How do you prepare for the cult
"When Jesus entered the temple, he drove out all those who sold and bought there, and he overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of those who sold doves, and he said to them, It is written: My house will be called House of Prayer. , however, transform it into a den of thieves. "(Matthew 21.12,13)
In this text we see Jesus acting in a unique way. In all the Gospels we see the figure of the merciful, loving, compassionate Christ, and here we have such a drastic and energetic attitude that it seems to undo the rest of his actions. It is not that it was wrong or exaggerated, it was precise and perfect, as perfect was always our Lord.
But striking with a whip, turning the tables with goods and money, scattering animals, and doing everything with such authority that no one opposed, shows the value that the principle that the Jews were violating has before God. And this must draw our attention.
Jesus encountered many errors and sins in the days of his earthly ministry, but this one seems to have been one of the most harshly rebuked. Therefore, there is a serious and important lesson to be learned in this story. There is a serious mistake to avoid, and I invite you to reflect with me on the biblical principles behind this portion of the Scriptures.
For a long time he thought that the problem here was trade itself, but when we examine the text in its details, Jesus' accusation against those men seems to have two main focuses:
A distortion of the divine purpose for your home - to be an environment of genuine relationship with God (house of prayer).
The theft of something - once Jesus called them thieves.
Think of this phrase of Jesus: "who made it a den of thieves." What this question here is not necessarily the act of marketing itself, but what it meant.
The Lord was not rebuking greed, nor did He call them mercenaries. The accusation was not against making money. Those merchants had the backing of the temple authorities and they were not violating any of the rigid Jewish or even Roman laws.
Therefore, it is true to recognize that the theft that Christ spoke of was not something in the natural realm, but in the spiritual realm. "I am sure that the theft was not the" price "for which it was sold, because if on one side of the store there was a good Jewish merchant to sell, on the other side the buyer was not different either, and this without mentioning the competition!
What, then, could these men be stealing?
We need a return to the Old Testament and an understanding of the principles of the Mosaic Law to understand what was happening. The Bible mentions animals being traded in the temple, and this was the main commodity there.
But what were these animals doing in the temple? What is the reason for being marketed? Why was the trade done there mainly the animal trade?
It is important to remember that the cult of the period in which the Law of Moses was invigorated was based on the sacrifices of animals that were made in the temple. This was the main occupation of the priests, as we can see in the books of Exodus and Leviticus.
Basically, the most sacrificial animal was a lamb, although there were situations in which it could be a goat or even a steer; other sacrifices required the presence of birds, and these were also accepted when the offeror did not have enough to offer livestock.
Source
THE CHOICE AND PREPARATION OF ANIMAL
God expected men to offer Him the best animal. The word sacrifice points not only to the shedding of the animal's blood, but also to the act of giving up the best among the whole flock. There were periods in the history of Israel when they lost this focus and the Lord rebuked them:
"The son honors the father, and the servant his lord, if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am lord, where is the respect for me?" Says the Lord of hosts to you O priests, that you despise my name, you say: In what we despise your name, you offer unclean bread on my altar, and you still ask, "What have we profaned you?" In this you think: The table of the Lord is despicable. blind animals to sacrifice, is not that bad? And when you bring the lame or the sick, is not that wrong? Now, present it to your governor, if it pleases you and will be favorable to you? "says the Lord of the armies. "(Malachi 1.6-8)
There should be a lot of care in the choice and preparation of the animal before taking it to be sacrificed. When the Israelites began to do it anyway, God protested.
The animal offered, in practical and rational terms, was lost. God did not use it at all and who offered it was left without. Many, never came to understand that the purpose of sacrifice was just to cultivate in the heart the value of God, as being above all other things, even the most important.
The delivery of the animal itself had no value, but what it meant to the person. We are not used to the creation of sheep today, but the owners clung to the animals. Jesus said that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd and follow him, and that he, in turn, calls them by his name (Jn 10.3).
When the prophet Nathan went to rebuke David of his sin, he used a parable word to illustrate what David had done, and described in this allegory how someone came to cling to a sheep that he created, as being a true pet (2 Sm 12.3 ).
The beauty of the sacrifice was in the value that the animal offered had. Do you remember the case of Abraham, to whom God asked his son Isaac in sacrifice? God did not want or need Isaac sacrificed, He just looked for the right attitude in Abraham's heart, he wanted to be in first place. This pleases the heart of our Heavenly Father!
And what was happening in the temple, in the days of Jesus, was exactly the opposite. Nobody else was preparing for the sacrifice. They simply left for the last hour, when they arrived at the temple and bought any animal. The cult lost its meaning, because it became mechanical by losing its essence: preparation.
THE ONLY EXCEPTION
The only exception we see in the Bible as regards taking the animal prepared was the following: When someone who was going to go up to Jerusalem sacrificing the Lord and living far away, so as not to make the whole trip with the animal, he could sell it and come up with the animal money (Dt 14.24-26).
With this orientation, the Lord wanted to facilitate the transit of the worshiper only. Facilitate the trip and nothing more. He was to create his sheep, recognizing that the best of the flock would not be his but the Lord's. Then when the day came to go up the temple, he got rid of her in the same way.
But the Jews distorted this principle. In the name of the facility, they instituted a system where no one else needed to spend time in the preparation of the sacrifice, it was enough to buy it at the last minute. That's why Jesus called them thieves. The only thing they were stealing was PREPARATION FOR THE CULT.
