[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
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[00:00:37] Speaker B: All right, so tonight we're going to be looking at the scene where Jesus overturns the tables in the temple and chases out the money changers and those that are selling the animals.
Hey, y'. All.
So we're going to be looking at that. And if you remember from last week, Michael, in his discussion, we spent some time talking about, you know, evidence that we find from other cultures in Cultures of the Day. They kind of help to show that a lot of the things that we're talking about in this class were like real events. They really, they really, you know, they really took place.
You know, we have plenty of evidence to suggest that he began the lead up to what he's going to be talking about next week, which is Elijah and the prophets of baal.
And through his discussion last week, he talked some about the temple of Solomon, the role that Tyre played in helping with the construction of that temple. We're going to be looking at that a little bit more tonight.
And we also last week talked about some of the different pagan gods and goddesses that some of these other cultures held in reverence.
And so like I said, Michael's going to continue that next week. And so while he does that, the weeks in between that, we're going to kind of jump into the future, right into the New Testament and kind of take a look at some of these other stories. So I picked this one because I felt like this one probably tied in the most to some of the stuff that Michael was talking about last week. And so tonight what I wanted to do was, luckily we have four accounts of this story. Each of the gospel gospels have a version of this story.
I think Luke's is the shortest version. John's is the most descriptive.
So John's is going to be the one that we really take a look at.
And so we're going to look at that. I want to look at that. And then we're going to take a. I say a quick historical look. I'll try to go as fast as I can, but I want to take a look at just the evolution of the temple from Solomon through the destruction, the rebuild, and then what was kind of done under Herod. Because understanding the context of the growth of the Temple and the Temple Mount, it helps you understand where Jesus was when he overturned the tables. It helps you to understand, like, what was going on in the first century that caused him to take that action.
And so we also want to look at why Jesus was, like, rightfully angry at the fact that, you know, these guys were in the certain location that they were in, why it was taking place at the temple. And I think that's where we can see them. You know, we call this the mic drop moment, class. That's where we can see those mic drop moments in that action that Jesus takes there in this event.
So here's the first two with Matthew and Mark. So I'll just read through these and then we'll jump over and look at Luke and John. So Matthew, you can find this in chapter 21, verses 12 and 13. It says, Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.
It is written, he said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.
And then Mark's account, this is Mark 11, 15, 18.
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.
And as he taught them, he said, is it not written that my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? That you have made it a den of robbers? And the chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. So we get a little bit more in Mark. And then, like I said, Luke's is going to be the shortest. So this is Luke, chapter 19, verses 45 and 46. It just says, and he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, it is written that my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.
And then the Version that we're really going to focus on tonight is John, chapter 2, verses 13 through 22. We get the most description. And since you'll see that it actually mentions that he makes a whip of cords. Michael started name dropping Indiana Jones last week. So I was like, this is a perfect opportunity.
I have one more Indiana Jones Easter egg that I threw in on another slide. But it's like, if Michael's going to do it, I'm going to start doing it.
All right, so let's read this starting in verse 13.
So the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He drove them out of the temple with the sheep and oxen and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade.
His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
And the Jews said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead. His disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
So that's kind of like. I think that's probably one of the mic drop areas there. Is that the impact that he had, you know, his disciples remembering what he had said earlier, kind of a cool reference that we're going to look at with Herod's temple right here, that it took 46 years to build this temple.
The Temple Mount as it looks today, sort of resembles what it would have looked like in the first century. But that's something that we're going to talk about with Herod is that we don't have a lot of evidence in the Bible about, like, the construction efforts that took place under Herod. Josephus is where we get a lot of that.
So I had to look, I looked at a lot of stuff with Josephus to really find, like, the specifics behind, like, what Herod was actually doing and his reasoning, like, why he wanted to increase the Temple Mount, why he wanted to increase the grandeur of the Temple. And so. But there's A lot of cool Easter eggs, a lot of cool references to the context. And so that's our goal tonight, is to kind of dig behind that. So I feel like I'm talking like an auctioneer really fast, but let's dive in.
