Why read? (Luke 4:15)

And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. (Luke 4:15 NASB)

The synagogue was the center of local Jewish life. It was the place of assembly for prayer and study. Ezra (Nehemiah 8) had instituted regular reading of the Torah and that pattern continues today. There was a schedule of reading so that the entire Torah would be read aloud every year (some groups use a three-year rotation now). Any adult male could be invited to read the Torah. As I understand it, this was more than reading. It was reading with style - a kind of melodic chant or singing, so some men would be more adept than others. I would expect that Jesus, being The Word, would have been particularly adept and frequently chosen as reader. 

After the Torah reading, someone would give what we call a sermon. They would teach from the passage that had been read. Because they were teaching from the words of Moses, they sat in the Moses seat (a seat of honor) as they spoke. 

Why all this Torah reading? Israel had been taken captive and into exile as discipline for their sin. When the Babylonian exiles returned to Jerusalem, they never wanted to go into exile again. They wanted to ensure their own obedience, and requested that Ezra, the scribe, read the Torah aloud to them. After the reading, the Levites explained it to them. 

That first day, the people were so moved by the Word of God that they wept at the reading of it. All the people wept. I can't even imagine it. Everyone in "church" was so moved that they wept. Wow!  These people, at least for that time, were so sick of the consequences for their sin that they never wanted to disobey again. 

Oh what a difference it would make if we truly understood the price we have paid for our sin! It would break our hearts and ensure our obedience. It would drive us to the Word of God. 

Pray today for a glimpse of the price our sin has cost us and for our loved ones to have a sobering understand of what their life choices will cost them in the end. Pray for a "wake-up call" that propels them to Jesus. 

Prayers in the House (Luke 4:15)

Part 2
And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. (Luke 4:15 NASB)

...do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who were before the temple. (Ezekiel 9:6 NASB)

Centuries before the arrival of Messiah, Ezekiel had a vision of the destruction of Jerusalem. In it, he saw a man dressed in linen (priestly garments) with a writing case (Lamb's Book of Life) at his side. (Ezekiel 9:1-6) The man in linen (Jesus, our Great High Priest) was instructed to go through the city (Jerusalem) and put a mark on every one of those "who sigh and groan over all the abominations being committed in its midst". The mark would protect them from destruction. He was to start at the temple, where the people who say they belong to God, have assembled. Judgement was coming, the vision said, and it would begin at the House of God.

The man in linen clearly marked all those who were His... He missed no one, because He had the writing case and could be assured of who was to receive His mark.  He began at the temple, where, we might presume, a preponderance of God's people would be gathered. Surely God's House of Prayer would be filled with people who sigh and groan over sin. Here is the sobering reality. It was not.

The temple, God's House of Prayer, was not full of people mourning both individual and corporate sin. It was filled with people, but they were doing something else, and the price for that "something else" was destruction.

Selah.
Pause and consider.

What would we be found doing in the House of Prayer? Would our prayers of repentance be remarkable if the Man in Linen appeared?

Jesus started His ministry in the synagogues, where God's people were, because that is where He always starts. (Ezekiel 9, Revelation 7). He was looking for hearts that cared about sin and righteousness, and He still is.

Today, as we pray, let us spend time in prayer, confessing not only our own sin and that of our loved ones, but also that of our nation. Make sure that the heart God finds in us is a heart of humble and repentant prayer.

House of Prayer (Luke 4:15)

And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. (Luke 4:15 NASB)

Synagogue. Jewfaq.org describes a synagogue this way: "the center of the Jewish religious community: a place of prayer, study and education..." Synagogues are always, at the minimum, a place of prayer. In Jesus's time, most little villages had a synagogue, where men gathered to pray and, usually, to study as well. The young boys would be taught the Torah there in a "study hall".  Some synagogues are enormous, elaborate structures, holding thousands of people, but in the villages in Galilee, they were usually built of stone, and had one large assembly hall with a small room at the side for teaching the boys. Jesus began His ministry by going from village to village, visiting and teaching in their synagogues, the houses of prayer. 

I'm not sure how you see the place where you gather with believers (your "church"), but I don't usually think of my church as a house of prayer. There is a room that I use regularly that is the "room of prayer", but house of prayer? Maybe not. To me, it's always been the "house of sermons".  

Until today, I'm ashamed to say, I never saw a problem with this. Local synagogues were places of teaching and study, but that was secondary to corporate prayer. Jesus had a serious issue about turning His Father's house from being a house of prayer to a den of thieves, but maybe we would do well to consider that the problem began when the House of Prayer was turned into anything other than primarily a place of communing with God. 

House of Prayer. I wonder, what would God do in response if we turned our churches into Houses of Prayer where we actually communicated with the Most High God and were still enough to hear that Still, Small Voice? How would we be changed? What about our loved ones who are struggling with issues of faith? 

Dear ones, pray. Pray that we will allow God to turn our assemblies into Houses of Prayer and that we will approach The Most High God with humility and brokenness. He will not leave us unchanged. He will not fail to move. When that happens, those we love and for whom we pray will not be able to deny the work our God has done.