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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Luke 19:45 - 19:48
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The purging of the Temple:
v. 45. And He went into the Temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought,
v. 46. saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
v. 47. And He taught daily in the Temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy Him,
v. 48. and could not find what they might do; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.
It was on the next morning that Jesus carried out a plan that had occurred to Him the day before, when He had seen the abuses to which the Temple had been put by the people. Since it would have been very inconvenient, in some cases almost impossible, for every Israelite to bring his sacrificial animal from his home to Jerusalem, the Lord permitted those living at a distance to buy their sacrificial beasts and birds in Jerusalem. The consequence was that a thriving business soon developed, which seems to have been controlled by some of the religious leaders themselves, for they were not at all averse to making money. All would have been well if they had held their market somewhere down in the lower town. But the venders had moved up into the neighborhood of the Temple, and finally into its very court. There were the stalls for the oxen, the pens for the sheep and goats, the coops for the doves. There were also the money-counters; for it was necessary to make change. The fact that their methods profaned the courts of the Lord had apparently not entered into the minds of these eager business men. But the Lord made short work of their marketing, of their buying and selling. He began to thrust out the buyers and sellers, reminding them meanwhile of the words of the prophet concerning the fact that the house of God should be considered a house of prayer for all people, Isa_56:7, as Solomon had said in his prayer of dedication. They had converted it into a den of robbers, where the people sat haggling over prices and pocketing excessive profits. It was not only the marketing that profaned the house of the Lord, but also the fact that many of the people came there without true repentance, intending to buy themselves free from the wrath to come with sacrifices. But all sacrifices and prayers that are made with an unrepentant heart are an abomination in the sight of God, a blasphemy of the most holy name of God. But the Lord is the Judge of all such, and will, in the end, pass sentence upon all such as are guilty of hypocrisy. After Jesus had thus purged the Temple, He taught in its halls daily. The leaders of the people, the members of the Sanhedrin, were greatly embittered over His words and works, and they sought for some way of destroying Him. But they were afraid to carry out their murderous designs; they could find no way of approaching Him with an evidently hostile intention. For the common people all together, during these days, were most attentive to hear Him; they hung upon His every word as though they could not get enough of the words of salvation. The word used by Luke describes not only the most careful attention, but also the very great pleasure and gratification that was theirs because they were privileged to hear Jesus. Thus all men should at all times hang upon the Word of eternal life as it has been revealed in the Gospel, for it testifies of the Savior of the world.
Summary
Jesus visits Zacchaeus, the publican, in Jericho, tells the parable of the pounds, enters Jerusalem in triumph, but weeps in the knowledge of the future fate of the city, and purges the Temple.