I just want to give you some. Just some general information about the temple, just in case, you know, you don't know as much as you would like to know about the progression of the Temple, starting with Solomon and kind of progressing through history.
If you remember back in the wilderness, the tabernacle was the main focal point of worship for the Israelites. And so the tabernacle was the prelude to what would be the temple.
And I've got several. These are really great pictures.
So you can see the tabernacle compared to the temple that was built under Solomon. And so just like the temple, the tabernacle was a sacred structure. It was established by God for the Israelites to use during their 40 year, during their journey in the wilderness. And it served as the central place of worship, and it was the dwelling place of God's presence among his people.
So the design and the function of the tabernacle were specifically and meticulously laid out and detailed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. That's recorded in the book of Exodus. And so the tabernacle is divided into three main areas.
You've got the. This is called the outer court, so this whole section here. And then you've got the holy place and the holy of Holies.
And so priests had full access everywhere. So they could. Except for the holy of holies. So priests could be in the outer court, and they could be in the holy place. Only the high priest could go into the holy of Holies once a year on the day of atonement.
That's the only time that he was allowed in there. And from what I read, ordinary Israelites could enter the outer court of the Tabernacle because this is the space where, you know, they worshiped and sacrificed. And so this is where they would have interactions with the priests. And so they could enter this area, but ordinary Israelites could not go any further. They could not enter into the holy place or the holy of Holies.
And so this was used by the Israelites until, you know, until it was time to construct the temple.
So with the temple being built, we know that David had a desire to build the temple, but.
And he wanted a permanent house for the Lord.
We know that God told him that it wasn't going to be him that built it, but his son instead. And if you remember from the events that take place in the Old Testament, the reason why David was not allowed to build the temple is because he was a man of war, right?
His goal, his mission was to expand the borders, to retake the promised land and establish the city. He established the city of Jerusalem, and then it would be his son, Solomon that took on the construction of the temple. And so, like the tabernacle, the temple was going to be a dwelling place for God, but it was going to be the permanent dwelling place, replacing the portable tabernacle.
And I guess that was another big difference. You guys probably already know this, but again, the tabernacle could be taken apart, packed up, they move, then they recreate it. We. Whereas the temple was meant to be put in place and stay.
So Michael talked last week some about the temple and the construction. He mentioned Tyre. So there was an alliance with Tyre. Solomon formed a partnership with King Hiram of Tyre. And so this was a partnership that provided Solomon craftsmen, skilled craftsmen that could work with wood, cedar wood and other things. They also got cedar wood from Lebanon.
That's noted in 1 Kings 5.
The labor force that was used to build Solomon's temple. There were 30,000 men conscripted for timber work, 70,000 burden bearers. There were 80,000 stone cutters.
And then it was overseen by 3,300 supervisors. And this is all noted in 1 Kings 5, 13, 16.
Just. Just some of the materials that were used. Gold, silver, bronze, precious stones, cedar, cypress, and then Koraid stone.
The dimensions in feet, although the Bible has it in cubits and feet. It was about 90ft long, 30ft wide, 45ft high. The outer court.
It was the large area where people gathered and sacrifices were offered. So you have this area.
I think this one gives a better idea of the outer court.
So that's where your common Israelites could hang out.
Then you have the holy place, which, like the tabernacle had.
Holy place is going to be inside here.
That contained the altar of incense, the table of showbread, the golden lampstands. And then you have the holy of holies, like the tabernacle had, with which was the inner sanctuary where the Ark of the Covenant rested.
And There were also two massive gold cherubim that were 15ft tall. It overshadowed the ark.
The walls were lined with cedar, overlaid with gold, and carved with palm trees, flowers, and cherubim. So that's in 1 Kings 6.
So needless to say, this was like. This was super nice. It was beautiful. It was a grand structure, very expensive.
And I think it speaks to the place that Israel was at at the time.
They were, you know, a superpower.
