Imperatives for God’s Followers

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I am commanding you today for your good.  Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.  Yet the Lord set His heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.  For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.” –Deuteronomy 10:12-17 (ESV).

Imperative is defined as “entreaty, command, exhortation.”  In this focal passage from Deuteronomy, God gives five strong imperatives:  fear the Lord, love Him, serve Him, walk in His ways, and keep (obey) His commandments.  Note the progression of these exhortations:  The first is to fear the Lord; recognizing His reverence and holiness is paramount to fulfilling the remainder of the entreaties.  Next comes the command to love Him.  Whom we love, we honor and respect.  We love Him because He first loved us (I John 4:9). Next, we serve Him; no half-hearted allegiance, but “with all your heart and all your soul.”  Next comes obedience, keeping His statutes and commandments.  Moreover, He reminds us that these actions on the part of God’s followers are “for your good.” 

Then comes a wonderful reminder of Who is giving these imperatives:  God, maker and sustainer of heaven and earth and all therein; the loving Father of us all who called and ordained our forefathers for a special service and continued the line through us.  A further imperative:  “circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart.” The original physical circumcision of all males was part of the covenant between God and Abraham and all of Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 17).  Here we are asked to cut away all the stubbornness and rebellious thoughts and actions that prevent the heart from trusting and loving God.  This is an intentional spiritual exercise to cleanse and purify the heart; but at the same time it is beyond our human capacity to accomplish.  A change in the heart is wrought by faith and is the work of the Holy Spirit who woos and invites the individual to turn to God.  Then cleansing comes, not through an outward act, not through good works, but by the change in the heart brought about by God in response to faith.

Today many will go to houses of worship throughout our land to call upon the name of the Lord.  We are reminiscent of the Psalmist’s adulation when he said, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1).  Statistics of regular church attendance in America do not coincide with those who state they believe in God.  Putting other activities ahead of worship in a corporate body can easily distract us from that joyous intention the Psalmist declared, the joy at gathering at the house of the Lord.  If you are reading this, and have allowed personal interests, seeking after pleasure or entertainment, or other distractions to rob you of the joy of church attendance, perhaps now is a time to renew your vows to “neglect not to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).  At this crucial time of crossroads in our nation and in our world, we need to meet together to worship, pray and be instructed in God’s Word.

Prayer.  God, may we seriously heed these imperatives given so long ago to Your people.  They are still needful and applicable today as we prepare ourselves to stand firmly for the right.  Amen.

Holy Week, Day by Day: Monday ~ Jesus Clears the Temple

“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” –Matthew 21:12-13 (ESV).

All four of the gospel writers give an account of Jesus cleansing the temple. Three—Matthew, Mark and Luke—place it during what we call Holy Week. Matthew seems to arrange it immediately following Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which would have been on Sunday. However, scholars point out that Matthew (as well as the other gospel writers) condenses some of the narrative of what Jesus did during Holy Week, not placing events in chronological order. Mark’s account (11:15-17) clearly places it the next day following His triumphal entry, or on Monday morning. Luke (19:45-46) abbreviates the Temple cleansing, placing it immediately following Jesus’ weeping over the city of Jerusalem but before Jesus began to teach those who listened raptly within the Temple courts. John’s account (2:13-21), on the other hand, places it early in His ministry, immediately after the wedding of Cana in Galilee, when He had turned water into wine. Scholars see John’s account either as the “first cleansing” of the temple by Jesus, or, certainly, as one of the “signs” by which Jesus was identified as “the Word made flesh and dwelling among us” (John 1:14). This sign of His cleansing the temple certainly showed His authority from God to apprehend those who desecrated the Temple of God and that such action was not acceptable.

In cleansing the temple, Jesus showed His prophetic zeal for God’s house and foreshadows judgment on the Jewish leaders who had allowed worship and all associated with it to deteriorate into commerce. The portion of the Temple and the persons involved in the wrath of Jesus were in the area known as an outer portico of the Temple near the “Court of the Gentiles. There merchants set up booths and sold animals and birds offered as sacrifices. This was a convenience. Jews were dispersed into many countries. When they returned to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple at Jewish holy seasons (the Passover being the one during Holy Week), they had a place to purchase sacrifices without having to bring them on their long journeys or go somewhere within Jerusalem to buy them. But the din and base commercialization—and the profits made by those who bought and sold—were an abomination to the sacred area of the house set aside for God’s worship. “As it is written,” Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” Jesus, well-versed in the Hebrew scriptures, was quoting Isaiah 56:7, which indicated the sacredness in which the house of prayer was to be held, and how it was intended “for all peoples,” not just the Jews.

Do you ever wonder what Jesus would do and say if He visited our places of worship today? Our church buildings, set aside for the worship of Almighty God, are sometimes used for many activities other than genuine worship of the Lord God. Do we sit on Sunday mornings distracted by those talking around us, and are we guilty ourselves—totally unprepared for worship? Our minds should be called to prayer and worship by the strains of a lofty prelude—or, even prior to that time in the service—we should have quieted our hearts and stilled our minds before an awesome God. May Jesus’ act of cleansing the Temple remind us that we enter sacred ground when we go to church. Doris Akers wrote in her beloved hymn, “There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, And I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord.” Pray that we may be more aware of adoration of the living God when we enter His presence, whether at church or at our personal altar. With the Psalmist may we say, truly, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1, KJV).

Going to the House of the Lord

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good.” -Psalm 122:1, 9. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.” –Psalm 27:4. “For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Psalm 84:10. “And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” -Acts 5:42 (KJV).

Going to the house of the Lord—for worship, praise, prayer, learning, listening, being challenged in the Christian life, in quietness and meditation knowing that God is God, enjoying Christian fellowship! When it comes time to go to church, are you like the psalmist who exulted “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord”?

Each cited scripture above exclaims with what gladness the writers considered going to the house of the Lord and what a privilege for the worshiper. Even a lowly task, that of a doorkeeper, one who greeted people when they came to worship and bade them farewell when they left worship to go from the temple or sanctuary or place of worship into the work-a-day life, even a doorkeeper is better than considering wealthy dwellings of wickedness. And when the early Christians met to worship, even with the threat of being jailed and persecuted a very real possibility, they 'daily in the temple and in every house’ did not cease to meet, to teach and to preach Jesus Christ.

What has happened in our modern age to take away the love for and the help from assembling ourselves together at the house of the Lord? What has occurred to harden our hearts and remove our zeal for the church? I have heard many excuses as I’ve tried to encourage persons to renew their faithfulness to the Lord and as the writer of Hebrews 10:25 admonishes: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as we see the day approaching.” Some of the excuses offered for non-attendance are: “I work on Sunday—or I work hard during the week and I must sleep-in, rest, on Sundays.” Another is, “I can worship as well at home or wherever I am on the Lord’s day; I don’t have to go to church to worship.” There are those who say, “I don’t like to associate with those ‘hypocrites’ at church.” Still others claim, “I can hear good sermons on television or radio; it’s not necessary for me to go to church.” And the excuses go on. A person must develop his/her own commitment to the Lord that includes a love and longing for fellowship with other Christians in the house of the Lord, the church. For me, this is vital and necessary. I pray that, if going to the church is not a regular and necessary part of your spiritual life, you will pray about it until you, like the psalmist, can exclaim: “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!” On this Lord’s day, I can hardly wait to get to church and worship!