Cleaning Up

"On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, ¹⁶ and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷ And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’" Mark 11:15-17

Since January 1st I have had a quiet time every morning except the day I was sick. This morning as I finished reading Leviticus for my Old Testament one year reading, I was struck by the passage about Jesus clearing the temple. Something I hadn't thought about much lately was that the vendors that had set up shop in the temple were taking away an encounter with God for the gentiles. If a foreigner had come into Jerusalem and they saw this temple, would they know what God the Jews were worshiping? Would the foreigner know it was the God who had made the world, that had become the God that protected the Israelites. The God that David said knew every hair on their head? Or would they only see the money changing hands and all the tables with goods for sale?

It struck me that the den of robbers that Jesus called those people is more so that they are robbing the gentiles of a worship experience. I was then convicted to examine myself and see what I have been doing to distract people from the God that I worship. Am I being too loud? Am I giving a clear message? Am I allowing God and the Holy Spirit to clean me up so others can see Him?