They were. They were in charge. They were free. They had. They had their own territory. They weren't necessarily having to pay tribute to anybody else. And so we can see that they had a lot of wealth with the ability to build what they built with the temple.
This was cool. The stones were cut and prepared at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel was heard at the temple site. That's noted in 1 Kings 6, 7.
And so it took seven years of construction total for this original temple under Solomon to be constructed and completed.
And we know that it was dedicated by Solomon and that Solomon led a prayer that day. In his prayer, he stands before the altar, he addresses God. He acknowledged his greatness and he asked for his presence in the temple. And he requested that God hear the prayers of the people and forgive their sins when they turn to him.
So we have Solomon's temple. And then again, like I said, here's a diagram. There's like a claymation diagram at the bottom and then the one at the top, right. So keep in mind, like, what this looks like when we take a look at Herod's, like, his grand scheme of things, because it blows my mind how much he blew up that whole area, how much more massive it got.
It's incredible to see.
So we're going to fast forward a couple hundred years. That's easy to do, looking back.
So, and I forgot to mention this, I think I overlooked this, that this construction on this temple was like 10th century. So we're talking like 900-bc so we're going to jump to like 700 or, I'm sorry, 7th century, 600-bc so we're going to fast forward a couple hundred years, Judah. So we've had the division of the kingdom. So we've got the northern, southern kingdoms. So Judah now has become a vassal kingdom to Babylon. So what that means is that they're basically paying taxes or tribute, it's called in the old days, basically paying money. It's like paying off the mob. It's like, here, I'll pay you, like a monthly stipend. You protect us, you won't invade us and you'll leave us alone.
We'll kind of be free for the most part. But if we don't make those payments, then, you know, that's when the trouble starts. And then, you know, Babylon will come knocking at the door.
And so in 601 BC, Jehoiakim, King of Judah, he decides that he doesn't want to pay anymore to Babylon. So he revolts against Babylon, quits paying him. And so the prophet Jeremiah was like, hey, it's probably not the best idea. Jehoiakim does it anyway.
And so during this process, Jehoiakim dies and his son. These names are killer, by the way. Jeconiah takes over. And so in 597 BC the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem and the city surrenders fairly quickly. And Nebuchadnezzar pillages Jerusalem. He deports Jeconiah and other prominent Jews off to Babylon, because that was a popular thing to do. You know, we talked, I think the last time I taught, we talked about how the Assyrians would do that to the places that they conquered. They would just mass deport large groups of people. And so what Nebuchadnezzar did was he put Jeconiah's uncle Zedekiah in as king.
So hopefully I'm through the names for the evening. That was the. This was my toughest slide. Okay, so Zedekiah is placed in as king. And so later Zedekiah. It's like these guys do not learn from history.
Zechariah was encouraged by the Egyptians, who was one of the other superpowers of the time, to launch another revolt. So basically refuse, kind of stand up against Babylon.
And a Babylonian army was sent to retake Jerusalem again. So it's like the same thing just a couple years later. So In July of 587 B.C. the Babylonians took Jerusalem after a 30 month siege.
So they shut that city down for about 30 months.
Their goal was to basically starve the city out. And I know that there were talks of like cannibalism and things because people were so hungry, there was no food in the city, People couldn't get in and out. And so after 30 months, finally Jerusalem surrenders.
This is when Nebuchadnezzar destroys the first temple.
They burn down the city and they take the Jews off to Babylon. Zedekiah tries to escape. You probably remember this part of the story. He was captured near the plains of Jericho. And then when Nebuchadnezzar caught up with him, he was forced to watch the execution of his sons. And his eyes were then put out.
So Babylonians were pretty gruesome, as were the Assyrians that we talked about as well.
So that's sort of like a quick history of Solomon's temple being constructed and then what led to its destruction. So Babylon was responsible for destructing for the destruction of the first temple.
All right, now we get to what will become the second temple under Zerubbabel. And so we're going to fast forward 70 years. So fast forward 70 years, the fall of Babylon has taken place.
