Matthew 21:12-14
John 2:13-17
The story of the money changers in the temple keeps coming to my mind. I feel the need to give voice to this conversation between me and the Lord. This isn’t to say that I am claiming authority, but I am relating what the Holy Spirit has laid on my heart.
Although the issue with the money changers is certainly that using worship to wrest hard earned money from the worshipers is deceitful and wrong, that is not the only issue.
The money changers could not prosper in that manner if the people of God kept God in their hearts and acted through the rest of the week to be faithful.
From my understanding, doves could be bought in the market place using the coin of commerce (Roman coins) much cheaper than at the temple, using Hebrew money. Just as we see market prices rise with demand only to fall after an event (for example, buying flowers the week before memorial day will cost more than the week after); the same happened at the temple. Worshipers would trade their Roman money for Hebrew money (with an exchange rate favoring the money changers), and then that Hebrew money would be used to pay inflated prices for the doves to be sacrificed.
If the people kept God in their hearts through the week, preparing for the Sabbath, and did not just arrive at the temple and say “oh wait, I need to buy a sacrifice” then it would have been much better for them both spiritually and financially. It is because of their own shortsightedness that the moneychangers were able to extract money from them.
We should always be preparing for our spiritual needs. This is true not only in reserving money for sacrificial giving, but in providing for all our spiritual needs. This should not be taken to mean that we do not rely on the Lord to provide for us, but that that we should not be spiritually idle and then wonder why the Lord does not bless us as we think He should.
John 2:13-17
The story of the money changers in the temple keeps coming to my mind. I feel the need to give voice to this conversation between me and the Lord. This isn’t to say that I am claiming authority, but I am relating what the Holy Spirit has laid on my heart.
Although the issue with the money changers is certainly that using worship to wrest hard earned money from the worshipers is deceitful and wrong, that is not the only issue.
The money changers could not prosper in that manner if the people of God kept God in their hearts and acted through the rest of the week to be faithful.
From my understanding, doves could be bought in the market place using the coin of commerce (Roman coins) much cheaper than at the temple, using Hebrew money. Just as we see market prices rise with demand only to fall after an event (for example, buying flowers the week before memorial day will cost more than the week after); the same happened at the temple. Worshipers would trade their Roman money for Hebrew money (with an exchange rate favoring the money changers), and then that Hebrew money would be used to pay inflated prices for the doves to be sacrificed.
If the people kept God in their hearts through the week, preparing for the Sabbath, and did not just arrive at the temple and say “oh wait, I need to buy a sacrifice” then it would have been much better for them both spiritually and financially. It is because of their own shortsightedness that the moneychangers were able to extract money from them.
We should always be preparing for our spiritual needs. This is true not only in reserving money for sacrificial giving, but in providing for all our spiritual needs. This should not be taken to mean that we do not rely on the Lord to provide for us, but that that we should not be spiritually idle and then wonder why the Lord does not bless us as we think He should.