How Jesus Spells Deliverance
I have never really stopped to picture the event of the Triumphal Entry. I read Philip Yancey's description of how it would have been pale in comparison to a Roman Centurion and it legion... but still, look at what happened:
Someone no one knows gave their donkey and her colt to two strangers without hesitation.
The people took their cloaks - a very valuable item in those days and laid them on the ground and used them for a make-shift saddle for Him. Think about it, picture it. Amazing.
The people cried out "Hosanna to the Son of David!"
The children sang all the way to the temple.
The people of the city were stirred.
Wow!
The crowds cried, "Hosanna" which means, "Lord save us!" A cry for help in Hebrew. They cried to be released from the vile Roman army and its massive legions. They cried to be freed once again from subjugation to a God-less nation. They cried to see the conquest of David's kingdom once again.
And the first thing Jesus does in the city is cleanse the temple where they worship!
Matthew 21:12–13 (ESV) And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
This is not how you win popular elections. Drive out our own? Turn over our tables? Sure there are some scoundrels among our own, but all they are doing is selling doves, that Centurion over there crucified my brother-in-law last year! Do something about the real enemy.
If you're looking for judgment to start, look within. Jesus will save you. From the compromise and inconsistency of your own heart first and foremost.
He isn't here to deliver you from your problems without first dealing with the biggest one - that is you.
So when you pray, or cry out to God; when you look for salvation in life. Be ready for Jesus to go to work from the inside out. He always spells deliverance: Y-O-U.
As it should be.
PRAYER:
God, that's what I need. And I thank you for the times you have done it for me. And I thank you for the times You will do it for me. I may not like it, but I need it.
Someone no one knows gave their donkey and her colt to two strangers without hesitation.
The people took their cloaks - a very valuable item in those days and laid them on the ground and used them for a make-shift saddle for Him. Think about it, picture it. Amazing.
The people cried out "Hosanna to the Son of David!"
The children sang all the way to the temple.
The people of the city were stirred.
Wow!
The crowds cried, "Hosanna" which means, "Lord save us!" A cry for help in Hebrew. They cried to be released from the vile Roman army and its massive legions. They cried to be freed once again from subjugation to a God-less nation. They cried to see the conquest of David's kingdom once again.
And the first thing Jesus does in the city is cleanse the temple where they worship!
Matthew 21:12–13 (ESV) And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
This is not how you win popular elections. Drive out our own? Turn over our tables? Sure there are some scoundrels among our own, but all they are doing is selling doves, that Centurion over there crucified my brother-in-law last year! Do something about the real enemy.
If you're looking for judgment to start, look within. Jesus will save you. From the compromise and inconsistency of your own heart first and foremost.
He isn't here to deliver you from your problems without first dealing with the biggest one - that is you.
So when you pray, or cry out to God; when you look for salvation in life. Be ready for Jesus to go to work from the inside out. He always spells deliverance: Y-O-U.
As it should be.
PRAYER:
God, that's what I need. And I thank you for the times you have done it for me. And I thank you for the times You will do it for me. I may not like it, but I need it.
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