Church or Temple? - Day 66 Month 3-7 Week 10-3

Today's Reading (Bible in 1 year)


Leviticus 4:22-5:19 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%204%3A22-5%3A19&version=NASB1995

Isaiah 48 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2048&version=NASB1995

Mark 11:15-33 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2011%3A15-33&version=NASB1995


Church or Temple?


God allows us to learn lessons.  When Israel continually sinned against God, He eventually allowed them to go into Babylon Captivity.  In Isaiah 48:18 God says “if only you had paid attention to My commandments!  Then your wellbeing would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea, your descendants would have been like the sand….Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from my presence.”  Then despite the wasted potential the Israelites had, God declares in verse 20, they can now leave Babylon because He has redeemed them.  


It’s good to know that God lets us learn hard lessons but He never completely leaves us.


600 - 700 years later from Isaiah’s prophetic writings, Jesus is present on earth, and clearly the Israelites have strayed again.  They are under Roman rule but are able to continue to live in Israel.  Jesus comes into the temple and drives out the merchants and money changers.  (Yes we did also read about this scene in Matthew).  The temple was the only place where sacrifices were permitted according to Jewish law, and the marketplace was where the non-Jewish could come and worship.  It was very important to be used only for its rightful purpose - house of prayer - not to be used as a market to take advantage of those travelling long distances to worship at the temple.


There is no longer a purpose for blood sacrifice, because Jesus has solved that with His own death and resurrection.  After what we have started reading in Leviticus, I’m thankful for that.  


That does lead us to a couple of questions:  

  1. It’s all well and good that Jesus followers don’t need to sacrifice, why is there no continued animal sacrifice in Judaism?

    • In Judaism, just as we have recently read about all the sacrifices happening in the tabernacle, King Solomon later built a temple with God’s leading to replace the tabernacle.  In Judaism, sacrifices were to take place in one authorized location, consecrated by God.  When the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD, the practice could not be performed according to Jewish Law.

  2. If the church is where Jesus followers meet, is that a temple?

    • No, the  “church” is a local group of Jesus followers.  There is a need to meet with other Jesus followers to corporately learn God’s Word, pray, worship and  reach out to our local communities together.  In a manner of speaking, we grow in our faith together when we are part of a functioning church community.  (If by chance, you think the building is the church, it’s not.  The building is only a building)!  When we read the Bible, we also hear a reference to “the church” and “the Bride of Christ.”  That refers to all people who are Jesus followers worldwide.

    • According to 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 the Apostle Paul explains to the Jesus follower, “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”  So as a Jesus follower, you’ve voluntarily asked God to be the LORD (I AM) of your life.  That in turn means that you represent God and therefore are His temple.  We call God living in us being indwelt with The Holy Spirit.


As a young child, I always wanted to play when I was at church.  My family spent a lot of time at the building where my church met.  For a kid it can be boring.  When I would get caught running around the building, adults would holler at me and tell me to stop running around in church.  After all, it was the temple.  I do wish they had been honest and explained that it was because I may get hurt and it had nothing to do with the building.  As a kid, it took a long time to learn that the building itself carried very little spiritual significance.


If being a Jesus follower, I am the temple, then there is good motivation to look after your body.  My loving wife is constantly telling me that I eat too many carbs, and she’s probably right.  She wants me to look after this temple.  It’s also why I choose to avoid drinking too many alcoholic beverages.  At the same time, I try to stay active because I want to look after this body.


My thought for this moment: 

  • become a Jesus follower, if you aren’t already  

  • stay healthy  


You are a temple!


Have a great day!

Steve


You can subscribe to this blog and receive an email each day or week.  Just visit the following link. https://follow.it/my-faith-view-from-here-daily-readings-and-thoughts?leanpub

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 15 - Week 3 Day1 Let Your Heart Rest

Today's reading Genesis 24:61 - End of 25 Psalms 14 Isaiah 12 - 13:5 Matthew 11 Thought for today (sorry but this is heavy) Today my heart is heavy.  I couldn't sleep well.  I figured that I may as well get up and do my morning reading and blog post.  So much is going on this world!  So much death.  So much war.  I long for what we read about yesterday of the eventual peace that will be in God's Kingdom.  In Psalm 14 from today's reading, we read "The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."  They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good...They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. "  This is a Psalm of David, Israel's great king who God describes as a man after His own heart.  I think it's because David always wore his heart on his sleeve.  He was real and you see it in the Psalms he wrote.   My heart is heavy because...
Read more

Day 25 Week 4 Day 4 Green Pastures

Today's reading (Bible in 1 year) Genesis 36 Psalm 23 Isaiah 22:1-14 Matthew 17 Last evening, my wife, Sylvia, read a statement to me from a bishop in the Episcopalian church in New Hampshire.  He advised his Episcopal clergy to get their affairs and wills in order "because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable".  Sometimes, peacemaking puts one in the place where death is a possibility in the protection of the most vulnerable.  It's an ominous thing to think about. Today we read Psalm 23.  What a powerful Psalm to read in it's fullness but hopefully you just read it and I'll simply mention verse 4 where it says " Even though I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me " Did you hear that?   You are with me! On November 16, 2025 my mom passed away and went to be with Jesus, 2 days before her 98th birthday.  My mo...
Read more

Day 20 - Week 3 Day 6 The Rock

Today's reading (Bible in 1 Year) - If you have not read my introduction or blog from the beginning, I felt a strong motivation to read the whole Bible in a year and discover something new each day to share. Genesis 30:25 - end of 30 Psalm 18 Isaiah 17 Matthew 13:44 - end of 13 Thought for the day We have rocks!  We live on a rocky shore and our whole property is full of rocks.  You can't dig down more than 6" anywhere on our property and not find a rock.  It's very frustrating when you're trying to dig a garden or plant a tree.  Interesting though, they shift.  Every spring, my mower finds new rock locations.  During the winter freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw (that's how it is here), the rocks in the ground shift again and again.   There is one rock on our property that does not shift!  At the shore we have a lava rock outcropping.  It's goes out about 20 ft and and at high tide, you can touch the water from it. ...
Read more