Bible Questions Answered:
“Did Jesus have to throw out the
money changers?...”
Kitty/ Fayetteville, Arkansas U.S.A.
Bible Answer:
Bible Texts:
Yes, Jesus stated that
Matthew 21:13 NLT
“...My Temple will be called a house
of prayer,’ but you have
turned it into a den of thieves!”
IRREVERENCE TO THE HOUSE OF GOD:
Old Testament Judgment For
Irreverence:
Leviticus 10:1-3 NLT
1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put
coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over
them. In this way, they disobeyed
The Lord by burning before Him the wrong kind of fire, different than
He had commanded.(Fire
was to be taken from the altar of burnt offering.)
(Incense was to be
offered only upon the golden altar, and by an officiating priest of
the day- Exodus
30:7,8)
2 So fire blazed forth from The
Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before
The Lord. (That is while they
defiantly were in the sanctuary.)
3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This
is what The Lord meant when He said, ‘I will display My holiness
through those who come near Me. I
will display My glory before all the people.’” And Aaron was
silent.
(Aaron, was the father of Nadab and
Abihu.)
New Testament Judgment For
Irreverence For The House Of God:
John 2:13-17 KJV (This cleansing
of the temple was at the beginning of our Lord's public
ministry.)
13 And the Jews' passover was at
hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 And found in the temple those
that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money
sitting:
15 And when He had made a scourge of
small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep,
and the oxen; and poured out the
changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
16 And said unto them that sold
doves, Take these things hence; make not My Father's house an house
of
merchandise.
17 And His disciples remembered that
it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten Me up.
Matthew 21:12-17 NLT (This
cleansing was at the close of our Lord's public ministry.)
12 Jesus entered the Temple and
began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for
sacrifice. He knocked over the
tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.
13 He said to them, “The
Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’
but you have
turned it into a den of thieves!”
14 The blind and the lame came to
Him in the Temple, and He healed them.
15 The leading priests and the
teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even
the children in the Temple shouting,
“Praise God for The Son Of David.” But the leaders were
indignant.
16 They asked Jesus, “Do you hear
what these children are saying?” “Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t
you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught
children and infants to give you praise.’”
17 Then He returned to Bethany,
where He stayed overnight.
Mark 11:15-17 KJV
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and
Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and
bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers,
and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer (permit)
that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them,
Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the
house of prayer? but ye have made it
a den of thieves.
Acts 5:1-11 NLT (Ananias and
Sapphira)
1 But there was a certain man named
Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property.
2 He brought part of the money to
the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s
consent, he kept the rest.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why
have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to The Holy Spirit, and
you kept some of the money for
yourself.
4 The property was yours to sell or
not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also
yours to give away. How could you do
a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!”
5 As soon as Ananias heard these
words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified.
6 Then some young men got up,
wrapped him in a sheet, and took him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife
came in, not knowing what had happened.
8 Peter asked her, “Was this the
price you and your husband received for your land?” “Yes,” she
replied, “that was the price.”
9 And Peter said, “How could the
two of you even think of conspiring to test The Spirit Of The Lord
like this? The young men who buried
your husband are just outside the door, and they will carry you
out, too.”
10 Instantly, she fell to the floor
and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead,
they carried her out and buried her
beside her husband.
11 Great fear gripped the entire
church and everyone else who heard what had happened.
The House Of God
Is To Be Held In Reverence, Because There The Presence Of God Rests:
Exodus 3:5,6 KJV
5 And He said,
Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the
place whereon thou
standest is
holy ground.
(Not observed by Christians, but by Muslims.)
6 Moreover He
said, I am the God of thy father, The God Of Abraham, The God Of
Isaac, and The God Of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was
afraid to look upon God.
Exodus 40:34 KJV
Then a cloud
covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of The Lord
filled the tabernacle.
Leviticus 19:30
KJV
Ye shall keep
my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am The Lord.
Joshua 5:15 KJV
And The Captain
Of The Lord's Host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy
foot; for the place
whereon thou
standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
II Chronicles
5:11-14 NLT
11 Then the
priests left the Holy Place. All the priests who were present had
purified themselves,
whether or not
they were on duty that day.
12 And the
Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and all their
sons and brothers—were
dressed in fine
linen robes and stood at the east side of the altar playing cymbals,
lyres, and harps.
They were
joined by 120 priests who were playing trumpets.
13 The
trumpeters and singers performed together in unison to praise and
give thanks to The Lord.
Accompanied by
trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments, they raised their voices
and praised The Lord with these words: “He is good! His faithful
love endures forever!” At that moment a thick cloud filled the
Temple of The Lord.
14 The priests
could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the
glorious presence of
The Lord filled
the Temple of God.
Psalm 5:7 KJV
But as for me,
I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy
fear will I worship
toward thy holy
temple.
Psalm 89:7 KJV
God is greatly
to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in
reverence of all them that are about Him.
Ecclesiastes 5:1 NLT (Solomon)
As you enter
the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil
to make mindless
offerings to
God.
Habakkuk 2:20
KJV
But The Lord is
in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.
Matthew 18:20
KJV
For where two
or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of
them.
Hebrews 12:28,29
KJV
28 Wherefore we
receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear:
29 For our God
is a consuming fire.
