My God and My Country

Word of God

But he replied and said, "It is written, 'It is not by bread alone that a man lives, except by every word that issues from the mouth of God

The Gospel According to Matthew 4:4

The Gospel According to Mark 11:15-16

All commentary and study notes are prefaced/edited by Dr. Riktor Von Zhades

15 And they came to Jerusalem, and Jesus went into the Temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves. 16 Neither would he suffer that any man should carry a vessel through the Temple.

Brethren:

We all know the following verse spoken by our Messiah about turning the temple into a place of business as opposed to a place of worship. His zealousness was righteous and justified. Think of it in this vein; how can one hear the Word of God being preached, when one is constantly distracted by the tinkling of coins being handled by those who would cheapen that word for a profit?

Additionally, those same, were committing usary by charging high rates of exchange. In today’s global markets, one nation’s currency is not always equaled to another nation’s, and it was no different in those times. Likewise those who were selling doves and oxen for sacrifice knew they were a monopoly, as such they’d charge what they knew they would get for their wares. -Dr. RVZ

“ The zeal of God’s house so ate him up, and made him forget himself, that he came, hungry as he was, to Jerusalem, and went straight to the temple, and began to reform those abuses which the day before he had marked out; to show that when the Redeemer came to Zion, his errand was, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Read Romans 11:26), and that he came not, as he was falsely accused, to destroy the temple, but to purify and refine it, and reduce his church to its primitive rectitude.

He cast out the buyers and sellers, overthrew the tables of the money-changers (and threw the money to the ground, the fitter place for it), and threw down the seats of them that sold doves. This he did as one having authority, as a Son in his own house. The filth of the daughter of Zion is purged away, not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning. And he did it without opposition; for what he did, was manifested to be right and good, even in the consciences of those that had connived at it, and countenanced it, because they got money by it. Note, It may be some encouragement to zealous reformers, that frequently the purging out of corruptions, and the correcting of abuses, prove an easier piece of work than was apprehended. Prudent attempts sometimes prove successful beyond expectation, and there are not those lions found in the way, that were feared to be.

He would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel, any sort of goods or wares, through the temple, or any of the courts of it, because it was the nearer way, and would save them the labour of going about. The Jews owned that it was one of the instances of honour due to the temple, not to make the mountain of the house, or the court of the Gentiles, a road, or common passage, or to come into it with any bundle.

So it is written, (Read Isaiah 56:7). It shall pass among all people under that character. It shall be the house of prayer to all nations; [as] when Solomon dedicated it, it was with an eye to the sons of the strangers, (Read 1 Kings 8:41). Christ will have the temple, as a type of the gospel-church, to be: A house of prayer. After he had turned out the oxen and doves, which were things for sacrifice, he revived the appointment of it as a house of prayer, to teach us that when all sacrifices and offerings should be abolished, the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise should continue and remain for ever, [and] that it should be so to all nations, and not to the people of the Jews only; for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved (Read Job 13:16; Romans 10:9-15), though not of the seed of Jacob, according to the flesh. It was therefore insufferable for them to make it a den of thieves, which would prejudice those nations against it, whom they should have invited to it.

The traders there were grown notorious for cheating their customers, and imposing upon the ignorance and necessity of the country people, which is no better than downright thievery. Those that suffer vain worldly thoughts to lodge within them when they are at their devotions, turn the house of prayer into a house of merchandise; but they that make long prayers for pretense to devour widows houses, turn it into a den of thieves. - Matthew Henry 17th century theologian

Postscript

It was impressed upon the mind of this editor, that we should likewise consider the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Church in Rome, (Read Romans 1:16-17), in today’s study. For the house of God can be likened unto the Word of God. This is to say, it is meant for all peoples of all nations. To take that word and use it in order to profit the flesh is not what our Creator has intended. For what gains one, when we do so? Only in the carnal world would it profit us, but in the world to come it comes to naught, and is a false treasure which one has laid up on earth, and not in heaven.

Be blessed today my brethren

Your fellow servant in Christ

Dr. Riktor Von Zhades