Have you ever stopped to think what these money changers were doing in the temple? The selling of the sacrificial animals was not new; it happened in the Old Testament, also. The people forgot the true meaning of the sacrificial system.  They brought in animals for people to buy for their sacrifice. In the times past a lamb, of your own flock, that was without blemish was used as a sacrifice. Once the lamb was chosen, it was kept and nurtured before being used as a sacrifice. This sacrifice was a foreshadow of the Messiah to come. These people that were in the marketplace were making money selling the animals to those who were coming to the temple for atonement. Jesus was upset and for good reason.

Have you ever really thought about the sacrificial system that was put in place so long ago? I am thankful that Jesus has come and saved us through His sacrifice, which did away with the animal sacrifices. Colossians 2:13-14 reads, “And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened (made alive) together with Him, having forgiven all trespass: Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way nailing it to His cross” (see Deuteronomy 31:26 for the ordinances that were against the people). And remember the Ten Commandments are in the Ark of the Covenant under the mercy seat of Jesus.

The whole temple service was about Jesus and He has promised to be with us always (see Matthew 28:20)

The Priest: Hebrews 9:11-15, “But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

The Altar: 1 Peter 1:19-21 “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in the last times for you, Who by Him do believe in God, and raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.”  Revelation 5: 6, “And I beheld, and , lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beast, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” And then there is this warning in Revelation 13:8, “And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

The Laver (cleansing): 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” and this one from Revelation 1:5, “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,”  

The golden candlestick: John 8:12, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, Saying I am the Light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” and Luke 2:32 speaks about baby Jesus, “A Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people.”

The table of shew bread:  John 6:35-48, “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and He that believeth on Me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen Me , and believe not. All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that all which He hath given Me I should loses nothing, but should raise it up again in the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. And the Jews then murmured at Him because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that He saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that Bread of Life…” and verse 50 states, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.”

Altar of Incense (Prayers) – John 14: 6, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” and Revelation 8:3-4, “And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayer of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”

The Most Holy: it has the Ark of the Covenant, which has the Ten Commandments inside. The mercy seat is Jesus.  John 14: 15-17 Jesus says, “If you love Me keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”  And from the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 5: 8-9, “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of the that love Me and keep My commandments.” So going back to the beginning of this post regarding the money changers and sellers, they forgot that the services all pointed to the Messiah and they did not recognize Him when He was in their midst. “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came to His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11).

They had become so worldly that they failed to recognize Him (see 1 John 4:4-6). Do we sometimes do the same? Do we get so caught up in this world that we do not recognized Jesus when He is right there knocking at the door to let Him enter and abide with us (see Revelation 3:20)?

God loved us so much that he threw us a life (LOVE) line through His Son Jesus. From the very beginning a plan was in place should Adam and Eve succumb to the temptation of Satan through the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). This means that Jesus already made the choice to save us. I recently watched the first two episodes of Table Talk. In the video, they were talking about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and They were described as a Family of Three and we are invited to join their Family through Jesus, our Savior (author is using the uppercase letters for the Family of Three so this is not a distinction used anywhere else). I thought that was a wonderful way to describe Them but we still must remember They are one God. Isaiah 44:6 states, “Thus saith the Lord King of Israel and His Redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first , and I am the last; beside Me there is no God.”

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Here are just a few of the verses that show how we are connected to this Family of Three once we accept Jesus. We will start with Galatians 3:27-29, “For as many of you as have been baptized (this is through the Holy Spirit) into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond or free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (also see Romans 10:12).  When we look around at the world today, there is so much dissension and most, if not all of the time, it comes back to our differences such as ethnicity, social status, financial status, etc. But when we accept Jesus, all of that should go away. We should not see differences in others because they are all our brothers and sisters. We have all become family grafted in to the Family of Three. Why do I say that? Let’s go to back to Galatians 4:4-7, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, made under the law (the same law that we are under–see Ten Commandments),To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (the closest translation for Abba, is like when we use the word Dad). Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Have you ever thought about that? So we see in this one verse how the Family, all of them, work together to bring us into the fold. He, Jesus, becomes our Brother. And only our Relative was able to save us all. “If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold” (Leviticus 25:25). 

Paul says this, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal sold under sin” (Roman 7:14).  We have become prisoners of our sinful nature and it is what we do with it that will lead us on the path to destruction or to everlasting life. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of the God” (Romans 3:23) and “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Jesus, our Brother, took our place by suffering, bleeding, and dying on the cross for us. Hebrews 2 :14-16 states, “ Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”  So here we see we were in bondage until our Brother, Jesus bled and died for us. 1 John 1: 7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light. We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”  Jesus cleanses us from sin when we accept Him! Did you also notice that walking in the light also means fellowship with one another? Jesus said this in Mark 12:28-31, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. The second is like, namely, this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these two.”

So we now know that Jesus becomes our Brother. Did you ever think about what He gave up to become one of us? Remember He was with God and he became flesh for us (John 1:1-3; 14). Hebrews 2:9 reads, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour: that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Jesus left the heavenly throne on high to become flesh knowing full well that He would have to die (see John 10:14-18). That is the truest form of love there is – God gave us His Son, Jesus, and Jesus made the choice to come and save us all!

