“Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—Everyone who keeps the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant—Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56-6-7
The Lord had declared through the prophet Isaiah, that even the Gentile stranger, that is the person who is not a Jew who is there and follows the Lord, God wanted him to feel an access unto God through the temple. Now the Jews in establishing the temple did not really follow this. They had the court of the Gentiles apart from their own area, and if you were a Gentile you had to stay in your own area designated by the various warning signs put up by the Jews to “keep out” of their area of temple worship at the cost of their life. But God declared through the prophet that the scarifices of a foreigner who loves God, whose heart is inclined to serve Him and obey the Mosiac law, will find his sacrifices welcome in the coming kingdom as well. In the New Testament, the kingdom of the Messiah, the Jerusalem temple will be the focal point for worship of the Lord by people of all ethnic backgrounds. Jesus cited a violation of this anticipation, when Jesus came into the temple, He saw those moneychangers that were there and those who were selling doves. Jewish leaders had made the temple into a commericial venture. Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, ‘ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ “ (Matthew 21:12-13) Jesus addressed all who were present by making it an occasion for public teaching. He regarded both merchants and their customers guilty of desecrating the temple. The items being sold were to be used for temple sacrifices, and yet they were ripping off their customers by using customs enforced for their own benefit and not fair to the consumer. Money changers—Currency exchange was needed because Roman coinage were deemed unacceptable for temple offerings. Evidently both merchants and money changers were both charging such excessive rates that the temple marketplace took on the atmosphere of a thieves’ den. And they limited the attendance by not allowing Gentiles to enter in. So we see the idea of robbery and thievery was going on at Jesus’ entrance into the temple. And so He quotes actually from this verse in Isaiah where God’s intention that His house would be called a house of prayer for all people. That it would be open to anyone, anybody who wanted to pray unto God would be free to come in and pray unto God within the house. Which indicated that the gospel will go out to the Gentiles. The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet I will gather to him Others besides those who are gathered to him.” (Isaiah 56:8) Meaning besides gathering Israel’s exiles into His kingdom, the Lord will bring non-Jews also.
The Bible clearly points out that those who are in Christ, that is, a born-again believer. A Christian today, Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20) There is a sense in which sexual sin destroys a person like no other, because it is so intimate and endangers the intimacy that was designed for marriage. Not only from the aspect of health isues, due to communicable disease’s, but to the fact that a Christian’s body belongs to the Lord, and is a member of Christ, and is the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place. Every act of fornication, adultery, or any other sexual act, including same-sex, is to bring what is holy into what is profane. The same picture Jesus saw in the temple with the merchants and money-changers. They were bringing what was meant to be holy into something that was profane to God. The apostle Paul said, that we need to respect our bodies, and our spirits which are God’s. They have been remade into a marvelous instrument of which His righteousness may be seen. It is through the actions of committed Christians today, that God will use to stop the spreading of widespread sexual immorality in our society today. The Psalmist David, wrote: I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. (Psalm 139:14) We are to know in our hearts, that our lives and what God has given to us, meaning our gifts, talents, our bodies, our whole being is meant for the glory of God. The Bible also says : But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are pershing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (2 Corinthians 4:4) Satan is the god of this age who takes the current world mindset expressed by the ideals, opinions, goals, and views of those who have no hope of eternal life with God, but rather live in this world with a caveat of “Don’t tell me how to live my life.” Its worldly philosophies Satan has blinded to God’s truth through the world system he created. Without a godly influence, man left to himself will follow that system, which panders to the depravity of unbelievers and deepens their moral darkness. Jesus, when He was explaining to His disciples the parable of the sower, explained: “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. (Matthew 13:19) It is best to believe that God’s Word is always at stake in our world today. We are told in the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations, (Matthew 28:19), and in teaching them correctly, they would not become the prey of Satan, who would have have them believe half-truths and falsehoods about doctrinal matters, which is where you have all sorts of false teachers, and false religions out there to lead people astray from God.
Beloved friend, You are loved by God! You are also someone that He has valued to be very precious to Him. So precious that He purchased you with the blood of His own Son, Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and the One who gave Himself for our ransom debt, which no one else was capable of paying for. You are indeed a prized possession of God today. Let us live in such a way that invites others to : Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord , you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. (Psalm 34:8-10) Praise the Lord!
May the Lord bless your walk with Him!
