Purification of the Temple

    When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he "made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 

(John 2:13-16 NIV)

    What was the reason for Jesus' violent reaction? Was it a view of what was happening in the temple? It turns out that the temple was already a place where even worse things happened. An example of this could be what happened at the time of King Manasseh, of whom the Bible says:

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years (...) He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger. He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple" (2 Kings 21:1-7)

    Though Manasseh converted at the end of his life, his son Amon, another king of Judah, continued his father's bad practices:

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. (…) He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. He followed completely the ways of his father, worshiping the idols his father had worshiped, and bowing down to them. He forsook the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to him (2 Kings 21:19-22)

    What was the temple like when Amon son of Manasseh was king? In the temple stood the Asherah pole, at the entrance to the temple stood “the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun” (2 Kings 23:11), in the two courts of the temple of the Lord stood “altars to all the starry hosts”. Next to the temple were ritual houses "of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, (…) where women did weaving for Asherah" (2 Kings 23: 7). And this is what the temple looked like when Josiah son of Amon became king.

    Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. (…) And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left (2 Kings 22:1-2)

    Let's check more closely what the first years of Josiah's reign looked like.

     For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images (2 Chronicles 34:3)

    During the first twelve years of Josiah's reign, the temple still looked like in Amon's time. In the Temple still stood: the Asherah pole, “the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun”, and “altars to all the starry hosts”. And yet the Bible says that Josiah "did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left". How is this possible?

    Josiah became king when he was eight years old. Did he really rule Judah when he was eight? Rather not, although he was formally a king, until he came of full age, someone else ruled, so he had no influence on what was happening in the temple. He probably began really rule when he was twenty. And just then "he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images". Did he remove from the temple all that his ancestors had put into it? It turns out not. From the moment when Josiah began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem, the next six years passed and the Asherah pole still stood in the temple, there were also “the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun”, and “altars to all the starry hosts”. And yet the Bible says that Josiah "did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left". After these six years, something happened that caused the king to clean the temple.

    In the eighteenth year of King Josiah (…) Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes (2 Kings 22:3.10-11)

    Josiah heard for the first time what exactly God gave the Jews through Moses. Josiah met the law. What he heard meant that in an act of despair he tore his clothes. He found out how far the Jews had gone from God, and found out what was the truth about what had happened in the temple for eighteen years of his reign. Josiah knew that the temple should be the only place to worship God, but now he understood that the temple should be also in a better state. And when he learned the truth, he began to act.

    And the king commanded (...) to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem (...) Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places (...) And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes (...) Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense (...) also he broke down the high places at (...) the city gate (…) Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun (...) and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. The altars that were on the roof (...) and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron (2 Kings 23:4-8.11-12)

    During the first six years of his effective reign, King Josiah saw nothing wrong with what was happening in the temple, but the lost Book of the Law, discovered in the Temple, opened his eyes to the truth. Josiah was not looking for an excuse to preserve the current state of the temple. When he learned the truth, he immediately rejected what was an abomination in God's eyes. It was Josiah's willingness to accept new truths, his sincere and zealous heart, and obedience to God that were the reasons why the Bible says of him that he "did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left".

    Jesus as a man did not have the opportunity to enter the temple in the time of King Josiah, when the temple was not yet cleansed, but if he had such an opportunity, would he behave in the same way as when He "made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables"? Jesus did not appear in the temple during the time of Josiah, and yet the temple was cleansed. There was someone who lived under the influence of the Holy Spirit and did what Jesus did personally in the same temple over six hundred years later. It was King Josiah, who "did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left". God could use Josiah because the king's greatest desire was to obey God. Obedience of the king was not keeping external signs of justice, but it was true obedience flowing from the heart, out of love for God. Josiah loved God so much that he couldn't disobey him. Six hundred years later, there was no-one, whom God could use for the same purpose, and therefore Jesus had to do it personally.

    There are two things we need to consider when we think about why Jesus "made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables". The first is why, two thousand years ago, there was no one like King Josiah in Israel, the second is the purpose of Jesus' action in the temple.

    Why in the time of Jesus there was no-one who would decide to do the same thing Josiah did? Did the condition of the temple require more work, much more difficult work than that performed by Josiah? During the first eighteen years of Josiah's reign, the temple looked much worse than it did in Jesus' time. There were a lot of objects in it that should not be there, but Josiah had to face not only the enormity of the work of physically removing them. He had to face the strength of human traditions; the resistance of hearts contaminated by attachment to sin. Most Israelites probably did not realize that their way of worshiping God is rather worshiping Satan. Most of them refused to listen to the voice of conscience, refused to accept the thought that they could do something wrong. Josiah did it and at this point we should seriously think about how it happened. What motivated Josiah to follow the path of his father David? Was he lucky that he grew up in a godly family and his faith was a natural consequence of religious upbringing? What was his life like until he became king?

   Here is a short story of Josiah and his family. His grandfather was Manasseh, who was a king fifty-five years. Almost the entire period of his reign was associated with maintaining in Israel all possible abominable pagans' customs. In the thirty-third year of Manasseh's reign, Amon, his son, was born. Amon was brought up at the court of the most apostate King of Judah. He learned all the habits cultivated by his father. He grew up in an atmosphere of moral corruption and apostasy. He became a father when he was sixteen when Josiah was born. It was a very important year in the history of Judah because this year God allowed Manasseh to be captured by the king of Assyria and abducted to Babylon. „Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chrocicles 33:12-13). Changed man returned to Jerusalem. Manasseh truly humbled himself before God, understood who God was and wanted to change with all his heart. He rejected his previous life and wanted to live differently. He wanted to repair the evil he had done before. „He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:15-16). 

