorry but not want to turn away from sin is to miss
the whole point of God’s deliverance. He wants you to live in his love. He
wants you to live in his grace. He wants you to live in his goodness, not to eat
continue going back to the mud and the dirt and the pain of a sinful life.
There are those who go to church and say they’re sorry and don’t mean it.
But what about us? I’m sure you’re
not that kind of person. I hope you’re not that kind of person! And I hope I’m
not either; but even beyond that, what if we if we go to church, we listen to
the message of God’s Word and when we confess we truly want to change? We want
to live a better life. We want to be free from addiction. We want to be free
from bad habits we want to be free from hurtful ways we want a better life. But
what if we are doing all this only for our own benefit? What if we’re kind of
like people going to a fitness trainer. We learn to exercise and run only to
make our own lives better. Is that really why God has called us?
The Scriptures
say that we are his handiwork created for good works. Didn’t he set the model
of his call when he called Abraham? He said, “I will bless you and you will
become a blessing to all nations.” If we are following God purely to make
ourselves feel better, we are as selfish as we’ve ever been. We are robbing God.
Tell me, in the parable of the servants; remember when Jesus talked about three
servants who were given a trust by their master?
The master gave to one of them
10 talents of gold and the other five talents and to the other one, one talent
of gold. Did he give them those talents of gold, so they could use them for
their own treasure store, so they could use them for their own pleasures? Did
he give them these talents of gold, just as some kind of bonus?
No! Instead, he
gave them these talents as an opportunity to invest in the master’s work, to
bring glory (in the parable to bring riches, but in the metaphor to bring glory)
to the master. Are we using the gifts that God has given us to bless others, to
glorify God, or are we using the blessings God has given us for our own comfort?
Are there any tables that need to be turned over in the temple of your heart? In
Malachi’s day, it was about the tithe, it was about 10% and in the New
Testament, Jesus has a few things to say about the tithe. He says to some
people who are tithing, to the Pharisees – they were tithing everything, even
their herbs – and he said to them, you’ve tithed all that, but you’ve neglected
mercy and sacrifice. It would be better for you to do the latter without
neglecting the former. That is, the tithe isn’t everything.
When Jesus speaks
about discipleship, he speaks about everything we have to live on. That’s why
he praised the widow who gave just too little coppers, because she gave
everything she had to live on. That’s what he called forth from the rich young
ruler who was told to sell what he had and give it to the poor, and then come
and follow Jesus. That’s what his disciples knew Jesus expected of them when
they said, “We have left our homes and families and our careers for you.”
Suddenly, 10% sounds easy, doesn’t it? Every coin, every talent, every moment,
every breath, “All for Jesus I surrender!” Wouldn’t that be something? When we
love God, we are ready to put everything at his disposal. I’m hopeful that each
one of us is doing everything that we can to bless God: to contribute our
strength to his service to contribute our wealth to his mission and his
ministry. I’m sure that it is not a question of 10% for the committed
Christian. It’s a question of how much can I give? How much more can I give to
God?
If we rest (and we should rest because God commands it) don’t we rest so
that we might be ready for service when God calls us? And when we eat do we eat
simply to satisfy ourselves or do we eat to be strengthened for the work that
he is given us to do? When Jesus said, my temple shall be a house of prayer for
all the nations I wonder if he was thinking about what his apostle Paul would
later write in Scriptures when he said, “Don’t you know that you are the temple
of God?”. Are you a house dedicated to glorifying God in all the earth? Are you
a temple that is a house of prayer for all nations? Are you using the blessings
God has given you to bless the whole earth?
You know, I think you and I are done
with robbing God. Shall we be done with self-serving religion and turn away
from a self-serving faith? Shouldn’t we let Jesus cleanse the temple of our
hearts and make us a house of prayer for all nations, make us a blessing to all
on his earth?
Would you pray with me?
Loving God do this work in us: overturn
the tables of our own hearts and set yourself enthroned in the temple there. For
the glory of God our father, and our Savior, Amen.
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Please join with a group of other
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lived out with compassion, integrity and resolve.
And now, would you listen with me to
Cold Men At Murray’s singing This Song Is
For You.
Good News In The Morning is produced
in the studios of News Talk Radio 580 CFRA.
Rev. Brian Wilkie
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