Adult Enlightener: Young Adult Bible Study: Prophets, Scripture, and Hope

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

The Adult Enlightener Contemporary Training for the Church (CTC) quarterly guide is designed for the career-oriented adult. It uses language and ideas that are meaningful to the adult learner who is primarily handling work and family responsibilities. It is a practical resource for everyday Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Dec 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781681676319

Book preview

Lesson 1

PRESERVING PLACES OF HERITAGE

THEME: PROPHETS, SCRIPTURE, AND HOPE

Selected Scriptures: Isaiah 56:6–7; Jeremiah 7:9–11; Mark 11:15–19

THE MESSIAH WAS PROPHESIED TO DELIVER ISRAEL. HOW DID THE JEWISH OFFICIALS INTERPRET THIS PROPHECY?

BIBLICAL TEACHING EMPHASES:

I. A House Of Prayer For All People

II. A Den Of Robbers

III. The Cleansing Of The Temple

INTRODUCTION

Thomas Jefferson is reported to have said, When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred! The New Testament certainly counsels us not to lash out in anger. Our anger, the author James observes, worketh not the righteousness of God (1:20, KJV). But is all anger sinful? In Mark’s account of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, we see Jesus’ anger. He was angry about the commercial operations being conducted in His Father’s house. He dealt with the situation by confronting the moneychangers and running them out of the temple. Today’s lesson is focused on two important Old Testament events before turning to Mark’s account of the cleansing of the temple.

I. A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE

Through the prophet Isaiah, God declares to Israel that His house shall be called an house of prayer for all people (Isaiah 56:7, KJV). Isaiah is reminding Israel of God’s inclusive love for all people. He loves the outcast and oppressed of every nation, not just Israel. When the oppressed come to Him, they come into His care, and He will hear their petitions and prayers for His intervention (see Isaiah 56:3–5). He is a divine Warrior; He is a Champion of the oppressed, and He protects them with His love. God desires that His temple be a place where all people of the world can find solace and refuge no matter their ethnic identity.

The mission of the Church is not fundamentally different from this. God’s house is still intended today to be a place of prayer and refuge for all who seek His face. Despite His choosing of a people for Himself, God’s purposes have always been universal in their intent. He is the God of all people, not simply Israel (see Jonah 3:9–11; John 3:16). God wants His house to be a place where all can come into His presence. God wants to encourage all people to seek His love, mercy, and compassion. The house of the Lord must always remain a holy place for true communion with Yahweh.

II. A DEN OF ROBBERS

The prophet Jeremiah also had to admonish the people of Israel that God’s house is always to be a place for healing and never a place for stealing. Jeremiah reminds them that they cannot do wrong all week long and then rely on the fact that God’s temple is in Jerusalem to save them (see Jeremiah 7:3–4). Rather, God tells Jeremiah to warn the people that they will receive His judgment and wrath rather than His care, love, and deliverance. God is not to be played with. God’s people will not fool Him in His own house. Jeremiah implies, that when they come to the temple and chant, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord (verse 4), and then claim we are delivered (verse 10), they are living in a fool’s paradise, trusting in words that are no better than a lie. It is a terrible thing to try to live a lie before the Lord our God!

The Jewish people were abusing each other and making excuses for their sins. They were mistreating each other not just in their homes and businesses, but even in the house of God.

They were an abomination before God in His temple because of their stealing, cheating, and robbing the poor and oppressed. God was not going to permit that in His temple. His house is a place of prayer where all people can seek His face. The people of Israel had dishonored it by thinking that their wicked lifestyles were all right in God’s sight. They knew that they were supposed to be honest in their dealings, but they were not doing it. To bring that deceit and dishonesty before the face of God in His own temple was more than He would tolerate. Furthermore, it was incomprehensible to the prophet that God’s righteousness and holiness would even allow one to consider invoking His presence and power in the midst of their evil inclinations.

This is also true in the Church. God’s house is not to be a place of wrongdoing and injustice in business ventures. All Christians should be honest in all their dealings in the Church and in the world if they profess to be followers of Jesus.

III. THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

Centuries passed between the time of Jeremiah and that of Jesus. Israel had gone into exile in Babylon and had come back out. Israel’s imperial rulers changed on several occasions: after the Babylonians came the Persians, followed by the Greeks, followed by the Romans. In Jesus’ day, the temple precincts were overseen—as was the entire system of Jewish religion—by the scribes and Pharisees who were the Roman approved religious