The moment of sacrifice was not the cult itself, only the climax of something that had already been initiated in the heart of the offerer for a long time.
Maybe we should ask ourselves why Jesus would be so upset with a cult style that he was about to change. In a few days Jesus would be crucified, the New Covenant would be established, and the worship of God would no longer be expressed through the sacrifice of animals ... But the truth is that the Lord Jesus was not worried about the external manifestation of the cult, but as that reflects an indifferent heart.
And even changing the style of worship, he knew we were still wrong and stumbling on the same things. Then he did not lose his opportunity to correct a sin of his time, and also to leave us a very important teaching: the value of what we offer to the Lord in our worship is intimately linked to our preparation for worship.
I feel deeply sad to see how people go to the services in our churches. Not to mention the fact that many arrive late, and I'm not talking about five or ten minutes only! The moment we gather to sing and pray to the Lord, is not all the expression of worship, but the climax of a whole preparation that began before leaving home.
But many believers spend all afternoon of a Sunday in front of the television, they get bogged down with everything that comes from the tray of the presenters of auditorium programs.
Others are linked in sports, but I do not want to discuss programming. The fact is that many spend all afternoon in front of the TV and then when it's time to go to worship-and sometimes after it-they run out to church without even having cultivated a time before the Lord. They are totally spiritless and insensitive to the presence of God. And then they wonder why they do not experience anything different.
Let me tell you that the presence of God is not like a tap that you open and close the time you want. The presence of the Lord is not like a switch that turns on and off the time you understand well with instant results. Do not! To prove the Lord's presence, his flesh must die first, his spirit needs to be awake, sensitive. And do you know what I find most funny?
The amount I hear from many brothers that when the period of praise and worship "is getting good" We - the leaders - usually close it!
But the truth is that for someone who prepares before worship, who takes time to pray, meditate on the Word, concentrate on the purpose of worship, seek the presence and intimacy of the Lord, worship is fine from the first sung phrase. The first sentence is already powerful!
We need to understand that the cult is not better with his progress, we are that we wake up to the presence of the Lord who was there waiting all the time.
Many people do not cultivate in their hearts any expectation for the movement of God, and end up not testing anything in the cults.
Expectation is something that determines results. When Jesus went to Nazareth, his city, the people looked at him without expectation. He says: is not this the carpenter, son of Joseph and Mary? In other words, they were saying that they came to grow who knew him, and they did not expect much from him, what Jesus himself did affirm that a prophet has no honor in his homeland (Mk.6: 1-6).
The biblical account says that Jesus can not do many miracles there, except cure a few sick people. This makes me question why God has not been able to do many miracles in our cults, except cure a few sick people ... the answer is obvious: we go to our meetings without waiting for it to happen. We do not cry and groan before the Lord in intercession, we do not exercise our faith, we do not seek it before the meeting.
But if we do this, if we learn to prepare for worship, everything will be different. We have already evolved a lot in our musical quality, but we go backwards in the preparation. The ancient believers prepared better than before the cult. I longed for myself as a child and came to a church and many were on their knees crying out for the meeting. Nowadays, when you start the meeting you almost have to ring a bell for the chat to stop.
We are not preparing for the cult. And we believe that it is enough to sing a little bit so that our God will like it. But we are wrong! And the severity with which Jesus would treat us today would be no less than the severity he used to turn the tables of the sellers in the temple.
Certainly, if Jesus was physically here today and wanted to "fix" things in his church, they consider us as worthy of a whip like the Jewish scalpers their days on earth.
We need to correct this in our lives if we want more of the presence of the Lord.
If we really want to please him, we need to understand that the cult does not begin in the opening prayer, but in our house, long before the meeting. In my house, we have the habit of not watching television on Sundays. Not because we are robbed of our "holiness", but because it distracts us, steals the spiritual harmony we must have.
Many times I spend part of my Sunday afternoon sleeping, and not only with the biblical reading and prayer. But when I go to worship, I am rested and willing, and this makes a difference! In the times when I got distracted, even knowing this principle, the cult did not have the same result as when I prepared.
My brother / sister, I want to challenge you in the name of Jesus Christ to consider and correct this principle in your life. The days will come when we will taste a great outpouring of God in our cults. Days are coming when we will see the Holy Spirit move very powerfully in the meetings, but there must be preparation. I have thought a lot lately about Joshua's phrase:
"Sanctify, for tomorrow the Lord will work wonders among you" (Jn 3,5).
There is no better way to see God doing great things in our midst than to prepare for this!
I do not know what his thief of cult preparation has been. Maybe it was just ignoring this principle. Maybe it's the football game, his or her team's. Maybe it's the auditorium programs. I know that among the thieves of the preparation of the cult the TV wins shot. Maybe it's something else, but you can and should change this.
Some may believe that I am spiritualizing too much, but when we contextualize what there was that day there in the temple, we can not come to another conclusion. Try to spend time preparing for the service and see for yourself the difference this makes. But I do not want you to conclude only on the basis of what was good for you. Besides being good for you, it will certainly be good for our Heavenly Father who longs for communion with us.
Yes Sister! Expectation is something that determines results. When Jesus went to Nazareth, his city, people looked at him without expectations. they simply said: is not this the carpenter, son of Joseph and Mary?
Resteem
EC