It’s funny that I waited till day 68 to talk about the idea of house of prayer. This vision of God is very dear to me and it’s something that I’ve longed for the Church to be for many years.
I want to, first of all, say that it bothers me when people reduce prayer to one of a hundreds aspects of the Christian life. I understand how it can seem that way. There are so many things the Bible calls us to do—read the Word, serve, give, share the gospel, be thankful, sing, care for the poor, and so on.
But prayer is not just one of many Christian duties. Prayer is the very essence of what it’s all about, namely, relationship with God. Prayer is something we will do throughout eternity. It is more than just us talking to God. It’s God talking to us. And it’s more than that! It’s union with God’s heart. It’s feeling what He feels. To pray well is to live well. It’s all connected. Remember that line in the movie Karate Kid—“everything Kung Fu?” Well, we could say, “everything prayer.” Prayer is not just talking to God but it’s awareness of God, it’s being with Him.
What is the house?
The phrase “house of prayer” was used several times in the gospels when Jesus was driving out people and animals from the temple area with a whip of cords. But the term “house of prayer” is rooted in the vision found in the book of Isaiah chapter 56.
So what is it exactly? And why does it matter to us?
When we hear the word “house” we tend to think of a physical structure. It sometimes encompasses the physical brick and mortar space that God’s people gather to worship, but it’s not limited to that. It’s really any place where we gather. It could be under a tree, in a field, in a treehouse, on the side of a mountain. It’s any holy place God manifests Himself. It’s not only geographic locations though. In a very real sense—we are the house. Because God dwells in us through His Spirit.
In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. —Ephesians 2:22
So this vision of God’s house being a house of prayer is really talking about our hearts. That our hearts would be filled with prayer. And, remember, prayer isn’t just one of many little duties we practice. It’s everything. It is God’s passion for His people to be the very dwelling place of God! Take that in for a moment. Seriously, just pause and take it in.
Isaiah 56
In Isaiah 56 the Lord unfolds this beautiful vision of a house of prayer. He starts out by telling us who is going to be part of this glorious thing that He is building. It won’t be only for the elite religious. It won’t be for only Jewish people. It won’t be for only the wealthy. The Lord mentions eunuchs, foreigners and outcasts. What the Lord was saying is that His house would be for everyone. For whosoever is willing to come—every tribe, every nation, every color—every sort of human being. It certainly wouldn’t be a “white man’s religion.”
And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant. —Isaiah 56:6
Think about the 3000 who came to faith when the Church was birthed (Acts 2). They were Jews from all the surrounding nations! And then by Acts 10 the house expands to include Gentiles. Because the vision of God is that the glory of the Lord will cover the entire earth as the waters cover the sea.
What we do
And what will these people from all over the world coming into this house do? A few things are listed. They will love the name (character) of the Lord, they will be servants, they will walk in covenant. But the first thing mentioned is that they will “minister to Him.” Have you ever pondered that phrase? The people who make up this house will make it their aim to please the Lord. They will gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and worship. They will do everything they do as an offering to God.
What God does
And what does God do in this vision of Isaiah? He is the One putting it all together. It was His design from eternity past. In His zeal He establishes this house for the glory of His name.
These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. —Isaiah 56:7
The Lord Himself draws us into this house. He brings us in. What a picture! We don’t awkwardly have to beg to come in like someone not on the guest list might beg to enter a party. Not only are we on the guest list, but we make our entry into the house with the very owner of the house!
Joy
Then the Lord says that He will make this people joyful in His house of prayer. What a promise! God Himself will put joy in our hearts! What God is saying is that our relationship with Him will be marked by joy. Listen. One of the eternal attributes of God is joy. God is a joyful God in a way beyond what we can even imagine. In the house of prayer we are in union with the God of Joy. His joy seeps into us. Peter described it this way:
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. —1 Peter 1:8
Dwelling place
What is the ultimate purpose of this vision of God? What is the house of prayer for? This is a bit of a trick question. Prayer is not a means to some great end. Prayer is the end. Becoming a house of prayer for all nations is precisely the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. That’s what it’s all about. That’s why there’s an earth and a universe. That’s why God made human beings—to become a house of prayer; to become a dwelling place for God. Notice how this is the very first thing mentioned in the description of the future city the redeemed shall dwell in—
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. —Revelation 21:3
This idea is threaded through the entire Bible. This is the eternal purpose of God: to have a people who will be the dwelling place of the Lord. All the outpourings of the Spirit, the times of glory filling the Temple, the presence of God upon the early church, the encounters that men and women had with God—it was all a shadow of the ultimate reality of the full expression of being the dwelling place of God in eternity. This is why we are here. We were made for this exact thing—to know Him and enjoy Him forever.
Why Jesus was mad
Understanding the vision in Isaiah 56 gives us a much better understanding of why Jesus became so angry. He made a whip of cords and drove people out of the temple area. At the time He did that the Holy Spirit was not yet indwelling people yet. So of all places on the earth where one might taste something of this glorious vision of a house of prayer for all nations, it was the Temple in Jerusalem. In the past, the glory of the Lord filled the Temple so powerfully that the priests were unable to even perform their duties!
But in the days of Jesus, this One place where people went to find God had become utterly corrupt. The poor were shut out. The animals people needed to make sacrifices were jacked up in price, taking advantage of people the way service stations overcharge us for an aspirin. The whole scene had become a greedy marketplace. There was no fear of God. Prayers were an empty ritual offensive to the Father.
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers." And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.—Matthew 21:12-14
Zeal for His people
Did you catch that last verse? It almost doesn’t make sense, right? Jesus just drove everyone out. But these blind and lame came to Him. Do you see what Jesus did? Do you see why He was angry? The entire business of religion with all its corruption was keeping at bay those who genuinely wanted to know the Lord. Jesus drives out the hindrances to the Father’s purpose of gathering the outcasts and giving them joy in His house of prayer. Jesus had actually done a similar thing earlier in his ministry, recorded in the Gospel of John and the disciples watched and wondered and Scripture says,
His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." —John 2:17
This is what I want to leave you with today. Jesus has a burning zeal for the establishment of this house of prayer for all nations. He is setting us apart for this very purpose. We have been called out of the world to become a dwelling place of God. Anything that we are attached to that hinders this divine purpose, Christ will drive out. All our idols, all our excuses, all our wrong ways of thinking, all our small views of the kingdom of God, all our pet sins and selfish pride—He will drive it all out! He will not share His glory with anything or anyone. He will not share the throne of our hearts with an idol. He wants all of us.
When Jesus cleansed the Temple the Bible makes it clear that the religious folks were furious. They were deeply offended. They wanted to destroy Him. Their pride swelled up like a great balloon and they stomped away outraged.
And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. —Luke 19:47-48
Poor in spirit
But not everyone was offended. Apparently, the blind and the lame, and others who Jesus might have called the “poor in spirit” came trembling to the Lord. I see them coming to Jesus, perhaps a little sheepishly, with tears, saying, “Jesus, everything you said is true. Lord, have mercy upon us.” And guess what? The Lord had mercy.
There are so many important truths that we can pull out of Isaiah 56 and the accounts of Jesus cleansing the Temple. I hope you continue to meditate on these things throughout your life. My hope is that today you will remember why God made you. You were born to be a dwelling place for the Lord. We are a house of prayer for all nations. There will always be people who reject Christ and stomp away offended. Let’s weep for them and pray for them. But may we be in the company of the poor in spirit who fall before the Lord with reverence and humility and say, “Here I am. Make Your home in me. And be my home.” Amen.