Away with the old

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

AWAY WITH THE OLD

Matt 24:1-2

24:1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." 

NIV

It is certainly a historical fact the words Jesus spoke about the stones of the temple came true. The Jewish historian Josephus gives a full account of many of the predictions of Jesus although being a Jew he does not speak of Jesus, but simply of history. Nevertheless in forty years from the words of Christ about the temple the Roman army put a siege upon Jerusalem and in the end they lay the city, the temple level with the ground. Not a single stone was left sitting upon another. A visitor to that region after this event would not know a temple was ever there. When we think, from the accounts of Josephus, many of the stones were as large as seventy feet long, ten feet wide and eight feet high. Consider the force and power it took to demolish such a great and splendorous temple. Yet it happened just as Jesus said it would. This is one more proof that Jesus is divine. But how do we relate this event in our lives. Have we built any temples that Jesus needs to see demolished? Surely the destruction of the temple was also a final stroke on the end of the old covenant and the need to live with the new covenant. Jesus came to establish a new covenant with his people, his creation. Under the old ways people had to live by the law, and if broken, condemned. As we know it was impossible to live completely one hundred percent in accordance with all the law. In fact that was its purpose, to show them they needed a, Savior. Jesus fulfilled all the law and therefore became the new covenant with the people. But as long as the temple stood they lived in accordance with the old covenant, the law.  Jesus, being God knew this temple too must be broken down, demolished to show the old ways are gone, not just spiritually, but physically. The Romans would not have conquered this city and destroyed it unless it was ordained by God. He removed his hand from Israel for this purpose, to show them they needed to see Jesus for who he is, in their case, who he was, for time had passed and they still refused the message. They had thought they killed that Jesus and his message. But does Jesus need to demolish any strongholds in our life? Have we built for ourselves temples, or idols or strongholds that we want to hang on to? Certainly we would not like for God to have to allow someone to come and lay everything bare in our lives, We would not want to be conquered by some force and torn asunder leaving nothing left, no visible evidence of who we were. But that is exactly what Jesus should be doing in our lives. We are supposed to have died to our former way of life, and there should be no evidence it ever existed. Jesus does lay bare our lives before himself. He knows our every thought, our ever anxious moment. He knows every word we speak before we speak it. Nothing of the old life should be left standing after Jesus comes into our lives. All the old should be gone and all has become new. That is the way it is supposed to be. But is it? Do we still try to hang on to some aspects of the old ways, trying to keep some portion of our temple intact? Heaven help us!

Eph 4:20-24

20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

NIV