Why should we be bothered to look at this subject? Well, as I said, these two events are recorded in each of the gospels, so they must be important. But isn’t this a Jewish matter, since we are talking about the Temple? Don’t we often say that Israel is not the Church, and therefore the Temple is not church-related? That may be true, but worship and prayer are things not confined to the Jews. While the Temple and the House of God may not intersect, they do run parallel to one another. And the problems which Christ addresses in the Temple have their parallel in God’s assembly.
What can we learn from looking at that Temple?
In the summary of Christ’s life which we call the Synoptic Gospels, the cleansing of the Temple was linked to the so-called “Triumphal Entry” with the simple conjunction “and.” What that suggests is that Jesus entered the Eastern Gate and then directed His ride toward the Temple. Maybe this was where some of His tag-along followers fell off the band-wagon. Christ didn’t head towards the palace of the High Priest to dethrone that religious hypocrite. And He didn’t go up to either the home of Pilate or Herod. This was not a political take-over, nor was it a merely religious thing. Once again Christ is reaching down into the very heart of Israel’s problem – our problem. This is about man’s broken relationship with Jehovah.
By the time of Christ, the Temple had evolved somewhat – both properly and improperly. The Temple itself was essentially the same as it had been when Solomon built the first building. There was the Holy of Holies in the shape of a perfect cube. It had three walls, a floor and a ceiling of beautiful stone. But the Holy of Holies was separated from the Holy place by a massive curtain. That curtain was what God tore in half from the top to the bottom at the moment Christ died. The Holy Place was exactly twice as long as the Holy of Holies. Properly approved priests could carry out a variety of services in the Holy Place, but the Holy of Holies was visited only once a year by the High Priest. On the Day of Atonement the High Priest could enter behind the veil with the proper blood and incense. These two rooms encompassed the Temple proper. Immediately surrounding the Temple there was an area called the Court of the Priests, extending primarily out in front towards the east. In this court was the Great Altar, formerly known as the Brazen Altar. So this is where all the work of the sacrifice was carried out. Surrounding the Court of the Priests was the Court of Israel, where the men of the nation could come, bringing their sacrifices to the priests. Then to the east of all this was the Court of the Women – often called “the Treasury.” It was about the size of all the rest of Temple Grounds combined. This was where Christ observed the widow dropping her two mites into the offering box. This was where the woman taken in adultery was brought to the Lord for judgment. Surrounding all of this was an area into which the Gentiles could go – the Court of the Gentiles. Generally speaking, the Romans and unconverted Greeks would have no desire to be any where near the Temple. This court was not for them, but for the Gentile proselytes.
By Jesus’ day, the Court of the Gentiles had become a kind of religious market place. Worshipers, rather than bringing their offerings from home, could come to the Court of Gentiles and buy any of the clean animals called for by the law. The doves were specifically approved for people of limited income, but I have little doubt that this was the most often purchased offering. There were booths and stalls and small corrals scattered all around the court. I can just imagine hucksters and salesmen, calling out and advertising their particular animals. It was probably a chaos and cacophony. There were also tables set up for money laundering – “for exchange.” I’m sure that dropping Roman, Greek or other foreign currency into the Lord’s treasury was considered sacrilegious and sinful, so the foreign Jews had to trade for shekels before they could give their gifts. You can be sure that there was a foreign exchange fee for every one of those transactions. John Gill spent a great of time suggesting that the Temple tax was due during the Passover season. And if you’ll remember, it was an half shekel per man. He suggested that when a man had to break his shekel into a half shekel there were people willing to do that – again for a fee. Apparently there was a lot of hustle and bustle – business hustle and bustle – around the court of the Gentiles. And Christ was appalled.
How did this one man, even with the help of His disciples, cast all those merchants out of the temple grounds? We are told that on the earlier occasion the meek and mild Saviour made a scourge – a whip. Apparently he beat a few of the more stubborn tradesmen out of the area. Or perhaps he threatened the livestock and the owners left, chasing after their sheep and goats. None of the Synoptics mention a whip, so perhaps on this occasion one wasn’t used. But, oh, what an uproar there was when He upturned the tables with the banker’s cash boxes on them. Where were the temple guards in all of this commotion? There is a curious word found in Mark and Luke which says that Jesus “began” to cast out those religious merchants. Does that mean that the guards eventually stopped Him? I don’t know.
