The Lord Comes To His Temple

The Lord Comes to His Temple

The people in the prophet Malachi’s day had grievances with God who seemed, in their estimation, to be slow in dealing with the wicked people all around them. “Where is the God of justice?” they asked indignantly (Malachi 2:17).

And through his prophet, God answered, saying, “Suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple” (3:1, NIV).

These complainers were seeking their promised Messiah, the One they anticipated would enact justice in a world where it seemed there was none. But perhaps they were surprised to hear where Messiah would begin setting things right in the world. He “will come to his temple.” The Lord would begin setting things right—not in the godless world around them, but in his very own house.

Just as God promised, the Lord came to his Temple. Shortly after his birth, Jesus’ parents took him to the Temple where they offered a purification offering. Later, when he was twelve years old, his parents searched for him for three days only to find him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. During his ministry Jesus taught in the Temple and healed people there.

He also dealt with the wickedness he found in the Temple and in its leaders. Luke wrote, “Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, ‘The Scriptures declare, “My Temple will be a house of prayer,” but you have turned it into a den of thieves’” (Luke 19:45-46). The Messiah came to set things right in his Temple, but it didn’t sit well at all with the religious leaders. “After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him” (Luke 19:47).

Our God of justice will never let evil go unpunished, even when—and especially when—he finds it in his own house. As Peter wrote, “For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household” (1 Peter 4:17).

God of justice, how grateful I am that when you poured out your wrath on wickedness, it fell on Jesus and not on me. I long for you to come and set things right in the place you make your home now—in my body. Come to this temple and drive out what is displeasing to you.