Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for use in water for cleansing impurity. It is a sin offering.”
(Numbers 19:9)

“Relent, Yahweh!
    How long?
    Have compassion on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness,
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.“
(Psalm 90:13-14)

“He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. He made a whip of cords and drove all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money and overthrew their tables. To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will eat me up.”“
(John 2:14-17)

Holiness is serious business. It isn’t a joke or a whim. It is the ONLY WAY to be aligned and right with God. On our own we CANNOT accomplish this. So, God made a way. A way for the people to be cleansed so that they could come to Him to worship and interact. A way for them to be right with Him. Cleansed and able to be clean. There was a proper way to do it and an improper way to do it. When they did it properly, they were able to go in and rejoice. Nothing was keeping them back or out. God gave them a way out of mercy and grace. They didn’t deserve it, but He gave it anyway in order to be close to His people.

Jesus IS God. Jesus STILL cared about holiness. It was STILL serious business. But there were those in His day who had turned Temple offerings into business. Were people buying doves for offerings because they were poor, or because they were being sold for as much as sheep used to be? Were people getting a worth for worth exchange rate for their coins when they turned them into Temple shekels, or were they being gouged by exchange fees? They were more concerned with business than they were with the Father’s business. They were putting up fences and separating people from the proper worship of God. Jesus cleared them out (twice) because God made a Way for people to get into agreement with Him in right standing and He wanted NOTHING to get in the way of that. EVER. Jesus came to be our salvation for just that reason. To pay the price for Sin so that we could be reconciled and get together with God.

Summary

We are now the temple of Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). God’s opinion has not changed. We should be just as concerned about the holiness of His temple as Jesus was. We should be just as concerned about being holy as God has always been. We’re called to a lifestyle of holiness (1 Peter 1:15-17). It is our reasonable sacrifice (Romans 12:1). It isn’t always easy to choose to be unselfish. It isn’t always easy to choose to lean into what God says is right and good. But it is ALWAYS a blessing, ALWAYS a benefit, and ALWAYS something worthwhile. He is God and He is holy. We should seek to be the same.