So if you ever, you know, if you look at like ancient world history, you know that there's superpowers rise, superpowers fall. And so Babylonians were on top of the world for a while. Now they've fallen off and it's the Persian Empire. Persian Empire conquers the Babylonians.
And so the success of the Persians was due to a guy by the name of Cyrus the Great. And so he's mentioned in the Bible. And so Cyrus the Great gave the Persians control over Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent.
So in the first year of Cyrus reign, it says that the Lord moved his heart. Because if you remember, the Jews have been taken off. They were taken off by the Babylonians in captivity. And so Cyrus issues this thing called the edict of Cyrus. It was a royal decree that in the aftermath of the fall of Babylon, it called for the exiled Jews to be allowed to return back to their homeland.
And with that, they were also going to be allowed to rebuild the temple. Because if you remember from what we just talked about a minute ago, you know, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed that first temple. So moreover, he showed interest in the project, he.
By sending them back with things that the Babylonians had taken with them the first time. So, you know, the Babylonians didn't just burn it, they looted it. Right? They wanted the expensive things that they could take back and show off as trophies. So they loot it, then they burn what's left. And so what Cyrus is doing is allowing these people to return back and take the things that belonged to the first temple with them to be used.
And so he also sent them a considerable sum of money to help them buy building materials. There was like. So through the rebuilding effort, there was some opposition from surrounding people, including the good old Samaritans that we talked about several weeks ago. You know, we talked about how they felt like Mount Gerizim was the actual place that they were supposed to worship. But so they did not agree with the rebuilding of this temple on Mount Moriah.
So there was some delay because of that opposition.
And finally, under the reign of Darius I or Darius I, the rebuilding efforts were renewed. So he's another guy that you'll hear mentioned in the Bible, another Persian king. And so Darius or Darius confirmed Cyrus decree. He provided the resources that they needed to finish the project and complete it. And. And a lot of this is chronicled in the Book of Ezra.
And so the temple was completed in 516 B.C. during the sixth year of Darius reign.
And the second temple was dedicated and marked by sacrifices and a celebration of the Passover.
And I think one thing to note is that the rebuilt temple was less grand than Solomon's. I think it was very hard to find, like, artistic renditions of what they thought the second rebuilt temple looked like. But, I mean, you can tell going from this first temple, what it looked like to now this version. I mean, obviously the Jews are coming from a place of captivity. Obviously, they don't have the wealth that they once had. So, I mean, luckily they had some of the stuff that was given back to them by the Persians, but.
And they were able to take some of the money given to them by the Persians to buy some of the building supplies. But it wasn't as grand, it wasn't as big of a spectacle as it had been under Solomon. And so one thing that I wanted to mention, I don't know if you've. This is just a little side note on Darius, if you've ever.
If you've ever heard of him outside of the Bible.
I was trying to, like, I knew that I'd heard his name somewhere else before, like something else that I was looking at tied to history. And a lot of times we don't. We don't tie these things together, but Darius, or Darius, however you call his name, he was the Persian king that was responsible for trying to invade Greece in 490 B.C. at the battle of Marathon. So I don't know if you've ever heard of the Battle of Marathon, but that's where, like, the Marathon race comes from.
Originated from. The Persians tried to land on the plain of Marathon and invade Greece. And the Greeks were much better soldiers and basically embarrassed the Persian army. They had better equipment, better technology, better fighting style. And so, you know, this is where we have the legend. There was a guy by the name of Pheidippides that ran from the plain of Marathon back to Athens and shouted victory. And then they supposedly he died after doing so because he had ran so much, which is always just a funny story to me. And then while reading all this this week, I came across there's like, a second myth to that, that instead of running to Athens, they think he might have ran to Sparta to try to get help. And then I was like, okay, I don't know. That was the first time I'd heard that one. But he was saying that he ran like 240 miles if he'd gone to Sparta. I was like, man, that's way more than just one marathon. So I don't know. But anyway, that's kind of a cool connection. Like, I didn't realize that Darius I, that was trying to invade Greece was also the guy that was allowing the Jews around the same time to, you know, rebuild their temple. Which is, which is neat. And then Darius, son, Xerxes, he's in the Bible as well. Like, Xerxes is the guy that tried to invade Greece through Thermopylae, where the persians fought the 300 Spartans. And initially they were successful, but eventually the Persians retreated. So it's just, it's really cool to see how history is like, interconnected like this and like how you can use secular sources to kind of back up a lot of the evidence that's in the Bible, kind of tie these things together. It's really cool. Okay, let me make sure that that was everything that I wanted to cover on the rebuild. Okay, so now we have Herod's expansion.
