The temple will fall (Matthew 24:2) May 29, 2016

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Today’s Devotional

Matthew 24:2
Jesus: Look around you. All of it will become rubble. I tell you this: not one stone will be left standing.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

The temple was a beautiful structure. Herod erected the gleaming white stone structure to create an awe inspiring edifice for the Jews he ruled. He wanted to win their favor and so spent what amounted to millions today to complete this monument to God. Only, it was more a monument to men than to God. Herod wanted the Jews to accept him as their king. Despite his evil, despite his loyalty to Rome rather than God, despite his utter failure in his faith, Herod thought he could win the Jews by buying their devotion with this temple.

And for many, the temple did win their favor. Herod put the priests in place who would allow his extravagances. The put up with him. They failed to call him out on his evil deeds because they enjoyed their privileges and power. They didn’t want to give up the luxuries and position and power the king gave them. Even these leaders and teachers knew where their power came from, they didn’t want to lose it, so they tolerated Herod.

This monument that was supposed to please God didn’t. But none of the temples did, really. If you go back to the first temple, you’ll remember David collected all the materials for it and gave the design to his son, Solomon to build it. God wouldn’t allow David to build it because of the blood on his hands in all the battles he had fought. But God allowed Solomon to build a temple. Solomon dedicated it and made some promises that he failed to keep.

Solomon’s son, Reheboam lost the northern tribes of Israel from the kingdom because of his father’s and his disobedience. The nation continued to falter in their faith and the temple finally was destroyed after it had been ransacked several times in the nation’s history. Ezra came back to lay its foundation four hundred years before Christ came, but it was nothing compared to the splendor of the ancient temple of Solomon or the awe inspiring edifice of Herod’s temple. And through all that time, the people continued to look at the building as the place where God resided.

They put Him in that box and assumed He stayed there. Just like we too often put God in our sanctuaries and assume He stays there. We leave after the worship service and live our lives pretty much the way the Israelites did when they left the temple. We forget God is the God of everyone and everything. That means He is in control of your home, whether you want Him to be or not. He is God in control of your job, whether you like it or not. He is God in control of who sits in the White House, whether the President is in your party affiliation or not. He is God in control of the terrorists, whether we want to think so or not.

We don’t understand why God allows things to happen the way they do, but we are not God and I’m glad for that. We would be terrible at the job. We are not just. Sometimes we are fair, but most of the time, we’re not and we are not just. But God is just. His actions are never unjust. It’s not in His nature to be unjust. He allows evil things to happen sometimes because we collectively made such a mess of His creation. Sometimes He gives us what we asked for. And the result is the world we see around us.

But God is still in control. He will not let His creation go further into an evil path than He desires. He will not let His children suffer beyond the point He chooses. God is beyond our understanding and we may not be able to figure it out with our finite minds, but God is still God. We are not. That’s the basic problem we have had since Adam. He thought he could become as wise as God. He couldn’t.

We think we can put God in a box. We can’t. We somehow get the idea we can confine His influence to the few hours we spend in worship with Him or we can turn Him on or off at our pleasure. We can’t. We think we can get by with our agenda and He’ll just go along with it because He likes us and we’re pretty good people. We’re not and He won’t.

You see, God is God. To really understand the purpose of the temple or the synagogue or the church, you really have to start with getting that one truth straight. God is God. Everything revolves around Him, not us. All those edifices are only temporary facilities for us to gather in community to worship. They have nothing to do with Him except as places for us to gather. He’s everywhere. We can meet with Him anywhere and we should. We can meet with Him anytime and we should. He is God.

So figure out God just wants to be with you. He doesn’t care much about the place. He cares about the relationship. We can’t impress Him with stuff, we only impress ourselves and others around us. They don’t count, only He does. Was Jesus sad that the temple would fall? I’m sure He was. Not because God wouldn’t have a place of worship, but because of all the reasons that caused God to allow its destruction once again. Our failure to listen to His voice.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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