TUESDAY, JULY 11
Matthew 21:1-17
1 Corinthians 3:17

"If any man defile the temple of God,
him shall God destroy…"

MEANING OF SANCTIFICATION (5)

The Tabernacle and the Temple were sanctified because of God’s holy presence and glory. "The tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory" (Exod 29:43), and it was called the "holy temple" (Ps 65:4). However, when the people of Israel turned away from the Lord and His Word, they provoked Him to anger due to their sins and idolatry; and God’s holy presence and glory departed from the temple. "…the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house…" (Ezek 10:18). Something must be seriously wrong when they could still deceive themselves that the Temple was of God, that God was still with them, and that God would protect them from their enemies! God had to remind them through His servant Jeremiah: "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD… Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD" (Jer 7:4, 11). Because they failed to repent, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and they were taken into captivity to Babylon!

In Jesus’ days, the people of Israel were so proud of the splendid Temple in Jerusalem. Due to their sins, ungodliness and hypocrisy, the Lord did not worship with the priests or the Pharisees in the Temple, but "cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves… And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there" (Matt 21:12, 13, 17). Sadly, because they failed to repent, but even crucified their Lord and Messiah, the Temple was destroyed by General Titus in AD 70, and the Jews were scattered all over the world until 1948 when God graciously brought them back to their land to fulfil His promise to their forefathers (Isa 11:11-12). It was a spiritual disaster when Samson did not know that "the LORD was departed from him" due to his toying with sins (Judg 16:20). What about you?

THOUGHT: I must be sanctified unto the Lord always.
PRAYER: O Lord, keep me sanctified unto Thee always.