Now I put this graphic up here because I thought this did a lot of justice. So this is the original build of Solomon's temple compared to Herod's temple. And you can already tell just like how much more grand Herod's temple is going to be. But not only did Herod, like, not only did he add to the temple, but he added, like, he fortified this whole area.
From my understanding, the original temple was just this.
This area right in here.
And so Herod took that and said, watch this.
I'm going to expand this and really fortify this area in.
So this is about 500 years after the rebuild under Zerubbabel. So fast forward another 500 years.
And like I said, most of what we have about the renovations that took place under Herod are from Josephus, which was a Jewish historian of the time.
And so according to Josephus, he sort of validates like, why is Herod wanting to. Why is he wanting to do this?
Obviously, one of the things was, is that the temple, I mean, it's 500 years after. So the temple is starting to depreciate, right? It's starting to have some wear and tear. And so it's like, we need to. We don't want to tear it down, but we need to repair it, we need to revitalize it. And so Herod aimed to create this magnificent structure that would serve as a lasting memorial of his reign. This is what Josephus says, and demonstrate his piety. So it's kind of like a win win for Herod because He's like, I care about you guys enough to rebuild, you know, refurbish the temple. We're going to add some new features, but not only does it help you guys, but it helps me look good, you know, in the eyes of history for the rest of time. And so that's one of the reasons why he was motivated to do so.
He was also motivated to.
He was trying to placate the Jewish people.
There were many that were afraid that he was just going to tear it down.
And he was like, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to tear it down. Here's what we're going to do, you know, we're going to refurbish. Here's my plan.
And so that was another reason. And he wanted it to be sort of restored to its original grandeur because like we said, the rebuild after it was destroyed by the Babylonians was not as magnificent as it had been under Solomon. So he wanted to add, you know, add that, that special whatever to it to make it really grand and stand out, probably like what he was seeing.
Because, like, if you've ever seen things that the Romans and the Greeks built, like, you know, they built things, their temples, the things that they like to construct, they wanted those things to stand out as well and to be eye catching. And this definitely was.
So the Temple Mount was roughly doubled in size, creating a vast courtyard area.
So we're going to talk about some of these additions that were added by Herod. One of those areas was the court of the Gentiles.
So that's this whole courtyard area that you see all of this area right here. And so when Jesus overturns the, the tables, when he's chasing out the money changers, when he's getting rid of the animals, it's taking place in the court of the Gentiles in this area.
I don't know specifically where, but somewhere in that courtyard is where that's going down.
This courtyard was open to all nations, so anybody could come in that area, I guess. And that makes sense as to why that, that part of the function of the temple, I guess, was there because they were dealing with a lot of different people coming in and out.
And so this is, like I said, where the money changers were set up and where all those tables were.
Herod had added a court of women.
So I have to use this chart here. All right. I've been practicing this at home. So number nine right in here.
So this was added, the court of women. And I couldn't really find a great A great reason for this, but it was accessible to all Jews, both men and women. So even though it was called the Court of Women, men could go in there too.
I have to do some more research on that one.
There was the Court of Israel, which was specifically a men's court. So this was reserved for Jewish men.
So let's see. 4.
So like in this area was reserved for Jewish men.
The Court of Priests. This is where sacrifices took place and only priests could minister here.
So that's going to be three. I feel like a weatherman right in here.
