Welcome!
To The King James Bible Discussion Thread
Where Living Life To The Fullest
Posted on 04/19/2017 8:10:42 AM PDT by WhatNot
2 Chronicles 17:3
And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;
David set an example, and Jehoshaphat walked in it. There's a lot of people today, who live their lives in such a way, either for good or for ill, because they’re following the example of their parents. As a child, I remember my Mother sewing on her old Singer machine. She always had those paper patterns laying around, and she followed those patterns stitch for stitch, which enabled her to make whatever article of clothing she wanted.
That's a pattern, and as long as you follow the pattern, it'll come out identical to that pattern. Jesus is our pattern, He's our example. Jesus left footsteps for us to follow, and we ought to follow in those footsteps very closely. Where He goes, we go, where He doesn’t go, we don’t go. Just as parents should be the example for their children, so Christ wants us to follow Him.
John 13:14-15
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
Whatever situation we find ourselves in, we should ask ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” It’s not about what Dad, Mom, Husband, Wife or the Pastor would do, it’s about what would Jesus do? That’s what we need to focus on. Would Jesus be here in this place? Would Jesus be listening to this? Would Jesus be watching this? Would Jesus be thinking this? Would Jesus be talking this way? Is this how Jesus would handle this situation at work, or at home, or at school?
We would absolutely have a closer walk with the Master if we would just ask, “What would He do?” Jesus is our example in everything that matters.
John 2:
13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
Re verse 16, house of merchandise. When a performer, guest lecturer or speaker has DVDs or CDs for sale at the church, does that count? I think they mostly consider those sales an offering, but is that splitting hairs? I know the animals they were selling were intended for sacrifices to clean one’s sins. That seems wrong.
I have heard it said that there were several levels of cheating and scamming going on. That the money-changers were giving a lousy exchange rate from Greek or Roman money to Jewish money. That the animal sellers would only accept Jewish money (see above) and charged inflated prices besides. John, however, does not mention this.
Matthew 23:
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30 and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
The whole chapter is like that, but v33 sums it all up.
No, that's not exactly what was going on. For one thing, don't forget about the tithe. They were to give 10 percent of ther "increase" back to the Lord--sort of a taxation for a theocratic form of government. Also, the first-born male of any of your flock was supposed to be the Lord's, but if you couldn't bring it down to Jerusalem, say, from Capernaum, you could "redeem" it by converting it to cash at home, then bring the cash to Jerusalem and give it at the Temple. There were lots of other ways outside of sin-payments that people were "taxed" for being Jews, usually of animals or produce, but coming from far away (3 times a year) they needed then to convert their cash to temple shekels to pay for sacrifice animals, or to give to the Temple attendants for their upkeep.
And that's where the rub is. The priests controlled the exchange ratio of Gentile money for shekels, and they took a slice off the top for doing the conversion. And that's what was wrong with the system. the money-changers were at the root of the mercantilism of the Temple-related activity.
When people came from all over the world for Passover, how many lambs do you think the local shepherds had to raise to supply these visitors that could not bring their own animals? Lots and lots, I think. So the lambs had to be purchased from the sheepherders, and sold at a(probably) robbery profits to their marketers, ples changing the money to shekels.
Well, you can see how this came to be a bunch of thieves and robbers from the people passing through. and haggling? Probably a lot of that, too.
Check your Bible on this, Leviticus, especially.
Probably not, unless you are required to buy some of their stuff in order to get into the auditorium. Then they are getting out of the "Freely you have received, freely give" mode of relating to the Lord's plan. Sometimes when they come, the church that invites them to spice up their programs are too parsimonious (check that word out) to give them what they deserve, keeping the feed from the ox doing the grinding, so to speak. And if a "love offering" is taken up, it's not a love offering. For most people it's a guilt offering, because they were not supporting the programs of the church with their own substance generously.
Thank you for the detailed explaination!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.