Deuteronomy 27-29 offers us a long sequence of curses and blessings that would come to the Israelites depending on whether they obeyed God or disobeyed Him. Moses summarizes the covenant between God and the people of Israel again, and calls them to obey it. We cannot miss the significance of the connection God made between our actions and the consequences. Obedience would bring blessing, and disobedience curses. As we have stated in summarizing previous times when such content was the basis of previous chapters, we know we don’t always receive blessings for obeying God. Much of the New Testament tells us we will suffer for obeying God. Jesus is the greatest example of one who was absolutely obedient to God, yet was crucified as a result. The principle remains true: Obeying God leads to blessing. The difference between the Old Testament understanding of that principle and the New Testament understanding is in the Old Testament God told the people they would receive a “one-for-one” correspondence between obedience and blessing. Obedience would bring blessing every time. In the New Testament we see obedience to God might bring pain in this life, but will always bring blessing or reward in the next life. We don’t always, or often have to wait for the blessings of obedience, because the greatest reward of our obedience to God is a closer relationship with Him. Every time we obey Him regardless of the immediate consequence physically or materially, we will become closer to Him relationally. That relationship will be made perfect only after this life, when we meet Him face to face, but every step of obedience here-and-now, draws us closer in relationship with Him right now.
As we reread John 2, let’s focus on His cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem. John records this event happening at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, while the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) record the event as taking place after Jesus’ Triumphant entry, which means it took place in the last week of Jesus’ life. Does that mean John is wrong, or that the other three are wrong? What if Jesus cleansed the Temple twice? There’s no reason to think He wouldn’t have done it twice. After all, one of Jesus’ purposes in coming was to show the lack of power religion has to save us. The Jewish religious leaders saw their rituals and traditions as the means of pleasing God. They also twisted those rituals and traditions for their own benefit. Jesus told them they had made the Temple “a house of trade.” God’s places and God’s purposes must never be reduced to an opportunity to earn a buck. We are not to “use” God. We belong to Him. We are stewards of all He has given us, and therefore, He gets to use us however He pleases. The good news is God will never “use” us in the sense of taking advantage of us. He will always use us in ways that bring Him glory, but also bring us good. That’s why we must seek Him and His Kingdom first in our lives. As we see from Jesus’ interaction in the Temple, when we misuse God’s places and purposes, Jesus will always stand against that. He will do it at the start of His ministry and at the end. So must we!