Wednesday
Evening Bible Study
February 13, 2002
Introduction
Jesus has made His final trip to Jerusalem. He expects to be put to death on a cross.
His trip into the city started on a high note, a time of triumph, with the
people shouting,
(Luke 19:38 KJV) Blessed be the King that cometh in the name
of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
As He got closer to the city, He wept, knowing that this particular day
that He was entering into Jerusalem was the very day prophesied in Daniel 9,
the day that Messiah would be presented to the nation. Even though some in the crowd were calling
Him a king, the leaders of the nation would be rejecting Him.
(Luke 19:42 KJV) Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at
least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are
hid from thine eyes.
Three years earlier, Jesus had made a trip to Jerusalem at the very
beginning of His public ministry. It
was the time of the Passover, and on His visit to Jerusalem, He visited the
temple.
(John 2:13-17 KJV) And the Jews' passover was at hand, and
Jesus went up to Jerusalem, {14} And found in the temple those that sold oxen
and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: {15} And when he had made
a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep,
and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
{16} And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my
Father's house an house of merchandise. {17} And his disciples remembered that
it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
The reforms that Jesus had made on His first ministry trip to Jerusalem
didn’t last.
:45 And he went into the temple
the temple – hieron – a
sacred place, temple; used of the temple at Jerusalem. This word doesn’t just
mean the temple building itself, but the whole grounds of the temple, including
the various courts around the buildings.
Jesus isn’t inside the “holy place”.
He is inside the courtyards of the temple, specifically, in the “court
of the Gentiles”.
:45 and began to cast out them
that sold therein, and them that bought;
began – archomai – to be
the first to do (anything), to begin
them that sold – poleo –
to barter, to sell; sellers
them that bought – agorazo –
to be in the market place, to attend it; to do business there, buy or sell; of
idle people: to haunt the market place, lounge there. In the newer
translations, this phrase isn’t found.
There was quite a racket going on in the temple in those days.
Animal selling
Many of the people coming to the temple would be coming to present
sacrifices to the Lord.
They may be sin offerings, burnt offerings, or peace offerings.
For people who came great distances, it would be much easier to just buy
your sacrificial animal when you got to Jerusalem, rather than taking your
animal from home.
This was even recommended by the Lord:
(Deu 14:24-26 KJV) And if the way be too long for thee, so that
thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the
LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath
blessed thee: {25} Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in
thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose:
{26} And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,
for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy
soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt
rejoice, thou, and thine household,
In addition, the Law required that all sacrificial animals should be
"without blemish", the idea being that you don't give God your second
best.
(Deu 15:21 KJV) And if there be any blemish therein, as if
it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto
the LORD thy God.
With these two things in mind, a small industry was set up, to sell
sacrificial animals to the people.
Animals that did not have any blemishes or defects.
It might have started out as a convenience, even a blessing, to be selling
animals to those who came great distances.
But it went way beyond that.
The priests had a deal set up with the animal sellers and the money
exchangers.
Before it was sacrificed, each animal had to be certified as being “without
blemish”, and the strange thing was that unless you bought your animal from the
sellers in the temple, some kind of blemish could always be found on your
animal.
Of course, animals sold in the temple, being certified as “without blemish”
were much more expensive than comparable animals outside the temple.
The people were being ripped off, and the merchants and the priests were
lining their pockets with the people's money.
Matthew records,
(Mat 21:12 KJV) 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 moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
The mention of doves refers to the poor man's sacrifice.
If you were too poor to sacrifice a sheep or goat, you
could sacrifice doves.
This was God's way of showing that it wasn't a matter of
money to cover your sins, it was a matter of blood sacrifice.
Yet here we find the rip-off artists plying their trade
even on the poor of the land.
Money changing
There were several reasons for the people to be bringing in money.
Some were bringing in their “tithe”, a tenth of their produce, in money,
rather than pay it in grain or livestock.
All were required to pay a temple tax of a half a shekel every year. (Ex. 30:13)
But it wasn’t appropriate to pay money to God’s holy temple with some kind
of pagan coin.
And so there was an industry set up to exchange foreign currency into the
acceptable currency, the temple shekel.
Of course, the exchange rates were high, with the people being ripped off.
Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish historian and cultural expert says that at this
time in history, the priests were netting the equivalent of $300,000 a year in
money exchange alone.
Lesson
Is it wrong to sell things in church?
I don’t believe that this means that we’re never ever supposed to sell
anything at church. The problem comes
when people are ripped off. The problem
comes when people miss the whole point of coming to church, to get in touch
with God.
Lesson
Clean house
We are as individuals, God's Temple
What are we using the temple for?
(1 Cor 6:18-20 KJV) Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth
is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own
body. {19} What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? {20} For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God's.
God has made us individually to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.
I am supposed to be a house of prayer. Is it time to clean house?
But as a church, we are also together a form of God’s Temple.
