Mark 11:17, commentary and pictures

God set apart His temple as a sacred house for prayer and worship, not for merchandise, traffic or personal gain. Its call to all nations meant its worship was universal, welcoming Gentiles who joined themselves to the Lord, served Him, loved His name, kept the Sabbath and held fast to His covenant to have their offerings accepted and hear truth taught. Its courts had been turned into a noisy, disorderly market for animals and doves and money-changing, where exorbitant prices were exacted and priests, rulers and traders enriched themselves until greed made them thieves and robbers in God's sight. Jesus asserted His divine authority and judgeship over the temple, and with majesty and power rebuked them, overthrew tables and seats, stopped the traffic and drove out buyers, sellers, moneychangers, priests and rulers. That cleansing announced His mission to cleanse the heart from sin, selfish desire and evil habit, for the unholy traffic pictures a heart defiled and made a den of thieves when it rejects His mercy. It also foreshadowed judgment, joined to the blighting of the barren fig tree as a symbol of the ruin of the Jewish nation and of the last day, and it requires the same cleansing of the body temple defiled by tobacco, of worship defiled by display and commerce, and of schools, publishing houses and other institutions devoted to gain.

Temple's Intended Purpose

The temple is God's own sacred house, set apart for prayer and worship, not for merchandise, traffic, or personal gain. Buying and selling, money exchange, and dishonest gain had turned its court into a desecrated place like a cattle market, where sacred things were treated as having no sacredness and exploitation made the traffickers no better than thieves and robbers in God's sight. His words exposed their guilt and asserted His divine authority and judgeship over the temple, and He drove out those who profaned it and commanded them to leave, showing that love and mercy do not set aside stern justice.

The words of all nations declare that its purpose was universal and not limited to Israel. People from other nations who joined themselves to the Lord, served Him, loved His name, kept the Sabbath, and held fast to His covenant were to be welcomed there and to have their offerings accepted. Christ taught in its outer court so that Gentiles could hear the words of truth.

The sacrificial service of the temple was meant to point people to the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, but commercial use for gain obscured that purpose. Greed made its leaders thieves in God's sight, and heartless religious service is warned against when it is put in place of repentance and obedience.

Desecration and Cleansing

The courts meant for prayer had become a noisy, disorderly market, like a cattle market and like an ordinary market day. Buying and selling of sacrificial animals and doves went on there, with money-changing, exchange of produce, and clamoring crowds. Sacred things were treated as if they had no sacredness, while greed and avarice flourished in the place of worship.

The traffic was extortionate and corrupt, with exorbitant prices exacted for beasts for sacrifice and for other offerings. Priests, rulers and traders enriched themselves from the sale and exchange, turning religious office into a means of gain. Their greed made them thieves and robbers in God's sight, and their commercial use of the sacrificial service obscured its purpose.

The noise, confusion and animal sounds disturbed worshipers and drowned out their prayers, so the sacred place was unlike a house of prayer. Jesus exposed their guilt by His words and asserted His divine authority and judgeship over the temple as God's house. With majesty and power He rebuked them and commanded the traders to leave, overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. He stopped the traffic and drove out buyers, sellers, moneychangers, priests and rulers, and they fled from Him.

The crowd felt as standing before God's judgment, and the priests and rulers felt by His majesty and power that He was no ordinary man. His stern justice in cleansing did not set aside His love and mercy. His presence made the temple holy, silencing its noise and filling those present with awe.

Judgment on Israel and Last Days

The driving out of buyers and sellers from the courts, joined to the blighting of the barren fig tree, was a symbol of the future punishment and ruin of the Jewish nation and of Jerusalem. Its doom was to be as sudden and certain as that of the fig tree, coming upon it for wickedness and impenitence, for corrupting the people by false principles as representative men of the nation, and for rejecting warnings. The temple had been desecrated by dishonest trading turned into a den of thieves instead of a house of prayer, and Christ's command to remove the traders displayed divine authority before priests and traffickers who fled from Him. That condemnation of the leaders as hypocrites and robbers for corrupting true worship made their flight itself a symbol of the dispersion of the Jewish nation.

The leafy fig tree with appearance but without fruit represents outward religion hiding hypocrisy, selfishness, and oppression. The same warning applies to professed Christians who claim godliness but bless no one through good works. The corruption of the courts by unholy traffic and confusion also pictures a rebellious heart made a den of thieves when desecrated by sin through rejecting Christ's mercy and persisting in disobedience, so that one purchased by Christ's death becomes like the withered fig tree under God's judgment.

His words exposing guilt and asserting authority over the sacred temple made His presence make the temple holy, and His judgment there foreshadowed the judgment of the last day. His cleansing of the temple at both the beginning and the close of His ministry exposed sacrilegious trade and profit, with divine authority shining through humanity and His command to remove the trade foreshadowing the voice of judgment. It points to a final warning that those who reject God's messages and offers of pardon will face solemn judgment, like the unready who have no oil of grace and cannot join the procession to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The cleansing at the beginning of public ministry and again near its end illustrates the final work of warning the world, a call to the churches through the second angel's message and a heavenly call for God's people to come out of Babylon because of her sins.

