There is an event recorded in all four gospels, which most indicate occurred during the week that Jesus was crucified. During that week of Passover, Jesus cleansed the temple in Jerusalem. He tore the place up. He even used a whip of cords to drive out the religious exploiters, and their animals, as well. In short, He went on a rampage during the most crowded and busiest time of the year for temple activity. People from all over the world would have come to the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover. It is thought that this cleansing took place in the outer most court of the temple grounds, the court of the Gentiles, which is logical, but scripture does not specify this.
Jesus never minced words when dealing with the religious and their total and deliberate misunderstanding of the kingdom of God. They also taught this same misunderstanding to others:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves."
Mt. 23:15
However, His actions on this day rose to a whole different level. I have often wondered why Jesus became so violent about the situation, and I thought I must be missing something deeper in these accounts. I can start my search by looking at an amalgamation of this event from the four gospels:
"Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables (meaning banquet, feast, place for consecrated loaves) of the money changers and the seats (meaning exalted seat of rank for teachers and judges) of those who sold oxen and sheep and doves. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen. And He would not allow anyone to carry (move) wares (vessels) through the temple. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise." And He said to them, "It is Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations (see also Isa. 56:7), but you have made it a den of thieves (see also Jer. 7:9-11)." Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him but were unable to do anything, because all the people were astonished at His teaching, were very attentive to hear Him."
Mt. 21:12-14, Mk. 11:15-18, Lk. 19:45-48, Jn. 2:13-16*
His actions fulfilled several prophetic scriptures (Ps. 69:9, Jer. 7:9-11, Isa. 56:7). In the one gospel account in Matthew, children began to sing and declare that Jesus was the one who comes in the name of the LORD, which also angered the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus' identity of Messiah was revealed through His action. He also took the occasion to declare that if they destroy this temple, in three days He would raise it up again. After He was raised from the dead, Christ's disciples remembered Him saying this and concluded that He was referring to His own resurrection (Jn. 2:18-19, 22). These are all important points. To me there is yet even more to the story.
If we go back and look at the beginning of the temple, we can learn more. The house of God originated in a covenant promise made to King David:
"When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows (stripes, to smite, to strike) of the sons of men." 2 Sam. 7:12-14
The purpose of building the temple was to house the name of God. Both the Hebrew word for house, and the second letter of the Hebrew aleph-beth which also means "house", not only mean a physical building, but a "name". It is a place to be "within", and to abide. It incorporates all of the generations of a family that came before, and all of the generations that will come in the future. We know that David's son, Solomon, actually built the physical temple, which fulfills this prophecy in part, but the Son of David who really builds the house for His Father's name, is King forever. This would refer to the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus. Though Jesus did not commit iniquity, as mentioned here, He was made to be sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), and He was indeed stricken, and striped by the whip as a result. So we can understand that Jesus established a temple for His Father's name. To me, His statement "Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up", not only referred to the raising of His physical body, but He was also declaring that His resurrection would establish a spiritual temple for His Father's name. We are that living temple. When He was raised, we were raised with Him (Col. 2:12). As we know, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are that temple that was established and raised up by Jesus after three days. Even as the Spirit and the glory of God filled the natural temple so that the priests could not enter or stand to minister, we, as the temple of God's name, also have been filled with that same Holy Spirit and glory (Jn. 17:5, 22, 24, 1 Cor. 3:16).
This temple that the son/Son of David would build for the Name of God, would be a very special place: both the natural temple, and the spiritual temple, which we are. Part of the prayer of Solomon upon the dedication of the newly built temple was the following:
"Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place. Now, therefore, arise, O LORD God to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness." 2 Chron. 6:41, 1 Ki. 8:29
The prayers that would be said toward and in the temple of the Name of God, would be miraculous prayers. These prayers and supplications would result in forgiveness and restoration, teaching and rain (including spiritual rain) in times of drought, deliverance from famine, pestilence, plague, sickness, victory against the enemy, forgiveness of the sin that has led to captivity, and favor and mercy from captors, repentance that restores the soul and body (1 Ki. 8:30, 33, 34,35-36, 37, 44,46-47). Even the prayers and supplications of foreigners and strangers who are not Israel can be heard by God in this temple (v. 41-43). The Hebrew root word for "temple" means to prevail, overcome, endure, have power/ability, to gain or accomplish, to attain.
One gospel account of the cleansing of the temple said that immediately afterwards, Jesus did miraculous healings in the temple. Jesus cleansed the natural temple, and the spiritual temple, which is us. He violently drove out those things and beings that defiled the holy temple to His Father's Name. He drove out the sitting (immovable, a place occupied, a fixed abode) money changers (to cut into small pieces, to sheer a sheep), those who bartered and sold oxen (to feed, Christian teachers promoting the spiritual welfare of the members of the church, to seek, to enquire, to consider, to reflect, to make search), sheep (flocks, multitudes, to walk forward, ago, prior before, extreme age: eternal things), and doves (gentle, effervescent wine: Holy Spirit). He drove out the defilers that sought to be seated in, to possess, and to buy and sell, to trade the precious things of God, and the precious people of God. He also drove out those who had been dedicated to God, but had allowed themselves to be bartered, bought, sold, and traded by men, and by the wrathful (root-given up to the love of money: see Rev. 12:17)) powers of the world.
No wonder Jesus became so violent in His zeal for His Father's house. We are His Father's living house, the house of the Father's Name: Yeshua, God of salvation, and the Name of His Son, Jesus, Who has been given a Name that is higher than any name. We are the house that the Son of David built out of His death and resurrection. We are the house of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God, the house of miraculous, life-changing prayers
of supernatural deliverance in the Names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
"...Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." Eph. 2:20-22
We need to understand the importance of this. The world needs the cleansed, living, praying temple of God now more than ever.
Our Father has built a house for His Name, hakal HaShem.
*The account of the cleansing of the temple in Jn. 2 does not specify that it occurred during the week of crucifixion.
"PRAY!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC4kbteMLCg&sns=em
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