(1 Cor 3:16-17 KJV) Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? {17} If any man defile the temple
of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye
are.
Here, the word “ye” is plural. Paul is referring to the church when it’s together. God wants our church to be clean.
:46 Saying unto them, It is written,
Jesus doesn’t just blast them without a reason. He is teaching as He cleans.
:46 My house is the house of
prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.
prayer – proseuche –
prayer addressed to God; a place set apart or suited for the offering of prayer
den – spelaion – a
cave, den
thieves – lestes –
a robber, plunderer, freebooter, brigand
Jesus is quoting from two Old Testament passages, the first is,
(Isa 56:1-8 NLT) "Be just and fair to all," says
the LORD. "Do what is right and good, for I am coming soon to rescue you.
{2} Blessed are those who are careful to do this. Blessed are those who honor
my Sabbath days of rest by refusing to work. And blessed are those who keep
themselves from doing wrong. {3} "And my blessings are for Gentiles, too,
when they commit themselves to the LORD. Do not let them think that I consider
them second-class citizens. And my blessings are also for the eunuchs. They are
as much mine as anyone else.
When Moses was given the Law, God said that those who were eunuchs were not
allowed to enter into the temple. (Deut. 23:1).
Most likely this was to prevent the Israelites from copying some of the
weird pagan practices going on around them.
But here we see that God’s heart is for all people, even the eunuchs.
There’s a little bit of a parallel in today’s church. When you are in a church that has a lot of
married people, a single person can feel quite out of place. They can feel as if they don’t fit in
because they’re not married. Not
so. In fact Paul said that it was quite
good to be single because a single person could serve the Lord in the most
completely radical, sold out ways that a married person could not.
(1 Cor 7:32-33 NLT) In everything you do, I want you to be free
from the concerns of this life. An unmarried man can spend his time doing the
Lord's work and thinking how to please him. {33} But a married man can't do
that so well. He has to think about his earthly responsibilities and how to
please his wife.
God was telling Isaiah that one day all kinds of people would be seeking
Him.
{4} For I say this to the
eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy, who choose to do what pleases me and
commit their lives to me: {5} I will give them--in my house, within my walls--a
memorial and a name far greater than the honor they would have received by
having sons and daughters. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It
will never disappear! {6} "I will also bless the Gentiles who commit
themselves to the LORD and serve him and love his name, who worship him and do
not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest, and who have accepted his covenant.
For many of the Jews, the concept of a horrible, filthy, pig-dog heathen
Gentile coming to the Lord was absolutely unthinkable. They considered Gentiles as simply fuel for
the fires of hell.
But God saw a day when Gentiles would be coming to Him.
{7} I will bring them also
to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of
prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple
will be called a house of prayer for all nations. {8} For the Sovereign
LORD, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too,
besides my people Israel."
Where was Jesus when He was casting the moneychangers out of the
temple? He was in the Court of the
Gentiles.
Instead of God’s house being a place for Gentiles to come and pray, it had
become a place that ripped people off.
Lesson
Stay on track
God’s whole heart is for people to come to Him.
Yet sometimes we can tend to do things that would drive people away.
Jesus said they had made it a “den of thieves”. He was quoting from:
(Jer 7:11
KJV) 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.
The temple had become a place where people were being
taken advantage of.
Matthew records that the first thing that happened after Jesus threw out
the money changers was,
(Mat 21:14 KJV) And the blind and the lame came to him in
the temple; and he healed them.
He’s getting the temple temporarily back to where it ought
to be. A place of healing.
Lesson
House of prayer
When Solomon dedicated the temple, it was clear that it was intended to be
a house of prayer. All throughout his prayer of dedication, he kept asking that
God would honor the prayers of His people whenever they called out to Him from
various circumstances.
(1 Ki 8:30 KJV) And hearken thou to the supplication of thy
servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and
hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
In a sense, this can apply to our personal lives, our own “temple”. I should be a place of prayer.
Also, this church should be a “house of prayer”.
I certainly don’t think we have this all mastered. But I’m very, very glad we’re learning.
This is one of the chief ways we connect with God. Prayer.
:47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the
scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,
Jesus would spend much of His last week in the temple, teaching. Luke 20-21 record some of the things He
taught in the temple.
While some of the people had been hailing Jesus as King during His entry
into Jerusalem, the leaders of the people were plotting to put Him to death.
Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and the Jewish leaders felt
that their position was becoming threatened.
(John 11:47-53 KJV) Then gathered the chief priests and the
Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.
{48} If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans
shall come and take away both our place and nation. {49} And one of them, named
Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing
at all, {50} Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die
for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. {51} And this spake he
not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus
should die for that nation; {52} And not for that nation only, but that also he
should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
{53} Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to
death.
:48 And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very
attentive to hear him.
very attentive – ekkremamai –
to hang from
Though the leaders of the nation were plotting to kill Him, the common
people were eagerly coming to Jesus, hanging on every word.