PRAYER IS WHAT DEFINES US

 

WBS.315

PRAYER IS WHAT DEFINES US

Mark 11:15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Yahushua went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;

16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.

17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

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Anyone who has ever read the Gospels is familiar with this passage of Scripture. It is also found in Matthew 21:12-13, and Luke 19:45-46 (It Is quoted from Isaiah 56:7). We could call this a repeat of the “Nadab and Abihu experience.”  When Moses returned from Mount Sinai with the Law, he had been given explicit instructions on how the Tabernacle was to be designed and erected, and how every single service of the Tabernacle was to be performed. IAUE repeatedly warned Moses to insure that all things were done exactly as He had explained it to him.

We know from 1 Corinthians 10:11 that the things and events recorded for us in the Old Testament were examples for us (signs, types and foreshadows) to represent spiritual truths for those partaking of the New Covenant.  The Tabernacle of Moses was the most explicit, most highly detailed imagery of the person and work of Yahushua Messiah that is found in the Old Testament. It had to be perfect in its structure and in its service. In Leviticus 10, the day the Tabernacle of Moses was consecrated for service, Aaron the High Priest, had his job to do, as did his sons, Eleazar and Ithamar; but it appeared there was no specific assignment for Aaron’s other sons, Nadab and Abihu. All of them had been anointed to the priesthood; and this day of inaugurating the Tabernacle to being offering the sacrifices for the people, the excitement level of the children of Israel would have been very high.  Nadab and Abihu desired to participate in some way, so they placed incense in a bowl and set fire to it to burn incense in the Outer Court.  This act was not only contrary to the designs and plans IAUE gave Moses, it violated the message of the Tabernacle and misrepresented the person of Yahushua Messiah. IAUE had to delete it from the imagery, so He sent fire from Heaven and consumed the two boys.

(A similar experience was in Numbers 20:11, when Moses struck the rock twice to bring forth the water in the wilderness instead of striking it once as IAUE had instructed him to do. This was a violation of the foreshadowing of the impaling of Messiah. 1 Corinthians 10:4 tells us that the rock was Messiah; and Hebrews 6:4-6 tells us that sacrificing Yahushua a second time for sins would put Messiah to shame. Yahushua was sacrificed once for all.  For this violation of this foreshadowing of Messiah’s sacrifice, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land.)

What had Isaiah foreshadowed that caused the Master such concern that he would so forcefully drive out the moneylenders from the temple, and not even permit men or women to use the temple grounds for a shortcut to carry water through it?  They were violating the imagery designed by IAUE. There was a spiritual truth being jeopardized by their actions; and in so doing, the Master not only corrected the type but added to it.  Let’s see what this means

Ephesians 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of IAUE; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yahushua Messiah himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Master: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of IAUE through the Spirit.

The believers in Messiah are individually members of His Body.  All believers everywhere constitute the body of Yahushua Messiah in the earth.  Paul explains to the Ephesians and to disciples everywhere that when they believed on Messiah became building blocks fitted together to form a holy temple whose purpose is to be an habitation of IAUE…to be a dwelling place for His Holy Spirit.  The apostle Peter said it like this.

1 Peter 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to IAUE by Yahushua Messiah.

Paul says we are the building blocks that form the temple of IAUE; and Peter says those building blocks are living stones that do not just form a place for the Spirit of IAUE to dwell. These living stones have a responsibility…a duty that falls upon them by virtue of their being a part of this holy temple.  They (the believers) are to “offer up spiritual sacrifices” as opposed to the literal sacrifices that were types and shadows for us in the Tabernacle of Moses, as well as in the other temples that replaced the Tabernacle of Moses through the centuries, right down to the one where Yahushua drove out the moneylenders.

What are these spiritual sacrifices?  Isaiah foretold what they were; and Messiah drove out the moneylenders and forbade the people from using the temple grounds for personal convenience in order to preserve the integrity of the imagery of Isaiah’s prophecy.  The house of IAUE was to be known among all nations as the house of prayer.

Note that Paul had said this building, this holy temple, was being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Yahushua Messiah, himself, as the corner stone. What does the Scripture tell us of the apostles and of Messiah?

Acts 6:2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of IAUE, and serve tables. 3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. 4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto IAUE by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 

Every single one of us who call upon the name of our Master Yahushua as Messiah are a part of a holy temple…the body of Yahushua Messiah.

John 2:19 Yahushua answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

The Scriptures teach us that we are to do many things.  We are instructed in all manner of relationships: father and children, husbands and wives, masters and servant, neighbor to neighbor, disciples to those in authority, etc.  It teaches us about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It provides codes of conduct in several of the epistles.  All of this we are to do; but there are only two things the Scripture teaches us that all peoples of the world will be able to observe us and thereby to recognize us as disciples of the Master Yahushua Messiah; and they are:

1.  “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John      13:35).

2.  “My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer.” (Mark 11:17)

Between now and our next post to this blog, I believe we all should take inventory of our lives to see if our living stone is doing its part as a building block in the habitation of IAUE’s Spirit. We can no longer dismiss prayer as something special intercessors do and which we can disregard.