#1103. Zeal for your house consumes me (19/7/24)

Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional. Today, we reflect on how The Holy Spirit wants to fill us with zeal for God as Jesus had zeal for God.

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‘His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’’ (‭‭John‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬)

This week, our devotionals have had a theme of getting our hearts right with God. We began the week by reflecting of Jesus’ rebuke to Peter: ‘“…you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’ (Matthew 16:23). Today, we look at Christ who had ‘in mind the concerns of God’ completely and perfectly.

Matthew 16:23

In this chapter of John, we read of Jesus clearing the temple courts of those who were misusing this holy space. John describes the account:

‘When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”’ (John 2:13-16)

John 2:13–16

Seeing Jesus’ zeal for God, they recalled and applied the words of Psalm 69 to Him: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ ‘Zeal’ (zēlos) means, ardent concern, deep earnestness, jealousy, indignation. Jesus’ heart was on fire with jealousy for the glory of God. The misusing of the temple was an affront to the honour of His Father and so He confronted it.

Zeal is like a fire; a fire is wonderful when it’s in the fire place but it’s a terrible thing if it escapes into the house! God wants our zeal to be inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit. We see much misplaced zeal in the gospels - zeal that led to the crucifixion of Christ! Zeal that led to Saul (later to become Paul) leading the crowds in stoning of Stephen (Acts 7). Of Such zeal, the converted Saul, renamed Paul, would write:

‘For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.’ (Romans 10:2)

Romans 10:2

May our zeal be ‘base on knowledge’ and modelled on Christ. Without zeal little gets done. Zeal is like the petrol in a car, without which there is no energy and motion. A church or Christian who has lost zeal becomes stationary and, like Peter, is no longer captivated by the concerns of God but human concerns.

Jesus’ zeal for God’s house, motivated Him to leave heavenly glory, descend to the earth as a man, and die on the cross. His zeal that humans gain restored zeal for the glory of God drove Him to sacrificial love. Likewise, the Spirit wants to put Jesus’ zeal into us - zeal to worship, zeal to build a church for His glory, zeal that those who