Maybe I missed my calling.
All right, so the royal portico. So this was an area, this area right here, this long stretch here. So this was added. It was sort of served as a central gathering place for public and commercial activities. And so.
So that's what that was used for. There was the Antonio Fortress, which is over here. It's this castle looking thing off to the right.
This was a citadel that was built by Herod the Great and it was named after his patron, Mark Antony. So another kind of a cool connection to secular history. We know a lot about Mark Antony and Julius Caesar and all of that that went down in Rome.
And I was reading some stuff and they think that maybe this is where Paul, when he was arrested and he was brought to the barracks. Maybe that's where he was brought to. It doesn't specifically say. And then when Jesus was brought in front of Pilate, they think maybe this is where Pilate was stationed. While he was there was in this citadel.
It was constructed so that it could protect the temple. So it was there like, because the temple, like there's all these feasts going on, there's a lot of foot traffic. So there was a need to be like, to have like high visibility. There was by the Romans. And so they think that it was a military headquarters, it was a barracks, and it had Roman soldiers there to maintain order, specifically during the festivals that were taking place.
But this version of the temple here was destroyed in AD 70 by Rome as punishment for the rebellious Jews who had previously revolted against Roman rule. And so the temple was sacked and it was burned during this event. So, so the second destruction of the temple, this was destroyed. Here's a. This was kind of. This was probably my best photo of the week. I finally. I was looking for something like this and I found it. So this is modern, what it looks like today.
And this is what it would have looked like in the first century during the Roman era. And so you can still see that.
You can still see like the actual enclosure types is still there. Dome of the Rock is where the temple would have been and oh yeah, the western wall. So if you've ever been curious, like, where's the western wall?
Like, how does that relate to the temple?
So it's here, sort of in here. So like on the, I'll take you back one screen, my understanding is western wall would have been back here.
So it's really cool.
But, but this really helps, I think, paint a cool picture of what it looks like today compared to what it would have looked like during the time of Jesus.
Now let's get to the meat of our lesson.
We want to talk about why Jesus was so angry at the money changers that he was willing to flip tables, chase them out with a whip.
So we're going to go back to our text that we were looking at earlier, which was John chapter two. I put these up here as well because we're going to talk about the coin exchange that was taking place in the temple. These are just some examples of some Roman coins. And then you've got like an example of a Jewish shekel from around A.D. 66, 67.
So first thing to note is the Passover context. So when we look back at John chapter 2, it's the first in verse 13, the Passover of the Jews was at hand. So it's a busy time. Passover is one of the big festivals, one of the big feasts that the Jews celebrated.
And this was when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are like, you know, submerging, coming into Jerusalem to celebrate. And so the temple, there were really three great feasts of the year.
There was Passover, Pentecost and then something called the Feast of the Tabernacles. And so these were the holiest of events for the Jewish people.
And, and every able bodied man was commanded by law, by the law of Moses to present himself before the Lord in Jerusalem. That's noted all the way back in Deuteronomy, chapter 16.
And so you know, you've got, like I said, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims coming in.
So when these people showed up to the Temple Mount, they needed two things.
Worshipers needed temple currency. When, which would have been something like this that you see over here on the right.
And they couldn't use Roman and Greek coins with images because those were considered to be unclean.
So you'd get there and you'd have to take your coins and you'd have to go see somebody that would, you know, like a foreign exchange market almost where you're switching out you're getting the correct coins that you need so that you can then pay the temple tax that you're supposed to pay and then, you know, go about and do the rest of your ceremonies that you're supposed to partake in.
So you needed a place to change your money out.
And so there was a temple tax that was paid by all Jewish males over the age of 21.
I'm sorry, over the age of 20, and was collected for the upkeep of the temple in Jerusalem.
