Why did Jesus call the Temple a den of thieves? It is interesting that the only thing that is ever said by Jesus about the "house of God" is that it was to be a house of prayer. I believe that Jesus dealt with a problem that is enormous on our churches today. The church world has become a Money Making Religious Business instead of a Missionary Force. Why do you think it was so passionate to Jesus that he ran them out with a whip? Jesus' whole mission was to come and present Himself a sacrifice for all that everyone may be saved. He came to seek and save those that need to be saved and now he comes to the Temple and finds this spectacle. I can only imagine the sorrow that must be in God's heart to see the church at the level it is today. It is only out of God's great mercy and desire to see all saved that His return has been so long.

 I am well aware that prophecy must play out according to scripture but I also know that the Word says that "He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance." The church has justified the waste of millions upon millions of dollars that will not and has not won one soul to Christ. I want you to notice when Jesus healed the people, it was when the garbage was removed from His house. It is time for us as Christians to start cleaning house to allow God's presence back in. It is time to quit being satisfied with emotionalism and entertainment and seek the real presence and power of God.

It was convenient for the people to buy their sacrifices there at the Temple instead of carrying them from home or elsewhere. In the same way we do not prepare before we meet with God, we come to church and allow someone else to reach God for us. We have no need to carry our sacrifices to the altar we can just wait and get our quick fix at the service. We can quote some old prayer like that of Jabez and all our needs will be met, regardless of the lack of any spiritual preparedness in our lives.

Those four leprous men sat at the entrance of the church daily and relied on the generosity they would receive from those entering and leaving. For a while they received, but as time went on that help slowly dwindled until there was none. Those four realized that the famine was as bad on the inside as it was on the outside. That is the way the world sees the church today; once it was a place that they could rely on finding help, but slowly the world took over the church too and now help was no longer found.

The churches today are no longer interested in helping those lepers on the outside that desperately need to know that there is a God that cares about them and loves them. They need to know that there is a God that sees them in the same light as those that pass them by in their fancy clothes each week and never reach out to them. They need to know that these people that are incessantly going in an out of these buildings are not truly representing the love of God when they do not lift a finger to help them. They need to know that this is not the model that they were supposed to be following. They need to know that God longs to see them walking on the streets of Gold just as these fancy dressed people that are supposed to be ambassadors for Him and His love.

Unfortunately though, there are many lepers just like the four in this story that see through all the pomp and rituals and realize that the famine is on the inside too. There are many of these souls that turn to the world and throw themselves at the mercy of people that do not have the love of God and don't even know God. But God in His great mercy and grace will sometimes show up for these people and through His hand meet their needs. There are many of these people that recognize that it is from Him and they are farther advanced spiritually than most of those on the inside that are ignorant of the famine they are in the midst of. We are in a unique time in history yet the church is content to sit back in their fancy buildings in their comfortable pews and allow the famine to continue. The church must wake up to the reality as the four lepers did and proclaim, "Why Sit We Here Till We Die."