Christ and True Worship

The driving of buyers and sellers from the courts announced a mission to cleanse the heart from sin, selfish desires, sinful thoughts and evil habits. The Jerusalem temple was meant to witness to the high destiny open to every soul, but unholy traffic and confusion made its courts represent a heart defiled by sinful desires and thoughts. That corruption pictures a rebellious heart made a den of thieves when mercy is rejected and disobedience is persisted in, and one purchased by Christ's death then becomes like the withered fig tree under God's judgment.

Heartless religious service cannot take the place of repentance and obedience, for commercial use of the sacrificial service obscured its purpose to point people to the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. Those who profess to serve God while setting aside His express command to gain advantage for themselves are really serving mammon, keeping only a form of piety while giving the mind to temporal pursuits. Such profaning of God's house of prayer for personal and worldly gain, as by merchandise and theft, makes it like a den of thieves and brings God's judgments and heaps future woe on the doers, whose greed makes them thieves in God's sight.

The verse therefore requires God's people to put God's law first and obey it in spirit and in letter, examining themselves closely lest by sacrificing religion for worldly gain they commit the same sin. By expelling the worldly traffickers who were profaning sacred things, with stern rebuke driving buyers and sellers and priests and rulers from the courts, Christ teaches those who will make up His church on earth that name and position weigh as nothing against virtue and purity of character and honesty and righteous dealing. The money taken by dealers for sacrificial offerings robbed the people through extortionate business, turning God's house into a robbers' shelter.

Defiling Body and Soul Temple

The body is to be God's temple for the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, and to defile it with tobacco is to pollute God's sanctuary. Such worship is not acceptable to God, for the tainted breath and the ejected tobacco defile the place set apart for prayer and are abhorred by Him. To spend thousands of dollars to feed this unnatural appetite is to rob God's treasury. By that robbery the house set apart for prayer for all peoples is turned into a den of thieves.

When truth occupies the soul and God is enthroned there, the Saviour finds no selfish buying and selling to condemn. The soul temple must still be cleansed of buyers and sellers, with the entrusted goods of means and of physical and mental powers kept sacred and unmingled with worldly merchandise. For the leaven of worldliness permeates the mind, and spiritual discernment is lost. When that cleansing takes place, doing the Master's bidding and promoting His work becomes the one aim of life, the Holy Spirit works upon the heart to transform the character, and self is hid with Christ in God.

Fashionable dress and display likewise dishonor God's house when attention to clothing displaces thought of Christ and of the sermon, profaning what is devoted to worship. The same condemnation falls on churches that conduct feasting and unholy commerce in religion. To seek money by appealing to appetite, gain and pleasure instead of love for Christ is a desecration that Christ would drive out and rebuke.

Cleansing Church Institutions

As Christ cleansed the temple, so schools are to be cleansed of defiling influences. Many books are to be removed from them. In their place is to come sound knowledge with principles and precepts treasured in the heart that safely guide conduct.

Publishing houses were established for the sacred purpose of publishing present truth. They are to be houses of prayer where God is present with workers both in religious exercises and in their work. When managers devote them principally to commercial work and enter contracts to publish questionable matter merely for gain, the sense of sacredness is lost. The work is then cheapened and the institutions are regarded as any other commercial enterprise. Letting commercial work take priority displaces the sacred work.

To make God's house a den of thieves is to betray its sacred purpose through corrupt use and misappropriation. In a publishing institution this means neglecting the publication of truth while misusing workers' time and talents and misappropriating money. It means using presses meant to spread truth to print false teachings. It means allowing injustice, selfish schemes, unprincipled conduct, unjust plans and fraudulent dealings that violate people's rights. Such schemes follow Satan's order, not Christ's. Dishonorable gain is worse than loss.

If He were present today He would likewise cleanse the publishing office of all defiling things. This includes literature that dishonors the Redeemer and unsettles faith in Christianity. It includes what gives a wrong tendency to youth and causes doubt and unbelief to spring up. It includes questioning of the authority and purity of the Old Testament Scriptures and the spread of infidelity such as the argument that Christ was only a man. Accepting, handling and publishing that class of matter brings in Satan and his sophistry and makes a house dedicated to God's work a den of thieves.

The same rebuke applies to the Review office, where accepting commercial work and printing material that promoted false doctrines brought desecration like that of the temple. It applies to Battle Creek, which as the temple was to be free of buyers, sellers and moneychangers was to be purified of corruption and practices that violate people's rights. His servants are to be pious and devoted to holy work.

Physicians who claim to believe truth yet stretch religion to suit circumstances and charge exorbitant prices are in no better condition than the priests and rulers who exacted exorbitant prices for beasts for sacrifice. Medicine is under the Lord's jurisdiction and the standard of righteousness no less than farming, merchandising or ministry. What is required is pure religion in business, love and obedience to God, relieving the sick for Christ's sake, and dealing tenderly with His poor and justly with all in view of judgment.

Jerusalem's corruption of the temple courts into selfish trade and robbery instead of honoring their sacred purpose warns churches and institutions that receive light but refuse to follow it. Jerusalem's misuse of its sacred trust through merchandise, robbery and pursuit of gain repeats itself when God's counsel is rejected and selfishness, envy and strife are cherished. That course brings Christ's sorrow and investigation and warning against refusing to follow light.