So this is how they paid for taking care of the temple and for the things that were needed for the feasts and for the celebrations and for the sacrifices and for all the things that were associated with running the temple. And so this was done during the month of Adar, during the Passover. It had to be paid in Jewish coin, which is why I've got that picture up there for you guys to take a look at. And so this meant that those people that are coming from these other far off regions are going to have to come in and then have their money exchanged, especially those that don't live in this area. And so the Money Changers were providing a profitable service.
I think that's putting it lightly to the Jewish worshipers by exchanging Hebrew currency for or for, you know, or exchanging Roman coin for Hebrew currency, which would have not been accepted by the Temple priests. And so we'll talk more about the Money Changers here in a second. So the other thing that you needed, you had to get your money changed out. Second thing you needed was animals for sacrifices. Now, John chapter two specifically mentions, you know, it mentions oxen, sheep and pigeons. And so there were people there that were selling these things.
You could show up and buy these things.
And the journey to Jerusalem for a lot of people was like a long process. It took a while to get there. You had to leave in plenty of time to make sure that you were there on time. And it would have been very difficult to travel with different animals.
Like if you're trying to bring a goat to Jerusalem. I've worked with goats before. They don't listen.
I can remember all of my dealings with goats.
Those guys. Yeah. So I can understand why people are just wanting to buy a goat at the temple.
So, you know, so instead of having to bring a goat or a sheep or cattle or for the poor people, that was a dove to be slaughtered. That would have been very difficult to try to bring, that the selling of animals to be sacrificed at the temple was a lucrative business. It was a central piece of the economy in the temple. And it was again a very profitable business for those that were running the temple. And so those selling animals were providing a service to those who needed it.
If you've ever gone on vacation, you know, you're like, you know what, we're just going to buy groceries when we get there. I mean we all want that ease, right of when we travel. It's like, oh, that's one less thing I've got to try to pack and take. And so that's exactly what was going on here. And so since they, since they didn't have the livestock in tow, they show up, they can buy the sacrificial things that they need. And it's right there at the temple. Like everything's right there at the temple. I can exchange my money, I can get the animals I need, knock out those tasks and we're good to go. The problem with all of this was the corruption.
You probably can see this coming from a mile away.
Money changers, we're charging excessive exchange rates because they want to cut some of the, they want some of that profit. So you know, they're taking more than they're supposed to have. And I've read about like Roman tax collectors for example and you know, they were, they were bad about this, right? Like taking a little more than they needed to cover their kind of help pad their pockets a little bit. So this was not an uncommon practice for the first century. And we can see it right here.
And then also animal sellers were often overcharging pilgrims, but they've got no other choice, right? If you didn't show up with any animals and they're like, you've got to pay this price or you're not going to get the sacrifice. Well, I've got to pay it, I've got to do this, this is something that's required of me. They're going to pay it.
So all of that is going down.
And the priests allowed this, they're profiting from it, the buying and the selling inside the court of the Gentiles.
And we already know that the Jews look down upon the Gentiles as sort of second class citizens. When we look at, you know, just the interactions between Jews and Gentiles. And so it would have been very, I can't imagine the, just the level of noise in the court of the Gentiles. Like if you're there trying to worship and you've got all of this going down, like the sound of the, you know, coins hitting, you've got all these animals, I mean it had to be chaos, especially when you've got hundreds of thousands of people coming in from all different parts of the Roman Empire to celebrate the Passover. And so this commercial system blocked, basically the only space where the Gentiles could pray. Like, this was the only place they were allowed. There was actually a sign in it, and I think it was around this area where you could not go if you were a Gentile, you could not go past a certain point. If so, they could have you put to death.
And so it was. It was, you know, again, this was the only location that they could and were allowed to travel. Travel to Adam. Yes, sir. I understand that in Solomon's temple, Gentiles were not allowed in it at all.
But then when Herod built this one, he made the court of the Gentiles to humor the Romans because they were under Roman rule, and that would kind of keep them satisfied. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, so the mic drop moment, right, what Jesus did. So, like we looked at earlier, Jesus drives out the sellers and the money changers, those that are selling the animals. He overturns the tables and the benches.
