Anchor My Faith

The First Temple Cleansing

Scripture: John 2:15-17

In our previous lesson, Jesus arrives at the temple and finds activities that produce righteous anger and causes him to take action: “And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables” (John 2:15 ESV). This is the first time in which we find Jesus enraged over a public event. Permission given by covetous priests and rulers to use the temple courts as a market place, shows that they care more about worldly business than the spiritual needs of the people. Their love is not for the people under their care, but for what they can gain from them.

Jesus takes action and makes a whip of small cords, an emblem of authority, and also for the purpose of driving from the temple the animals that had been brought there for sale. There is no evidence here of any violence against those selling or exchanging money. It is interesting to note that at the time, Jesus, a single, private, somewhat obscure person, could so easily and quietly cleanse the temple. Clearly the power of God was at work since there was no physical force mounted against him.

As Jesus puts forth effort to cleanse the court of the temple, “he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”’ (John 2:16 ESV). Clearly Jesus is in control and with an authoritative voice, he gives the command to clear out and not make his Father’s house a house of trade. We can be sure that what Jesus did, did not go unnoticed by the covetous priests and rulers, and will result in a later confrontation. In addition to his work of cleansing, referring to the temple as his Father’s house will cause reaction by the Jews.

As Jesus took control of the situation, “His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”’ (John 2:17 ESV). The disciples were thinking about Psalm 69:9, where we find the statement: “zeal for your house has consumed me.” Jesus is consumed with passion for the pure worship of God in designated places of worship. It is with zeal that Jesus makes it clear how important true worship of God is. The zeal demonstrated by Jesus caused these sinful merchants to tremble before him and left without a fight. It is that kind of zeal our Christian leaders of today need. We need to preach a pure gospel with power and authority and if we do sinful people will either become Christian or they will leave the house of God and spend their lives in the consciousness of guilt and the fear of hell.

As a point of interest, how many disciples of Jesus are there with him and who are they? First was Andrew and John. Andrew goes and gets Simon, who Jesus renames to Peter. Jesus then finds Philip and Philip goes and gets Nathanael. These are the only five we have encountered so far on our walk along the gospel path. These are unofficial as the official call will come later in the gospel timeline. If others are there they have not been pointed out to us yet.

Prayer

Father, when Jesus comes to the temple, he sees things happening there that belong someplace else because they are hindering the use the space was designed for. The space being occupied for merchandising was designed for the purpose of prayer and worship by non-Jewish believers. If Jesus were to visit your church, as he did the seven churches of Revelation, what would he find that would displease him. Is the full word of God being preached with power, or are the sermons designed so as to not offend anyone? Do the words we sing truly praise the power and character of God, or do they speak more about us than God. Father, I pray that we would adjust our focus so that true authority and value would return to our churches.