Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders in Matthew 21, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” What is he talking about here?
Well, some have argued that this means you should not have a book stall, or coffee shop at Church. But this is talking about something much more profound than that. Jesus is saying that the religious leaders of his day had turned his Father’s house into a corrupt business precinct that was being overtaken by thieving merchants, money lenders/money changers, and other corrupt people. They were taking advantage of people who were coming to worship God at his Father’s house, the temple in Jerusalem.
But he was also talking prophetically here. He was also talking about what would happen in the days when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Jesus is prophesying who would take over the temple. Here is an extended quote from Josephus’ book The Wars of the Jews, that helps explain this:
When Jesus said his father’s house had become a den of robbers, he was being very literal. That is exactly what had begun to happen already in his day, probably before it really. And this culminated in the temple becoming an open den of an actual band of roving thieves who were some of the main antagonists in the Wars of the Jews against Rome. These thieves took over the temple because it was the most secure fortress in Jerusalem. And in doing so they brought into the house of God “so many abominations.”
Many Christians just assume the abomination of desolation was the Roman’s marching up on Jerusalem. But they are incorrect. The abomination of desolation began with the revolutionaries of Israel who defiled the temple. The high priest, who was also a revolutionary, tried to stop them, so did many of the other people of Jerusalem. But they were not able to. The Romans of course played their part by utterly destroying the temple once they had beaten the revolutionaries.
But the abomination began when God’s own people allowed themselves to become corrupted. Let the Church understand the lesson for us today, as we are now the temple of God.
“19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19).
