Jul 9

John 2:13-17
Memorise John 4:24
“true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth”

Jesus was furious. It was near the feast of the Passover. He entered into the temple at Jerusalem, expecting to see all the preparations in order for the great feast that remembers how the Lord brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt. It was to be a memorable celebration, whereby in the killing of the Passover lamb, they would be able to look forward in faith to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. However, upon entering into the temple, what He saw instead was a scene no different from a common market place! People were buying and selling and making profit from their wickedly devised scheme of ‘temple currency’. These money changes had made His “Father’s house an house of merchandise”! Upon seeing all these terrible corruptions committed in the house of prayer, the place of worship, Jesus made a whip of small cords and drove them out of the temple, poured out the changer’s money and overthrew the table! In Mark 11:17, it is recorded how Jesus described this scene as “a den of thieves”. It was indeed a very passionate response that showed how jealous He was for His Father’s house. Because He knew the significance and importance of the worship of God, He reacted in such an explosive manner. We often remember Jesus to be gentle and mild, meek in spirit and all- loving. However in this scene, we also see the courage and strength of Jesus exhibited, as He had righteous anger against the people that had profaned the house of God.

Dear teen, do you care about the state of the house of God? Do you have a high regard for worship? We must first cultivate within ourselves the right attitude towards worship. If God does have first place in our lives, then all that we do and say will be to His glory. When we come to church on the Lord’s Day, that ought to be the highlight of our week, where we can join in together with the people of God to sing praises to our Lord and our King. If we see people who claim to be worshipping God, but not doing it in the right manner, or in a way that would instead tarnish the name of God, then we do have the right to be angry about it, because God’s glory is at stake! For us, we can do what we can to encourage our Christian friends to seek to worship the Lord in a manner that is most pleasing in His sight, and not to pander to man’s fleshly desires.

Thought: High regard for the worship of God can only come if we have a high regard for God himself!
Prayer: Help me to worship rightly and encourage others to do so.