“Zeal for your house will consume me.” John 2:17
In the New Testament, the local church is referred to as “the household of God” (Eph. 2:19) and “a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5). What does God intend his house to be?
A place of prayer for all people
“My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Isa. 56:7).
The great purpose of God is that all peoples would come to him in prayer. God speaks here of a day when that will happen, a day when people from every tribe and nation will worship him. The passion of Jesus is that God’s house would be a place where people from all nations would come and seek the living God.
A place where atonement is central
He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat… (Lev. 16:14).
Every year the high priest would go into the Most Holy Place at the center of the temple and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificed animal on the mercy seat. The passion of Jesus is that God’s house would be a place where people get right with God, where people would come back into relationship with him through forgiveness by this atonement.
A place where God’s presence is known
“There I will meet with you… above the mercy seat…” (Ex. 25:22).
If we are like Jesus, zeal for God’s house will consume us. Lord, let the controlling passion, the consuming zeal, the first love of our lives be zeal for your house.
Ask yourself, “With all the things for which I have passion, is it true of me that I have passion for God and for his house?”
