A House of Prayer or a Den of Thieves?

Jesus was a masterful teacher. One of the ways He demonstrated His skill as a teacher was through His ability to say a whole lot with just a few words. Novice speakers often think that the more they talk the more likely they are to change people’s minds. Sometimes that method works, but often saying a little can say a whole lot. No one exemplified this principle better than Jesus.

One example of Jesus’ concise yet powerful preaching occurred when Jesus overthrew the tables in the temple. This event, recorded for us in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, ends with Jesus explaining His sudden and surprising behavior with a short compound sentence. Here he quotes two Old Testament passages: “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Packed into this brief sermon is a stinging rebuke and a warning that would have been all too clear to the leadership of the temple. To fully understand what Jesus is talking about, I want to make a few brief comments on how New Testament authors quote the Old Testament, and then look at each of these phrases in their Old Testament contexts. 

Old Testament Quotations

Obviously, the New Testament frequently quotes or alludes to the Old Testament. This fact has been known for a while. Recent studies in Scripture, however, have explored how it is that the New Testament quotes and alludes to the Old Testament. While it is true that the New Testament treats the Old Testament as an authority, there’s often more going on than a simple citation. Frequently the New Testament writer is assuming a fuller understanding of the passage he is quoting or alluding to. Teasing out the background of the Old Testament text often helps us better understand what the New Testament writer or speaker is doing.

The Jewish people grew up saturated in their Old Testament. They knew the stories, passages, warnings, and prophecies of their Old Testament much more thoroughly than we do today. When the New Testament quotes a Psalm, there’s a chance that was a song the Jewish audience would have known well. When they cite a future prophecy, people who heard it referenced might have been hoping in that prophecy to help them get through a tough time. When Old Testament passages are quoted, the original audience would probably have understood that passage much better than modern readers who at times only know it from its use in the New Testament. 

With this in mind, let’s look at the background of the two passages Jesus here recites. Once we realize where these passages come from, we will see that this was not just two random passages stuck together. This was an intentional combining of important texts that together would have communicated a very clear message to Jerusalem’s leaders.

A House of Prayer

The statement “My house shall be called a house of prayer” comes from Isaiah 56:6-7. This passage looks forward to the day when God will gloriously restore the nation of Israel. This picture of a restored and powerful nation is laid out at the beginning of Isaiah, specifically in the beginning of chapter 2. There Isaiah describes the nations streaming to Jerusalem so that they will hear the law of the Lord. This pictures a time when Israel is finally acknowledged as the people of the one true God, Creator and Ruler of the earth.

This fuzzy picture is then filled in by later passages in the book such as Isaiah 56. In Isaiah 56, God is regathering His people, but not just His people. During the glorious restoration of Israel, the nations will also come into the temple to offer sacrifices and will be accepted by God. This passage told of a time when all the world would come to Jerusalem to pray to God, and Isaiah promised they would be heard and warmly accepted by Him.

No doubt the chief priests and elders would have looked to passages like these as the standard to which they were shooting. And it’s possible they thought they had made it. After all, look at the massive crowd of people streaming in from all over the world! Jews from every nation returning to their homeland, along with curious God-seekers like Cornelius or the Ethiopian eunuch. All the nations were coming! This was, after all, the goal that Isaiah had set up for what the temple was supposed to be.

A Den of Thieves

What about the phrase “a den of thieves”? That little nugget comes from Jeremiah 7:11, part of Jeremiah’s important temple sermon. In this sermon, Jeremiah warns the people of Israel that the destruction by Babylon is coming. False prophets reject this, however, and assure the people that nothing bad will happen to them. After all, they have the temple! God wouldn’t let anything bad happen to the temple. 

Jeremiah confronts wrong thinking by warning that no one is too big to fail. God will bring judgment on His people if they continue in sin. In fact, God tells Israel to remember the devastating losses at Shiloh if they doubt this. There the ark of the covenant was used as a “good luck” symbol and was captured by the Philistines. Now Jeremiah’s contemporaries were essentially doing the same thing, trusting in the house of the Lord as a good luck charm that would keep them from the judgment God told them was coming.

It is in this context that God asks if His temple is really a den of thieves. A den of thieves is, of course, a hideout for criminals where they can be safe after committing crimes. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God asks His people, “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (Jeremiah 7:9-11) 

Israel thought they could rebel against God and that the temple would be a place of refuge from God’s judgment. They thought they could worship idols, break the ten commandments, and ignore the prophet of the Lord but that no matter how bad they were, the temple would keep them safe. God warns that this will not happen. His judgment is coming, and not even the temple will keep them safe when He does. 

A Shocking Analysis

I wonder if the chief priests and elders felt ready for the Messiah to come. I wonder if they looked at the prophecies of a glorious future and thought they had almost arrived. They were delicately balancing Rome and the rabble-rousing populace. The temple had been beautified during the reign of Herod such that even the disciples marveled at the glories of the structure (Mark 13:1). I can just see them looking out over the massive crowd of people swelling into the city and feeling quite proud of what they had accomplished. “Whenever you’re ready, God, we’re ready for you to come down. I think you’re going to like what you see.” I wonder if they saw pilgrims from all over the world and thought to themselves, “It really is a house of prayer for all nations!”

But the Messiah did come and His analysis was quite different. “You are no better than your fathers” He warns the religious elite. He angrily overthrows their carefully planned booths and forbids people who simply want to walk through the temple. He sees the temple, not as a place where true worship is happening, but where sinners are hiding out.

Jesus has combined the ultimate ideal of the temple (a place where all the nations come to seek God) with the ultimate condemnation of the temple (a hideout for people who want to rebel against God). In so doing, He has hinted that maybe this temple will face the same fate as Jeremiah’s temple and be razed to the ground. Remember, the charge on which Jesus was brought up was that He would destroy the temple. Jesus’ short, two-clause sermon warns Israel that, contrary to what they thought, they had not in fact learned their lesson. They were not right with God. The nation was instead barreling toward disaster just as they had been when Babylon was marching toward them.

What is the takeaway for us? What do we have to learn from this? Well, don’t forget that Jesus came to evaluate His people Israel, and Jesus was a firm but fair grader. He looked at His people, and He saw problems, and He warned them to repent or they would perish. They didn’t repent, and the nation perished. 

Jesus still evaluates His people. In Revelation 2-3, we see Jesus who walks among the candlesticks, the churches, evaluating His people to see what they are really like. Some are in great danger, and He warns them to course correct or He will remove them. Some are doing well, and He commends them and encourages them to keep going. Some, like Laodicea, think they are doing well but are not. They view themselves as successful, but He views them as destitute. 

Jesus still evaluates churches and Christians today. He walks among the candlesticks and calls us to repentance and faith through the preaching of His Word. We would do well to be humble, to accept His rebuke and turn while there is still time. Sadly, there are many who, like the religious leaders, think they score quite highly when they don’t. Many will say, “Lord, Lord,” only to be turned away. Many think they are in a house of prayer, when really it is a den of thieves.

 

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Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. This article originally appeared on his Substack.

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Picture is Christ Driving the Merchants from the Temple, by Jacob Jordeans | Public Domain