Soulful Mornings: Daily Devotions for Daily Inspiration

SATURDAY, 16 MARCH 2024

TEXT: Luke 19:41-48

41. As He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it [and the spiritual ignorance of its people],

42. saying, “If [only] you had known on this day [of salvation], even you, the things which make for peace [and on which peace depends]! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

43. For a time [of siege] is coming when your enemies will put up a barricade [with pointed stakes] against you, and surround you [with armies] and hem you in on every side,

44. and they will level you to the ground, you [Jerusalem] and your children within you. They will not leave in you one stone on another, all because you did not [come progressively to] recognize [from observation and personal experience] the time of your visitation [when God was gracious toward you and offered you salvation].”

45. Jesus went into the temple [enclosure] and began driving out those who were selling,

46. saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a robbers’ den.”

47. He was teaching day after day in the temple [porches and courts]; but the chief priests and scribes and the leading men among the people were seeking [a way] to put Him to death,

48. and they could not find anything that they could do, for all the people [stayed close to Him and] were hanging on to every word He said.

(Amplified Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: MISUSING THE TEMPLE

The Temple serves as the palace of the Divine King, where God is present and sacrifices, fellowships, religious feasts and rituals take place. But in the course of time, the Jewish religious leaders misused it.

The focus was now on commerce. Jesus renamed the Temple a den of venomous reptiles, a recess for secrecy and a resort for thieves. Does it grieve you that positions in some churches are completely politicized and only available for the highest bidders?

But here is good news for the remnants who lament the commercialization and politicization of the gospel of Christ. You already have a mark on your forehead by which the Lord will preserve and spare you.

The Lord gives this command: “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in the Temple” (Ezekiel 9:4).

QUESTION: Does it worry you that some church denominations have been hijacked by powerful cliques?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, put a mark on my forehead as I grieve, lament but work for the restoration of your church, in Jesus name. Amen.