SCRIPTURE: Nehemiah 13
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib’s evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God. I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah’s belongings out of the room. Then I demanded that the rooms be purified, and I brought back the articles for God’s Temple, the grain offerings, and the frankincense. [Nehemiah 13:7-9]
Nehemiah is passionate for God, and bothered by the apparent indifference of the people for God – as revealed by their attitude toward the temple, the Sabbath and the pagan practices of non-Jews.
By allowing Tobiah – a non-Jew – to move in, and removing the instruments of worship (the articles for God’s temple), they were showing their disregard for God.
Nehemiah is angry because it was this very disregard for God that led to the downfall of Jerusalem the and the destruction of the temple – and here they go again!
Dishonouring the temple, ignoring the Sabbath, intermarrying with non-Jews, these were the kinds of things that got them into trouble in the first place.

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. [Matthew 21:12-14]
Each in their own way, Nehemiah and Jesus both show a deep concern for God.
They are rightly angry because the people who ought to know better are ignoring God and people.
In Jesus especially, we see the concern for restoring people to God and to health.
For Him, the temple was a place of healing and hope and help for others, not just a place for religious observance (at best) or a place for selfish gain (at worst).

The thing that I reflect on as I read these passages is my own passion for God and His priorities.
Does my life reveal an indifference to the things of God; do I betray a disregard for the plight of the poor or the oppressed; am I callous to things that matter, while engrossed by petty, selfish concerns?
If people saw me and considered my priorities, would they identify me as someone concerned about the things that concern God?
In many ways, the church of today has become the pursuit of self-interest: what it does for me, what it offers my children, whether I like the worship or not, does the preaching feed me, etc.?
We are not about caring for the blind and the lame, we are about taking care of ourselves.
This, I believe, is something that ought to upset us, and does upset the Lord.
I can imagine Him turning over tables in many churches today.
But would He also turn over tables on me, on my priorities, my possessions, my lifestyle?

PRAYER:
Lord, help me not to be quick to “turn over tables” on others before I search my own heart, to see whether my own life reflects Your priorities and Your purpose.