Jeremiah 7:11, commentary and pictures

God sees people who steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely and serve other gods, yet enter the house called by His name and claim they are safe to keep doing evil, and by that hypocrisy the house becomes a den of robbers in His sight. Its sacred standing cannot shield persistent wrongdoing from judgment, for safety comes only by amending conduct, doing justice, ceasing to oppress the vulnerable, forsaking idolatry and obeying God. Jesus applied the same charge to the temple courts, where buying and selling, dishonest gain, extortion and inflated charges for offerings had desecrated the house of prayer and displaced reverence with selfish trade. With divine authority He drove out the traders, exposing hidden motives and guilt, displaying righteous anger against apostasy and showing that outward religion must give place to inward cleansing, new moral birth and genuine holiness. The same profanation occurs whenever those entrusted with sacred responsibility transgress God's law for personal advantage, serve mammon while professing to serve God, and turn His house and work into a place of merchandise, whether in the church, in institutions like the publishing house that put commercial work above the truth, or in a world corrupt by love of money and oppression of the poor.

Jeremiah's Temple Rebuke

The question exposes a people who steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely and serve other gods, and then come into the temple and claim that its holiness means they are delivered and safe to keep doing evil. God Himself sees this hypocrisy, for the house called by His name has become a den of robbers when worship is joined to injustice and idolatry. Its sacred status cannot shield persistent wrongdoers from His judgment, and it was never meant to be a refuge for those who continue in wrongdoing.

True security was never found in merely claiming the temple's protection. It depended on amending conduct, practicing justice, stopping oppression of the vulnerable, rejecting idolatry, and obeying God.

The warning meant that the temple and its appointed services could not protect Judah from punishment while wickedness continued. Judah's confidence repeated Israel's earlier mistaken confidence that the ark would guarantee victory even though sin had been allowed to flourish unchecked. As in Eli's time, neglecting to confront evil brought disaster. Sacred things and outward religious observance could not replace repentance and obedience.

Christ Cleanses the Temple

Jesus took up the ancient charge against His own temple courts, where buying and selling had desecrated the sacred place and turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves. Greed and dishonest commerce had profaned God's house, for commercial activity had made it a place of dishonest gain instead of prayer. With commanding authority He drove the traders from it and condemned their misuse of the sacred place.

The corruption was traffic and dishonest gain carried on by traders, money-changers, and priests. Selfishness and extortion ruled there, and dealers' charges for sacrificial offerings robbed the people while their traffic profaned sacred things. Though the temple was dedicated to God, it had been degraded to a place of traffic and extortion, bringing those responsible under divine judgment as answerable before God the Judge.

Money-making had displaced prayer and reverence, and the priests valued the profits of trade above the healing and praise taking place there. The Passover itself had become sacrilegious trade and worship of wealth, repeating the same profanation whenever sacred things are used for worldly profit. A selfish, avaricious spirit ruled while the people professed to be Abraham's children yet refused to follow his example, zealous for outward righteousness and strict for the letter of the law while daily violating its spirit, which forbids hatred and theft, with internal holiness neglected for external appearance.

With authority Christ drove out the traders, saying Take these things hence. His presence and searching gaze exposed hidden motives and guilt, confronting the people as a divine judge. His words exposed the wrong, showing that God sees their hidden motives and that divine love and mercy do not rule out stern justice. Those who reject God's warnings and offers of pardon will face His judgment, when hidden sins are exposed and the light they ignored can no longer help them.

Divinity flashing through humanity caused the priests and rulers to flee as if pursued by an armed band of soldiers or by an offended God. Their flight itself proved His divinity, even as shame drove them to return and challenge His authority. His cleansing displayed God's righteous anger, and together with the blighted fig tree it symbolized the apostate Jewish nation and Jerusalem's coming destruction.

The purifying of the temple illustrates the work that must be accomplished in everyone who would secure eternal life. Although they professed to be Abraham's children and appeared righteous, their selfishness and extortion violated the spirit of God's law and desecrated the temple, exposing the need for inward cleansing and renewal of holiness. What was needed was a new moral birth, a removal of the sins that polluted them and a renewal of true knowledge and genuine holiness. Traditions and useless forms had taken the place of true holiness, corrupting the nation and desecrating its religious rites, proving that not one who fled that day was fitted by grace to be connected with the sacred services of the temple. Religious name and position count for nothing beside purity of character, honesty, and just dealing.

Profaning Sacred Trust Today

The verse reaches those entrusted with important responsibilities and positions of trust who become unfaithful to God's principles. They forget the simplicity of the work, put aside self-denial and sacrifice, indulge selfishness, and follow their own ideas and judgment instead of relying on divine wisdom and power. Their conduct is a breach of the duty owed to God, and its seriousness lies in treating God's work as a means to serve human aims.

Sacred responsibilities do not hide unfaithfulness, for God sees wrongdoing in the place associated with His name. He will not prosper His church while wrongful principles remain its rule. Leaders who ignore messages of correction, remain unmoved, or proudly resist appeals follow their own chosen course and are given over to their perverted imaginations.

God's house becomes a den of thieves and a place of merchandise when His law is transgressed and His cause is betrayed. This is done by those who profess to serve God while really serving mammon, disregarding His express command for personal advantage. They become entangled with transgressors of God's law, view matters in their light, fall into their errors, and sacrifice religion for worldly gain. The same profanation is repeated whenever sacred things are used for worldly profit, as when the temple courts were turned into sacrilegious trade and worship of wealth.

Those who reject God's warnings and offers of pardon will face His judgment, when hidden sins are exposed and the light they ignored can no longer help them. Churches that betray His cause in this way must inquire closely whether they are guilty, because God will visit such unfaithfulness with His judgments and they heap future woe upon themselves.

The image is applied to His publishing institution, including the Review and Herald Office, when printing and circulating stirring appeals for the truth is given little or no attention. Commercial work, some of it of a most objectionable character, assumes supremacy and absorbs the energies, time, talent and money that should be devoted to literature of the purest quality and most elevating character. The work that ought to be done is left undone, while time is wasted, talent misapplied, money misappropriated, and men covet promotion under God's displeasure. Satan's sentiments and theories are printed by presses that should prepare God's truth for circulation, a defiling of the publishing house with consequences even more disastrous than the temple's defilement, so that loss is infinitely better than dishonorable gain.

The den of robbers also describes a world made corrupt by love of display and money. It includes people who profess godliness but take from the poor to serve greed and extravagance. There wealth is gained through fraud and the poor are oppressed so the rich can indulge extravagance or hoard wealth.