The Selling Of Doves
Matthew 21:12-13 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13 and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Other parallel verses, John 2: 15-17; mark 11.15-18
And Jesus went into the temple { the house of God or the place of worship, sanctuary } and cast out them that sold and bought in the temple { the sanctuary } The buyer and the seller was thrown out.
……and the seats of them that sold doves { The Dove represents the holy spirit or the anointing }
The anointing is physically represented by oil in scripture.
1.Sam.10:1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance.
Lev.8:1-2
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread
Is it right is it correct to sell the anointing ?
What would Jesus do if he physically visited the church today?
The Church, senior pastors need to go back to the word of God; should it not be our guideline in what we do in the church and in life?
Is there a difference in selling the anointing oil in a bottle and Simon the sorcerer trying to buy the anointing.?
Acts.8:18-19
18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
19 saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
The anointing is a free give from God, we may say that we paid the price in prayer and fasting, but God gives it to us freely without financial charge.
7 And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
When we start to bottle the anointing to sell as merchandise I do not believe this is pleasing God.
Especially as we are selling it to our own congregation we are Pastoring.
And MANY shall follow their pernicious [lascivious, licentious, wanton] ways; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness [greed, lust] shall they with feigned words MAKE MERCHANDISE OF YOU" (II Pet. 2:1-3). Other translations:
"Motivated by greed, they will exploit you with their counterfeit arguments" (Berkely Version).
"…in their lust they will exploit you with cunning arguments" (Moffatt Translation).
"In their greed for MONEY they will trade on your credulity with sheer fabrications"`(The New English Bible).
I am not for one minute saying this is deliberately being done, but just an over site and needs to be looked at again more thoroughly. Are some pastors ignorant about selling anointing oil or are they aware what they are doing?
These scriptures may seem strong but when we consider what we are asking the congregation to part take in …let’s go back to the word of God
* We state to the people that the power is in the oil,
* We tell the people that the anointing is in the oil and
* That they will be heal by the oil and that they can anoint their homes with the oil.
Are they not trading Gods power for money ?
And is this not extortion and exploitation ?
….Freely you have freely you give.
The anointing is not for sale, healing is not for sale, it is God given.
This clearly reflects on the congregation as many do not understand that they should not be paying for this.
Their maybe some that have their doubts but will not say anything because of the esteem in which they hold their leaders, or maybe that they will be ostracized.
Jesus throw out those that BOUGHT and SOLD, the buyer and the seller was thrown out.
The Pastor and the congregation are both misguided.
Sadly for those who are healed by the oil, will know doubt believe that this justifies the purchase of the oil and the selling of it.
Mathew 7:21-23
| 21 |
¶ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. |
| 22 |
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works? |
| 23 | And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. |
This is quite a different issue than holiness. Just because an ancient Israelite was in a state of no sin did not mean that his or her heart (temperament, disposition, habits) was godly. The word "iniquity" ('avon in Hebrew) is used to express how a human heart is not holy--not set apart, not perfect, not godly
The Torah speaks of a "sin offering" but never an offering to remove iniquity. The Torah speaks of "bearing iniquity" but never "bearing sin". They are clearly quite different concepts, even though our modern English has improperly slurred them together. { quote Shema Yisrael ]
A prophet will speak to many of us but we must 'try the spirits ' does it line up to the word of God.
Did you take what they said out of context.
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
I remember some years ago I asked the congregation I was preaching in, to bring in a bottle of olive oil and that I would bless the oil for them to take home and use. I was pulled down by the Pastor of the church for doing something different whilst he was away.
So in conclusion asking our members to buy a bottle of olive oil from the chemist and praying
over it is the simple but right thing to do.
Sadly some will choose to look for a quick buck and as the credit crunch bites many more will be looking at ways to squeeze even more money out of their members.
St'Claver
