AT 28
August 28
Matthew 21:10-13. Christ casts the buyers and sellers out of the temple.
When the Son of God entered Jerusalem, where should he go but to his Father's house? He went to the temple. In what a state did he find that sacred place! It shone bright in earthly splendor—it was undefiled by images of wood or stone—it was frequented by crowds of worshipers; but yet it was a den of thieves. In its outermost court, called the court of the Gentiles, there were men engaged in buying and selling beasts and birds for sacrifices, and others in changing money, brought from distant places, into the coin of the country, and in supplying half-shekels for the yearly tribute. This court had been assigned by God to the Gentiles, that all nations might worship him; according to the words of the prophet Isaiah, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." (Isa. 6:7.)
The priests alone were admitted into the temple itself; Jews only into the court that enclosed it; women of the Jewish nation were permitted to enter the next court; and Gentiles into the outermost—that is, those Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel. No such distinctions now exist; for in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, but all are one in him. (Gal. 3:28.) Christ by his death has broken down the middle wall of partition that separated Jew from Gentile, and has made both one. (Eph. 2:14.)
But it was not the animals that defiled the court of the Gentiles so much as the men who sold and bought them, for they were thieves. It is probable that they considered themselves honest men, for it does not appear that they committed those kinds of robberies which are considered disgraceful; but they were thieves in God's sight, for all who make unfair gains, and tell falsehoods when they buy or sell, are counted thieves by him. Such actions were especially offensive to Jesus when committed in his Father's house. To see that holy place converted into a den in which iniquity was committed with impunity, vexed his holy mind. At the beginning of his ministry, three years before, he had driven out the offenders with a scourge of small cords, and now at its close he cleansed the sanctuary a second time.
Though so meek towards those who reviled him, he was ardent in his opposition to wickedness. He is the Judge of all, as well as the Savior of all; and when he comes again he will manifest his hatred against sin. If in the days of his flesh the wicked fled before him, whenever he exerted his divine power, how much more will they tremble when he comes in his glory with all his holy angels! Who will be able to resist when he shall send them forth to gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire!
It is supposed that the buyers and sellers in the temple returned to their wicked practices after the panic was over; but those who are cast out of the heavenly kingdom will never more return to pollute the service of God. Though the gates of the celestial city shall never be shut, yet there shall in no wise enter anything that defiles, neither whatever works abomination, or makes a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Rev. 21:27.)