He's so fired up that he takes that whip of cords and he gets after these people with it. And in the process, he quotes Isaiah 56,7 saying, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
And so I was thinking about the significance of this specific scripture, and I think it lies in the declaration that God's house will be a house of prayer for all nations. We know that we're on the precipice on the storyline here with Jesus, that we're getting to the point where God's word is not just for the Jews anymore, but it's fixing to be a launching point for Gentiles as well. And so I think that's really cool.
It's extending acceptance to everyone who seeks after God, not just the Jews. It's a prelude to Paul's mission to the Gentiles as well that we're going to see carried out in Acts, which is really neat. And then he quotes Jeremiah 7:11. He says, but you have made it a den of robbers. And I think Jeremiah 7:11 conveys a critical message here about the state of worship in Judah.
I think this reflects God's displeasure as he observes the people's actions, which have transformed the sacred temple into like this den of robbers, where, you know, this place that's supposed to be for worship has now become the site of corruption and injustice because of how business is being done in the Court of the Gentiles. It's, you know, people are engaging in sinful behavior while still claiming to honor God. And so the importance of Jesus actions is that he's trying to restore the temple's purpose.
You know, the temple was meant to be a house of prayer, but instead it's this marketplace and it's a barrier to worship, especially for those that were stuck in the court of the Gentiles.
And like I mentioned earlier, just the amount of noise that was probably in that area would have made it very difficult to focus if you were there trying to worship.
So Jesus wanted to restore it to its true purpose.
He exposes religious hypocrisy. And we talk about what was going on where they're charging more than they really ought to be charging.
The priests were behind this because they're just padding their pockets. And so the priests claim to serve God, but in reality they're profiting off of all of these people coming in and these business practices that they've put in place at the temple. And so Jesus is exposing this corruption as he's taking action. And so this is one of the final confrontations that led to those Jewish leaders plotting, beginning to plot, like how to get rid of Jesus.
We've got to figure out a way to get rid of him, to take him out. And it also foreshadows the judgment on the temple because we know within 40 years in 70 AD that this temple is going to be destroyed anyways. It's going to be taken out by the Romans. And and so then again, we also see that the worship was moving from. It's not about worship in a building, but it's about your heart and it's about how you treat people.
So here's where I think the mic drop moments come in as it relates to Jesus overturning the tables and his actions in the temple that day. So, you know, he exposed religious corruption. We kind of talked about that.
The money changers and the sellers, you know, that was something that was necessary. But again, it had become exploitive to the point where they were just, you know, they were acting sinful by trying to charge too much for what the people needed.
People were being price gouged basically for the things that they needed for worship. And so when Jesus flips those tables, like I said, he's exposing that hypocrisy, that greed.
And it was bold because he was basically calling out the religious establishment of the day, like to do that. Where he did it at the temple, which was the focal point of Jewish religion.
And he fulfilled prophecy by quoting those scriptures, Isaiah 56, 7 and Jeremiah 7:11.
It was a direct challenge to the authority of the day.
The religious leaders, like I said, profited from this temple system that they had put in place.
Rome allowed it, right, because it kept order. And Rome liked order. They didn't like to have to deal with drama. So they were happy that everything was kind of status quo. And so for Jesus to step in and turn things upside down, it was dangerous. The Jews didn't like it, the Romans didn't like it. And it wasn't just about dirty coins on the floor, but it symbolized shaking the very power structure of both the Jewish religion and the Roman Empire of the day. And so that's why the leaders were just, after this takes place, began plotting his death after this goes down.
So I think closing statement, his act was a almost hit that perfectly. His act was a mic drop statement that the old way of sacrifice, of sacrifices and corrupt worship was coming to an end. There was a new covenant on the horizon that was arriving, right? No longer do you need this temple. It's not about a building, but it's about your heart. It's about how you love your neighbor. It's all the things that Jesus was teaching these people. And so I think we can see all of that in his actions that day at the temple. So hopefully you learned something tonight and hope you guys have a great rest of your week. Thank you all.
