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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Blyth Standard, 1908-01-23, Page 7LESSON` IV.—JAN. 26, sea Jesus C:eanses. the Temple, --John 2t r3.22, ,ce aey -- 1.- The .desecration of the 1•uiple (vs, 13, 11). 13. Jews' pass - over --An iudiciition that this gospel was 'written outside of Pnlestine,'00 one writ - in;: i1) the country would Hardly have said the "Jews'" passover, Com. There were three principal Toasty of,the ,re's.. The Passover in April, the Pette+ cost oar the first of dune, and the feast of the 1'abernndes in October. All males over twelve years of age were •required to attend these feasts unless they had a legitimate oxcuse. The attendance of W0111011 was 1105 required, hitt had been recouunended, The Passover extended thramgh a whole. week and was of a most joyful character, in commemoration of Litt departure of the Hebrews from the land of Egypt, told of the preservation of their first-born when the firstborn of the. Egyptians were slain. The mane expresses the design of the celebration. The destroying' angel "passed over? the Hebrews, According to Josephns, 2,000,- 000 'i„tots were 10 Jerusalem during Passn:ner 10005, jest'swent--From Capernsum. T'it's wits the first Pass- over since he began his public ministry. At these feasts Jesus could reach great crowds of people, 14. (wound ie the tem- ple -The word "temple” has reference to the courts as weir ns to the building proper. The trafficking was in the comet of the Gentiles, which embraces an area of about fourteen teres. Into this court all were permitted td enter. Oxen, etc. —These were the n.ninhtlshised in•saeri. Mc, 1 erg uteihbels ,of which- would be re• quit l by the pilgrin(s Who had come' from distant parts Of Palestine and from countries beyond, The court had brew turned into- a market place, with all tte.confusion'and jangling incident to extensive. tsaffiel:ing. Changers of money1 +i, 40), a'h(1t this. majestic building, —The 051(010 brought with their the which •uccupled forty-six year's in build- * an ccina;;0 ti 5110(0ow•n country—Syrian, lug, and stood as the supreme. expression 1;e yl Minn, ((reek, as the case aright be— of ceremonial. service, was stoakungly tele of body, This wos not a eon end to de. stroy the temple, neither was it s state- ment that He would destroy the temple, which afterwards He was accused 'of making (Murk xiv. 57, 50), The meaning is, if you destroy this temple my 51101' "in three dart's I will raise it up." 'Raise' it p )ji talo charge. against Jesus. three Dears later, His itemisers turn this 1111 "build," n word which ,iesus did not, use. Notice that Christ state„ definitely that Ile will raise it up, 1lin'iody came forth Bout the tomb by (lis own Almighty power. '20. Forty and six years—this' was the third temple. Solomon's temple was de. stroyed• by Nebuchadnezzar, Wilt thou, etc.—"Am exprietsion of contempt. 11' Ilerod with' all his wealth and power Sur been engorged in this work for nearly half a century, can you an obscure Cali The agricultural wealth of the Unit- ed States, Brought to public notice in - :delis' through statistics shoving figures ruti1iirigtutu many hundred million dol'- lu's, and covering the curious 'sources that the former has at bis .conisnnd,' Tenn, ananupiish the work in three (('t0aal' a progress dtiriiig the parstde- „ , cede that is little short 'of marvelous. doysf 21, Temple of 1135 body,—'ilio 11) 55.0 ' "eC i nib ,e00,1101,1'1s,, f 0)510 50)15 ('1 .1t bti(ldio (11)11 the 5 (111stinn's f 1 a ns deaLlt m e e y body is the temple of Cod --Cod's dwell- ing -place. 005' (1 511(has acluunvledged tbo shpt e mincer Chrislt's body' was the tem le icy' of this country ats:a wheat. tte' 1 fs au established feet. • In the matter'of of which ilio Jewish temple was the, type, s 1-01)0• other' food products Ante0icn is in 22, His disciples remembered—Throwing the very fronterunl: front the standpoint 0ltt weds of thoughtrfar She future, of exportation' Through skill toad hard which could not bear fruit 1)t the time, uorlc.thc msbnndm n•hu, made the ant- is mm of the characteristics of Christ's 1 a as teaching, --Cant L'Ib, (.vat the disciples ave so1Ly(eld ham treasu51, that foreign 1 11 "1,10 ,) readily decent in exchanSe at the time could not