HOLIDAY HOUSE CLEANING

Our Tuesday morning ladies’ Bible study group encountered a fascinating little vignette in Nehemiah 13:1-9. Due to ignorance, the priest of God’s Temple had allowed one of God’s enemies, Tobiah the Ammonite, to use a room in the Temple for his personal storage unit (like a mini-storage unit!) The priest was related to this enemy by marriage (another ignorant violation of God’s Law), and had created a storage space for his stuff in one of the rooms that was meant to store provisions for the priests and Levites, who ministered in God’s holy name. Our narrator and protagonist, Nehemiah, had been out of the country on state business when this oversight occurred.  When he returned and found a Temple room being used as a storage unit for God’s enemies, he threw out Tobiah’s household goods and reinstated the sacred room as a storage place for the offerings and articles of ministry used in the Temple worship of God.

It got me to thinking about our own bodies, which are “the Temple of the Holy Spirit”. (1 Corinthians 3:16) Each room is supposed to be dedicated to the Lord, holy for His use, and for carrying out the sacred tasks of ministry given to us.  But, how often, out of ignorance or wrong associations, do we allow our rooms to be “rented out” to God’s enemies.  We find ourselves storing the household goods of the enemy, the ottoman of unforgiveness, the divan of deception, the end table of envy, the vase of vengeance. As we celebrate the Advent of Christ, it is an ideal time to follow Nehemiah’s example and throw out all the household articles of the enemy and restore our rooms to places where sacred articles dwell: the jewel box of joy, the paintings of peace, the lounge chair of love, the quilt of kindness.  May this Christmas season find each of us with rooms cleaned out for the holiday, made holy and sweet and fragrant with the aroma of Christ and love, a place that will welcome Christ and other people in His name!

--Posted by Mama O.