But what is the significance of this temple cleansing?
“He said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Once again this is a combined reference to two Old Testament statements. In Isaiah 56:7 God calls the Temple His “house of prayer.” But Jeremiah describes circumstances more similar to those of Jesus’ day. Jeremiah 7:8 – “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.”
It’s kind of interesting that Christ didn’t go on in the context of Jeremiah, because it could have lead into another lesson on the upcoming judgment of the Great Tribulation. God said– “But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.” Shiloh was one of the first camps of Israel after their entry into the Promised Land. It was there that the Tabernacle had been set up. But Shiloh became a coven of idolatry and sin – eventually judged by God. Jeremiah tells Israel to learn from what happened at Shiloh and recognize that it was being repeated in Jerusalem and in Solomon’s great temple. Then Christ “said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” You can be sure that judgment is again going to fall on the nation of Israel and her corrupted place of worship.
When Jesus said that the Temple of God had become “a den of thieves.” – Did He mean that literally? Do you suppose that those merchants and bankers were charging exorbitant fees for their services? Do you suppose that they were “ripping off” those people who couldn’t bring their own sacrifices and who didn’t have Israeli currency? I don’t doubt that for a moment and that the High Priest was taking a cut of the profits. But was that the real problem or was it only a symptom? “He said unto them …My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
There are religious organizations, calling themselves “churches,” which are making fortunes for their CEO– through television contracts, book-publishing deals and international speaking engagements. There are churches whose ministries are nothing but a cover for their merchandising and profit-taking. There are replicas of Herod’s Temple in the world today – they are dens of thieves. But at the same time there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of churches which don’t sell even pencils with their names on them, but which have ceased to be what God originally intended them to be. There are churches which freely send their services around the world through DVDs and live internet feeds, but which are so filled with themselves that they are of no use to God. They are so interested in the edges and peripherals of the Lord’s temple that they can’t be bothered with the Holy Place or entering into the Holy of Holies. They use the Temple as the place to bring the sinners that they have found – in order to have them condemned by Christ – not for salvation. They stand around after putting their silver and gold into the offering box laughing at the poor widows who have nothing but pennies and mites to drop in. They find no satisfaction in Bible exposition unless it relates to their own pet doctrine – attacking the Romans or the Sadducees, or conversely, attacking the Pharisees. Yes, indeed the Temple of God had been turned into a den of thieves. But that was only a symptom of the greater problem – the empty, vacant worship of the people.
I am afraid that we can do the same sort of thing today. We can sing the songs of Zion without connecting to the words or the spirit in which they were written. We can enter the presence of the Lord joylessly, condemningly, selfishly. We can wish that the worship portion of the service was shorter – four hymns and only three verses of each hymn. “Let’s get this over quickly so that I can get home. And those longer prayers – what’s the point; I’m getting tired and dizzy standing here. God will take care of those people whom He loves anyway, why mention their names right now. And besides, maybe those people are suffering under the judgment of God.” Then when the text is announced and the scripture is read, since our favorite sin isn’t in the context, we have no interest in it. Some people are quite adept at staring at the preacher without revealing the fact that they aren’t listening. Others show their contempt for the things of God by not even pretending to listen. “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
The Lord’s comment may have been originally uttered about the Temple in Jerusalem, but I’m sure that if He was in the world today, He would be saying the same sort of thing over and over again. We need to learn to leave the problems of our lives at home as best we can when we come to the House of God. We need to relinquish our agendas, confessing that this is God’s temple – not ours. We must let the Holy Spirit control what goes on here, not inserting our will. And our sins of pride, jealousy, animosity, greed and all the rest – need to be beaten down again and again when we come into Jehovah’s presence. Our focus must be upon the Lord; our purpose ought to be on worship. Our purpose should be summarized with Jesus’ words – “My house shall be called the house of prayer.”