Jesus coming to save us was foretold by many prophets in the Old Testament. One chapter in Isaiah stands out to me. Isaiah 53:1 starts out with couple of questions, “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” One of the things I like to do is match up verses. The first is an obvious question and the answer was that so many of those Isaiah was preaching to had turned their backs on the Lord our God. The second question made me think a bit – who is the arm of the LORD?  For the answer we can go to Isaiah 52:10, “The LORD hath made bare His Holy Arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

If you do not see Jesus in the answer above, let’s move on to Isaiah 53:2 which states “For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Isaiah states He will be an ordinary man, but to us He is most extraordinary!

For now, let’s focus on the first portion of the verse. In many places in the Bible, Jesus is compared to a plant or a root. In one area, Jesus Himself says in John 15: 1-6, “I AM the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth (prunes) it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

As for the root in the verse, one place we can go is Revelation 22:16 which reveals, “I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (see 2 Peter 1:19 for reference to the morning star).

The rest of Chapter 53 shows who Jesus is and what he has done for us. You can read it for yourself in the Bible, but I will reprint it here because it is SO VERY important that we understand what He has done for us. Isaiah 53: 3-12, “He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to His own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before he shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: (and) when thou (we) shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

He shall see of the travail (suffering) of His soul, and shall be satisfied: (and) by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

 Jesus made the choice to do this for us. Hebrew 12:2 says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith: Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God.”  When we see the statement “pleased the Lord to bruise Him,” we have to remember it in the context of “for the joy set before Him.” The Father took no pleasure in the pain Jesus was going to suffer but knew that His Son was going “justify many” and those who abide in Jesus become “strong” through Him, and He will share the inheritance or “spoil.” And we know this because in Galatians 4: 4-6 it states, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made (born) of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Have you ever gotten lost? I remember when I was little; our family went to an amusement park. As we were walking through the throngs of people, I was holding on to my dad’s belt loop and looking around at all the action. I only let go of his belt loop for a second and reached up to grab the belt loop once more but it was a stranger that was in front of me. I looked around and couldn’t find my dad or any of my family. Needless to say it was a scary situation for me.

If we are not holding on to Jesus, it’s a guarantee that another will take His place.

So what happens when we take our eyes off Jesus? Jesus’ disciple Peter certainly found out. Starting in Matthew 14:22-23, “And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and go before Him unto the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain to pray: and when evening was come, He was there alone.” As we get to know Jesus, we get to know the Father, also. Jesus prays to the Father before all the things He does. He and His Father have such a relationship, He describes it in this way, “That they all might be one; as Thou Father art in Me,  and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21).

One of His disciples (who has been with Jesus for a while now) asked this question in which Jesus answers in John 14:8-11, “Philip saith unto Him, Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith to him, Have I not been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” This statement has so many aspects to it. Jesus is one with the Father and He is saying the Father is seen through Him.

Think about this, also. When we accept Jesus Christ, there is a marked change in us. People should see Christ in you. As Paul put it in Romans 13:13-14, “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” When we love the Lord, the change will happen because we want to please Him. It is hard to explain the love that pours out once you accept Him as your Lord and Savior. My hope is that you will find out.

As Jesus is praying, the ship is continuing on its journey, “But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit: and they cried out in fear.  But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.  And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind strong, he was afraid: and beginning to sink, he cried Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:24-30).

Fear can be such a debilitating emotion. Fear and doubt are Satan’s weapons that he uses against us. As a matter of fact, “Fear not” is used not only here in these verses here, but throughout the Scriptures. If we think about it fear can motivate us or keep us from being motivated. Fear can make us lash out at another or bottle us up when we need to take a stand. But the biggest thing is that it can keep us from the Holy Father and Jesus. Fear can separate us from Him. Revelation 21:7, 8 states, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”  On a side note, did you catch that? There is no hell that a person is tormented forever and it says so right here (for more information click here).

So Peter gets scared and takes his eyes off Jesus, the only one who can keep his path steady and straight. The most wonderful thing about Jesus is that He will come after us when we take our eyes off of Him and will save us when we fall. “And immediately Jesus stretched fourth His hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt. And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased” (Matthew 14:31-32).

These two verses show exactly who Jesus is and what He is doing for us. We call out to Him, He reaches for us; and He calms the seas raging inside us. That is SO beautiful!

So grabbing the big orange rubber gloves, my spouse went out to remove the poor bird from the shrub and found that it was still alive. It had just given up the struggle and was resigned to die. I often wonder what story it told when reuniting with its family (we later found out that it did meet up with its family). May be its story went something like this: “There I was struggling and struggling but I just couldn’t get out of the tangle I was in and I just knew I was going to die. I gave up.  Then outta nowhere there was, like, these orange hands that lifted me up and cut me loose. Man, I was really scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen. The hands just let me down gently and I ran for my life. I gotta tell you guys, those hands saved my life.”

Perhaps you can guess where this story is leading. We are all in a struggle right now. The devil is having a field day keeping people chained down. He wraps them up so that when they struggle; he just tightens the grip of those chains. Remember he has had thousands of years to perfect his craft. Today, there is worry, fear, anger, people hurting others (not only physically but with the words they say), and so much more. We are just like this little quail when he was in a mess. Remember, none of us are exempt from the things the devil will use to chain us down. As a matter of fact, the closer we come to our Savior, the more the devil will try to keep that closeness from happening. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

However, we have this promise in John 8:31-32,36 which reads, “Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

So, if we surrender and put ourselves in our Lord’s capable and loving hands; we can also say, He loosed me from the bonds that were holding me captive and I am free. And like the little quail telling his story, we should tell someone else our story, and that is this– Jesus Saves!