3. THE TEMPLE CLEARED Mark 11:15-19 (Matthew 21:12-16; Luke 19:45-48) 15 And they come to Jerusalem: and he entered into the temple,--This was on Monday, April 11. This is the second time he enters the temple since reaching Jerusalem. The first was Sunday the day of his triumphal entry. (Verse 11.) On the evening of that day he returned to Bethany and spent the night there. During this entry he only looked around in the temple and saw the abuse of it. But now he enters it for the cleansing that is here recorded. He goes into the temple, not as a worshiper, but as its Lord. The temple of God, or the temple dedicated and devoted to the service of God, was built on Mount Moriah. The first temple was built by Solomon, about 1005 years before Christ. (1 Kings 6.) He was seven years in building it. (1 Kings 6:38.) David, his father, had contemplated the design of building it, and had prepared many materials for it, but was prevented because he had been a man of war. (1 Chronicles 22:1-9; 1 Kings 5:5.) This temple, erected with great magnificence, remained till it was destroyed by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar, five hundred and eighty-four years before Christ. (2 Chronicles 36:6-7; 2 Chronicles 36:19.) and began to cast out them that sold and them that bought in the temple,--In the court of the Gentiles was the temple market, where animals, oil, wine and other things necessary for sacrifices and temple worship were sold. The excuse for allowing this traffic was that it was a convenience for those who came to worship. But what was intended at first for an accommodation became a source of gain and extortion. It was turned into a general traffic and corruption. Jesus cast out both those that sold and them that bought. Those that bought were as guilty of corrupting the temple service as those who bought and sold. From John 2:15 it has been thought that Jesus took a whip and drove those men out. We drive cattle, not men, with whips. The whip was used on the cattle, not on the men. and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers,--Money was required in the three following ways: (1) Freewill offerings (Mark 12:41;Luke 21:1); (2) to purchase materials for offerings; (3) to pay the yearly temple tax of half a shekel due from every male Jew, rich or poor. All this had to be paid in native coin called the temple shekel, which was not generally current. Jews from a distance had to change their Roman, Greek or Eastern money at the stalls of the money-changers, to obtain the coin required. This trade was diverted into fraudulent practices, which were common. and the seats of them that sold the doves;--[After coming into the city, he went into the temple, and there (not in the holy place, but in the outer court, a space surrounding the temple proper, called "the court of the Gentiles"), he found men selling cattle and sheep, doves and pigeons, and changing money.] 16 and he would not suffer that any man should carry a vessel through the temple.--Jesus drove all these animals out and cast all these traffickers out of the temple, overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and would not allow any man to carry a vessel through it. He put out all corruption. Thus should churches be cleansed and so kept. 17 And he taught, and said unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? --"My house," as used and applied here, is the temple which Jesus cleansed. It was God's earthly dwelling place. Instead of making it a house of prayer they had turned it into a house of traffic and fraud. but ye have made it a den of robbers.--This declaration was made by Isaiah. (Isaiah 56:6-8.) In Jeremiah's time the Jews were very corrupt and idolatrous, and, with all their stealing, lying, murder, adultery, and idolatry, they would go to the temple, which was called by God's name, to stand in his presence and say they would be delivered from their enemies. Then God asked: "Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?" (Jeremiah 7:8-11.) They were the same in Jesus' day, and were likewise called by him "thieves and robbers." The temple then, a house of prayer and worship, was a type of the spiritual temple of God today. "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" (1 Corinthians 6:19.) "If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye." (1 Corinthians 3:17.) Through "the deceitfulness of riches" (Matthew 13:22) the spiritual temple of God has been profaned. To make appeals to the flesh and its appetites, pride and vanity in order to "raise money for the church" is to defile the temple of God. It was a corrupt and fraudulent traffic, which a corrupt and fraudulent priesthood had permitted to encroach on the worship of God. The priesthood should have kept the corruption out. So it is today;the eldership should watch and keep all unlawful things out of the church.. 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it,--The teaching of verse 17, and the shouts of the children. (Matthew 21:16.) They did not appreciate his popularity nor his doctrine, so they sought to kill him. and sought how they might destroy him:--They had plotted before to kill him. (John 11:53-57.) Then, as now, how to accomplish it bothered them. This reveals the reason of their artifices to entrap him the next day. (Verses 27-33; Ch. 12.) They realized that their own influence and unlawful gains were endangered by the works, teachings, and influence of Jesus, and they planned to put him out of the way. for they feared him, for all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.--At its matter, manner, authority, and its accompanying exhibition of divine power. "Never man so spake." (John 7:46.) "For he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes." (Matthew 7:29.) He taught with so great power and authority that the people were awed, and were constrained to obey. Cleansing the temple was a sad comment on the priests and scribes for allowing such things. The truth today will stir up the opposing party so that it will use unfair means to kill the influence of the faithful proclaimer of that truth. 19 And every evening he went forth out of the city.--When his teaching and work of the day was done. Probably, he spent the nights in Bethany. (Verse 11.)