understand the fee "olden eche, • sign; but after the resurrection they re' Bert with all the ingenuity omit lltnkilr for remembered, understood and believed. g y superior quality •whether it • applies to The Se ipture— Jld Testament prophecy the grains 01 the field, the raisiiig.of live of the resurrection—see l'eu, xvi, 10, Word which Jesus had said -Jesus gave th1ula 0 sign to prove (lis authority and power which could not be gainsaid, Ife proved His Sonship by .lits resut'reetion, (Rom. ii. 4). PRACTICA5, APPLICATIONS, In this lesson, as in many other places in Seriptere, the word "temple" has evi- dently two distinct but closely related significatioris. Its first reference is to the subliiu'o structure which crowned Moriahs' sacred summit;: the,(deseerated courts of which were. the seem, of the earliest exercise of public :(uthocity; on tine partsof Christ, mentioned onlyrhy John (vs. 1.4-11)), as well as the latest, recorded ' by all the other evangelists (Hatt, xxi, 12; Mark xf,,1G; Luke xix. std 111011' honey wns either not current hi Palestine, or, as being stamped with tho symbolsof heathen worship. coild not be received into ,the treasury of the teuple—1311icott. I1, The traffickers driven out (vs. 15- 17)• 15. A scourge—Jesus took cords and made a whip. No mention is made of a scourge in the oncoud, cleansing. Drove them all out—He asci( the scourge to drive hut the oxen and sheep, not the men. "''All' does not telex to the sellers and exchangers,-, but anticipates the sheep, any] -the oxen. ;The men probably fled et once"—Can,-Bib. Poured out money—He emptied out the money Jeal of that other temple of which the lesson speaks—the "hody" of Jesus— many scriptures plainly slaw '(Matt, xxcn 31; Hob. x. 19-27). That -tile tem- ple, saoifiees and services, and indeed the very occasion of Christ's presence, found'in hint their true interpretation and. only virtue, is equally epp:)'ent (Heb, lx, 11.14; x. 10, 10, 22; I, Co', v. 7). 1. The temple profaned. By Itis action Jesus fore -01' settles the question of a moral distinction in places. What is proper in one place may be profane in another. In itself the traffic which was indignantly expelled from the temple on the stone pavement, and turned over cants mss legitimate, and had received the tables;; thus stopping the traffic: expees3 divine sanction (Dept, xiv, 21 - Th,, in charge must have fled terrified 26). Rd even the necessity of purchase in precipithtc haste to leave their niom f unpeoteeted. "Meantime the rulers the nation and the keepers of the temple, as if spellbound, retreat in confusion or loo(: on with e strange and tame salmis. lion "—Wheddn, • • 16. Sold dove's—,The caged doves Muhl not be driven out,, therefore Jesus com- manded the owne•s to take them out. My Father's house—As in His childhood (Lu1a• 2, 40, 11. V.), so now, Jesus claims the temple as 1iis PPother's; and as His own, therefore, by heirship, In the most natora1 and sponttaneows minter, yet- with a profound significance, He claims ti, he God's Son.—W'heden, - An house of merchandise—The spirit of prayer and 110ve6rrl WAS thsp 0005100011. lo Mott, 91, le, Jesus tells them that JIis house wits to be a (louse of prayer (Isa, 30, 7), bob they had mhde it "a dot of thieees." aha csurt -1)f the Gentiles was the only p of aboflt-tile temple into. which ;tate. Gentiles 001ild enter, awos the place where they' arrived instruction end where they worshipped. put in the noise and confusion of the market -place, wo1- ship was 0111 of the question, 17. :Vs disciples—The five or six IIs had chosen, of whom John, Ole writer o1 this gospel,;.was one, and the•efo'e 'a wi100r0 of this scene he is describing, It' Was written—In Pisa, 07,9, The ancient ,lows nplied this Psalm to the Messiaah. Zeal for Thy house (R, Vi—The' intense mesio He had to preserve the sacredness of His Father's house. Shall cat me up (it. 1',)' --Shall consume ale 'Wear me oft -Coln. Bib,: A fin 1)'c in all ages to express the consuming; emaciating ef- fects of care and passion:-Whed0n, 's. ' Christ ;was mightily moved against this flligrntt desecration. of ,the-,teuple: 150 luted sin, and •His righteous' soil was stirred to its depths in bis-nig, to pro- test the 110110(' •of His' b'athe'rs house. Tho fact must not be lost sight of that trite love will oppose