Just asking (26): what’s the house of prayer?
It’s almost like a formulae.
The pastor will proclaim his church will become a house of prayer.
Then invite the congregation to commit to prayer.
Often follow with urging to attend the weekly prayer meeting.
Not much variation.
Why must an Israelite temple be automatically transformed into a Protestant church of the Gentiles?
And, why must a house of prayer in Jesus’ world be automatically transformed into prayer meetings in a Hong Kong Protestant church?
It’s been so uncritically examined and still unchallenged!
In Luke 19:45-46, Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem temple, quite violently it could be said. It is recorded—
Then 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.” (NLT)
The NLT has a footnote suggesting Jesus’ words have background texts from Isa 56:7 and Jer 7:11, with Isaiah referring to “house of prayer”.
With the Old Testament thoughts in the background, shouldn’t one explore when or how the Jerusalem Temple was connected with prayers?
Was it already the case several hundred years before Jesus in Isaiah period, or even predated Isaiah?
It seems the rudest way at least is to go further back to the Temple dedication text at Solomon’s days!
Sure enough King Solomon made prayers his central focus.
2 Chronicles 6:12—
Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire community of Israel, and he lifted his hands in prayer.
What follows is a splendid prayer from the King.
What about?
Verses 36-39 encapsulate the central plea for forgiveness of sins, from Israelites and even Gentiles—
“If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their captivity and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name—then hear their prayers and their petitions from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you.”
The Jerusalem Temple built and dedicated by Solomon, was the place where confession and forgiveness would meet, as promised by the LORD to the Israelites as seen from Solomon’s perspective, and hence his prayer.
When prayers uttered in the Temple, and even away from it but directionally oriented towards it, prayers would be heard.
Confession and forgiveness will always be met at the Temple.
Promise.
Wasn’t it what Jesus wanting to remind people?
Wasn’t it the overriding concern with the Temple being the House of Prayer?
And with Jesus constantly reminding hearers that his reference to Temple was in fact pointing to his body, isn’t it a further emphasis on confession and forgiveness converges in Jesus?
Just Asking.
(But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said. [John 2:21-22, NLT])