From Glory to Glory – Tossing Tables

We are all very familiar with Matthew 21:12, 13. It certainly presents a great visual representation of the passion of Jesus for a pure and unadulterated temple.

¹²Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 

¹³And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

Jesus’ same statement about the state of the Temple is also recorded in Mark 11:17 and Luke 19:46.

A few things of note took place here:

1) Jesus’ righteous anger to cleanse the temple.

2) His declaration about the necessity of prayer.

3) His comparison between a house of prayer and a ‘den of thieves’ based on Jeremiah 7:11.

Jeremiah 7:1-10 emphasizes the idolatry and corrupt moral practices that had crept into God’s Temple instead of it being a true place of holiness, prayer, and worship. This all culminates in v11 pointing out that these practices turn God’s Temple into a ‘den of thieves’.

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ”

³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’

⁵“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor,

⁶if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt,

⁷then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸“Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.

⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,

¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?

¹¹Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.

So, why do we care about this?

Ephesians 2:19-22 tell us:

¹⁹Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,

²¹in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,

²²in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

And, 2Corinthians 6:16-18 tell us:

¹⁶And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” 

¹⁷Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”

¹⁸ “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

We are the temple of God, and, Jesus knows this better than anyone.

He warns us in Matthew 24:12 that prior to His return, “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”

The lawlessness Jesus speaks about here is an internal lawlessness of the heart because He tells us that it affects those who ‘love’ God. Essentially, lawlessness in us.

Now, let’s go back to where Jesus had cleansed the temple. What happened next?

¹⁴Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

So, after the cleansing and throwing out of the temple, THEN those who needed healing came to Him IN the temple. When people are searching, they are looking for hope, truth, and, the reality of God.

2Corinthians 7:1 encourages us, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Remember that Jesus told us that His house is a house of prayer.

Seek Him daily. Spend time with Him in prayer. Take stock of what is truly in your heart.

It’s time for us to honestly, vigorously, and passionately without reservation, throw out all of the tables in our temples so that we are not a ‘den of thieves’ in God’s eyes.

Be encouraged that by doing this, there shall be nothing stopping God from shining forth His glory through us as we can then labour with and for Him.