the .wrong. "An English writer said trio he had found boys enough who loved God; he, wanted to fled'nee who hated the devil." " "There ate times -when love must be, indignant,: He does not love righteousness who is not indignant at sin. He does 1105 love men who:does not flame and burn lila( a1' voles, against nil that 15 01(0015 and and exchange in providing offerings for the vast cud varied .multitude (Acts fit , 7-11) could riot excuse the in6asi015 of the sacred courts, "flake Ilea pay, $e- ther's house at house of meehandise," is a command of wile application and permanent obligation,"the jviolitfion of which has, unfortunately continued' tit modern times and temples. Theaspilit of''traffic, thought melsitritely legitimate elsewhere, is, entirely foreign to the sanctity of ydristton' as well as ctrc:l.on- ial temple,, and tato purposes fot'-whi'd5 they stand. It is utterly' forbidder in the above eolnn110151 by Dins whose pres- ence in worshipping assemblies i, the endien of promise and the chaos of fail- filmeit'(lJn'tt xif.-20). The sensuous feet of pleasure and the greedy hands of gain are forgidden' the sacred portals 00)1 pavements, Whatever appeals to tato merely sensuous and selfish ie. profanity in sacred places, and its introdnetion cannot but aim a deadly 'blow at the spirit of reverence Odell is iesepanble from true worship. Tho present appal- ling deesulence of this clement so essen- tial to both church and state, may find here all explanation and remedy "Ye have made it a den- or' thieves,' There was the double dcseeratiojnpf dishonest processes as well as profane praeticey, 11. The temple' purified,:Itctregresion and reform eo nience at the same Point. Dswot-Mind decline, ancient and modern, discovers itself in the neglect or misuse of the pl;ice of 'onO(4ip. This is ever the centre of religions life and is also in$iesstcly'Icauroeted with elide well. being. Hence"judgment must begi41(at' the :house of God." Jesils 02010 as the "great reformer," and boot aline li place were eminently in-acoo'd'with an - dent practice and his, 00'15 'purpose (2 Kings 23; 4, 23; 2 Citron, 30; 14, 15.) The great truth receives oddcd emphasis from the fact that his.9ub150 ministry closed as It commenced, by authorita- tively severing • traffic frbni temples, "Aly house shall be called of ell nations the house of ,prayer," fixes per'nta(fently the world -elide character, and piu'pose of the place, Sind estsblislien the lines of conduct appropriate thereto; Under tire ceremonial dispensation the "dedicated things" became holy, and even "the desitoying meth The nt09t 1'nrihl^ bowls before the altar" weresgrred, 11e1- w'orde ever uttered ''against Hi11 were ut- sluuzm's impiety- readied itshe00eledar- tei"d by' incarnate 1550,"—PelPnbet, 111, The sign of Christ's authority (vs, (1h 22). 19, What sign shcwest Thyu— ' You have taken the law into your own halal; if you arc a prophet with author- ity to do this bring the{ proof; 'show,, your credentials "Itis display of Wright and their paralysis of themselves a sign, had they not been too blindof heist to see it "—Wheelon, .Otir,traasla- tion is ambiguous. They wished to known by wlt1at militcle-Ire liad'shown, or 00)114, show, Hied right to do these:things. They had been accustomed to miracles in the life of (loses and Elijah, and the other prophets, so they demanded similar evi- dence that. Ile had authority to cleanse the temple, --Barnes. 19, Destroy this temple—John tells 05 (v, 21) that in the 1190 of the word temple He meant Ms 1115 elimnx in the prostitution 'of these' sacred vessels to ,the uses. of sensual' 1n- velry. "In the; same (tour" judgment' Was written on 'the wall of the banqueting house: "Ilcliness beconeth thins house, O Lord,1foeverl".."Worship 011Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Pse, 29; 2.). A pure and spiritual worship instinctively seeks a pure temple in which to pour forth its praises and petitions, whose Courts are nos even the path,t%ay for worldly pursuits (Mark 11;, 10). III. The temple destroyed,' Snell .an assumption of authority and exercise of power could not pass unchallenged, The demand for a "sign," which should des ninflstrate the source and right of both, b tl lyai sirs may lee said Ln teeth independently. of each of -her, The profit slmein;;