February 3, 2023

Fuel or Futileness

“And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.” John 2:15-17 (NASB)

At a young age I learned to respect the church building. Especially the sanctuary gathering place. To me it was God’s house. I considered it a holy place where God would meet His people. Since I didn’t grow up in church, my knowledge was simplistic. As I grew in my faith, I learned God no longer needed a physical place to gather. He is everywhere. He lives within my heart. I became God’s sanctuary. I still believe the sanctuary is a place fellow worshippers can gather to enjoy corporate worship and the Word. The essence of my relationship is God in my heart. He meets me there. In this passage scripture tells us there was a problem in the physical house of God. There was a lack of zeal.

  There was a time when the house of God (the temple) was a reverent, respectable, ordered, and holy place within Jewish society. People came to the house of God because it was the holy place. It was where God met with His people the Jews, and they had a zeal for God. In these passages there were some blatant disregards for holiness and God’s house. There was a real problem. A lack of zeal. Jesus wasn’t about to stand for the foolishness happening. He is God. Jesus had a zeal for the house of God. He wasn’t about to allow the profiteering to continue.

 “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Is there more compassion than that for the house of God? This zeal Jesus had for His Father’s house is referred to by the German Common Language translation as that which, “combines both fire and destruction.” “My love for your house is like a fire which will consume” (Psalm 69:9).[1] In this psalm the suffering saint had approached the climax of his sorrows. He admitted that a holy zeal for God’s house will ultimately consume him. Jesus was no different. He loved His Father’s house. He was zealous for it.

  Today, we see a lack of zeal for things which were once revered. We see where the place of God is often a thing of the past. In many countries churches are museums, not sanctuaries. Here too in the United States, church is an option, but often not the first one. It is there, “If we have time.” As I said before, the place God resides is in the heart of the Christian. But do we have zeal in our bodily temple as well? Is it “like a fire which will consume?” Zeal is like gasoline, the more there is, the greater the fire burns. Is your fire of zeal burning as it once did long ago? I encourage you today, Jesus can light your fire again!

[1] Barclay Moon Newman and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Gospel of John, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 68.