Re: Verse reading–Mark 11:12-33 (day four)
“My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all the nations.” (Isaiah 56:7) What exactly did Jesus mean? Israel had always considered God to be their own private, personal God…they did not want to share Him with anyone outside the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 56, the prophet taught that the temple should be open for all people. There were no temples to worship God anywhere except Israel, so a foreigner had to travel to Israel, from wherever in the world, just to have a place to worship God. (And we worry about people having to drive downtown to worship together!) When Jesus entered the Temple and saw all of the animals for sale and the ‘religious vendors’ selling their goods, He recognized that no one could worship and pray and praise God in this environment. Israel was supposed to be God’s lighthouse…a place where the world could see God for who He was. At the crossroads of the world and possessing the presence of God in their midst, Israel sought personal gain over faithful obedience.
When was the last time we asked God to examine our lives? Do we offer “all the peoples” an opportunity to know God? Is our ‘Temple’ cleansed for worship?
