Daily Devotions
Luke
Luke 19 : 28-48 "TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE PRECINCTS"
Day 244 – Luke 19
Text: Luke 19 : 28-48
TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE PRECINCTS
Jesus had entered into Jerusalem, riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey, most triumphantly! He had fulfilled Scriptures. There were shouts of acclamation and praise. Those from His true Disciples were at least genuinely expressed.
There was resistance from the Pharisees. They wanted Jesus to stop His Disciples from shouting Hosannas to Him. But their suggestion was rejected, and rightly so! Jesus deserved every acclaim! His praises should have been sung long ago. It took this special triumphal ride into Jerusalem to bring out the praises that were due to Him in the first place.
Then Jesus had gone into the Temple to find that the merchants and the money changers had not learned the first lesson He taught them, when He cleansed the Temple from the profiteering enterprises of the crooked businessmen. Once again, He had to teach them that the Temple was God’s House, His Father’s House. He was The Son, and He had every right and authority to cleanse the Temple.
The Temple was meant to be a House of Prayer, but they had desecrated it and turned it into a den of thieves! It wasn’t just an odd crook or two who operated on the sly in the Temple precincts. The whole enterprise was compared effectively to “a den of thieves” (Luke 19:46).
Luke noted that after the cleansing, Jesus taught at the Temple. We read,
“And He was teaching daily in the Temple.”
Luke 19:47
Is it possible that with all the hubbub of buying and selling, the Temple was too noisy a place to teach God’s Word? In a typical market place, there would be the usual noise of people haggling over prices. In a market that sold oxen, sheep, and other sacrificial animals, there would also be the usual stench that would come from the animals that were kept in the precincts.
The basic essence of what it means to go to the Temple was all but lost! The Presence of God, the teaching of God’s Word, the healthy inquiry of interested and genuine seekers of God… they could not be found because of the corruption of the Temple into a den of thieves. Was Jesus’ statement a reflection of the fact that the Temple had gained this terrible reputation over the years? How would people be drawn to the Temple to find faith in God if these practices had not been challenged, checked and then cleared out?
After the cleansing of the Temple could Jesus teach the masses. We could expect a huge crowd of people flocking into the Temple to hear Someone teach God’s Word authoritatively. Gone were the merchants and their sneaky looks. Gone were the animals and the noises they made. They were all gone now. Would that they were gone forever! But for the moment, at least, the people were able to hear Jesus for themselves. Jesus taught the people daily in the Temple, and no one could restrict Him. The people were too attentive to Jesus as He spoke to them about the Kingdom of God.
SEEKING WAYS AND MEANS TO DESTROY JESUS
The Cleansing of the Temple again was the last straw! Jesus had to be put down. The Temple authorities must have been sorely tried. The revenue for the Temple (and their own pockets) was affected! They could not take this lying down.
Luke recorded the sense of angry desperation that must have filled the hearts of the religious leaders. We read,
“But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people
sought to destroy Him, and were unable to do anything,
for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.”
Luke 19:47-48
What was triumph of Jesus meant defeat for the religious leaders of the people. The religious leaders could find nothing to charge Jesus with. They couldn’t even make a case out of how Jesus cleansed the Temple. What could they charge Jesus with? They knew that He was right when He charged them for turning the Temple into a den of thieves!
How could they incite the people to go against Jesus? They loved to hear Him preach. They may not have fully understood all that He taught, but they liked listening to Him explain the Scriptures!
THE TEMPLE ISSUE
The Temple issue was an ancient problem. Jeremiah the prophet dealt with this problem. In his days, there was a problem of superstitious and erroneous belief that as long as the Temple stood, Jerusalem was safe. The people believed that God would surely not allow anything untoward to happen to His own Temple.
Let us take time to read what Jeremiah wrote concerning this mistaken Temple belief. It was God who told Jeremiah about the false theology of the people with reference to the Temple.
“Do not trust in these lying words, saying,
‘The Temple of the Lord,
The Temple of the Lord,
The Temple of the Lord are these…'”
“Behold, you trust in lying words
That cannot profit.”
Jeremiah 7:4, 8
The security of the nation and the assurance of God’s blessings did not lie in the existence of the Temple. The things that make for peace lay in the holiness of the nation (Cf. Jeremiah 7:5-7). Where righteousness was wanting, God reserved the right to order the destruction of the Temple that was supposed to have been erected to glorify His Name. History was about to repeat itself. Jerusalem was poised to be destroyed, and the religious leaders confirmed its destruction when they showed their determination to kill the One who could have saved the nation! How sad that history has to repeat itself this way.