    Manasseh wished that everyone would reject bad habits and begin to believe in God as he did. However, love for God cannot be ordered, so although the Jews changed some of their habits, they did not change their hearts. "The people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord, their God". Manasseh was then over sixty years old and suffered the consequences of previously committed sins. Despite his conversion, he did not become a moral authority for Amon, his son, who had been involved in sin for sixteen years so much that his father's conversion did not change that. Over the next six years, Manasseh tried to repair what he had broken, but he managed to change only some forms of behaviour of his subjects and members of his family. His change did not change the hearts of those who lived next to him. Then Manasseh understood David, who also had to bear the consequences of his mistakes and lost the authority as the father. Manasseh probably looked at Amon with a heartache now, and he ached for not being able to change his character. And maybe that's why he tried on the best way to influence his grandson. Josiah only knew the better side of his grandfather, and he heard of his sins from stories only. It seems to me that for the first six years of life, the development of Josiah's character was primarily influenced by his grandfather, the converted King Manasseh. Perhaps his authority influenced Amon to minimize his evil influence on Josiah. After Manasseh's death, Amon became king, but he was king only two years. He managed to rebuild at this time what Manasseh, after his conversion, ordered to be destroyed. His life could not stand the people around him. The same people who served Manasseh before his conversion, moved by Amon's apostasy, plotted and killed him. Fortunately, for two years of his reign, Amon failed to change Josiah in his own image. Josiah kept in his heart his grandfather's attachment to God.

    As you can see, Josiah did not have an easy childhood and it was not certain that when he grew up he would be faithful to God. From childhood, he was subjected to various temptations, mainly because of his father, but his love of God, instilled in his heart by his grandfather, helped him overcome these temptations. Josiah became a man whom God could use to reveal the truth. He was someone who was missing six hundred years later, someone who not only felt and knew that something had to be changed, but someone who took every opportunity to serve God faithfully. For example, Nicodemus could have been such a man, but when he met Jesus, he was still attached to the things of this world. He was afraid of losing his position and reputation, and although he knew that the temple had been desecrated by the trade that was taking place there, he did not dare loudly oppose this trade.

    Let us now consider what was the most important reason for what Jesus did in the temple? Did He just want to physically remove "people selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and other people sitting at tables and exchanging money"?

The most important reason was what only He saw. When, after cleansing the temple, Jesus remained in „Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25). Jesus told the Pharisees: „You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). According to Jesus, the greatest offense to God was (and still is) what is called hypocrisy. The biggest problem of the priests and Pharisees was what they carefully concealed in their hearts. They wanted people to regard them as God-fearing experts on God's law, but Jesus knew the truth and compared them to "whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27). This duplicity and hypocrisy of those who consider themselves believers and faithful to God are the greatest offense to God. First, Jesus wanted to clean their hearts, His desire was that people would let Him clean their hearts. The scene of cleansing the temple has deep symbolic significance. Most priests and Pharisees have already gone so far in their hypocrisy that Jesus had to use radical methods to move them. His example, which worked so well on many people, has long ceased to work on most religious leaders. Jesus did not trust them because He knew what was behind their beautiful words about God and faith, He knew their moral corruption and attachment to the world's treasures, money and power. And although He knew that for many of them there was no chance of salvation, His desire was to free them from the slavery of sin.

    The Bible says Jesus cleansed the temple twice. The first purification is related to the beginning of His mission, the second to the end. This also has a symbolic meaning, because it means that we need Jesus all the time, no matter how long we know Him. One-time purification of the heart is not enough, heart must be under the influence of God all the time. Jesus taught people for three and a half years revealing the truth about God's character, and thus gave them a chance to know Him. Everyone who has begun to learn the truth notices the beauty and perfection of God's character, and this knowledge allows him to see his own imperfection better and better. A better knowledge about God is combined with better knowledge about influence of sin, better knowledge about what in fact sin is.

     All this means that an aware decision must be made about choosing one of two ways. One is a conscious choice of obedience to God resulting from an ever-greater love for Him; the other is the aware rejection of truth, often associated with unconscious obedience to Satan. „No servant can serve two masters” (Luke 16:13). No one, I think, consciously chooses to obey Satan, but any disobedience to God is obedience to Satan. God reveals us in various ways the truth about the different altars and statues of different gods, kept in our hearts; letting us know that there is no place for them in His house, that He cannot live in a house where is even one thing, which is an obstacle for us to completely surrender to God. „Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). The temple of the heart must be completely cleansed so that God shall become not only a guest, but a household member. He wants to live in us permanently, but he can't do it if we don't let him enter some rooms in our house because they contain things, we don't want to show Him. Any refusal to open such a door makes it even harder for us to accept God even as a guest. The temple of the heart must be cleansed just as Josiah had cleansed the temple of everything that had anything to do with pagan religions.

    Jesus „made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”. However, He does not clean our hearts on this way, He does not force us to give him everything, but affects our hearts so that we would want to give him everything. Perhaps Josiah did not understand the symbolic meaning of what he did, but the most important was that he wanted and desired to do this. Jesus wanted to remove from his father's house everything that was disgusting to God, but above all, he wanted to cleanse the hearts of those who brought the temple to such a state that it ceased to be a house of prayer and became a cave of robbers. Jesus still desires the same, His dream is that each of us become a house of prayer, devoid of all that this world is trying to fill our hearts with. Jesus wants that we want what He gives us only. However, He leaves us the decision about what we fill our hearts with. We decide what we read, what we watch and what we listen to. Our decisions influence whether spiritual matters interest us or rather bore us. „If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). Jesus helps us purify our hearts, but we decide what we fill our hearts with. It is thanks to Him that our hearts become more and more like a home that is empty of what is unnecessary, swept and decorated, ready to live. But we decide what we fill this house with. We decide what we do every morning after waking up, whether we are more interested in what God says, or rather what this world wants to put into our hearts.

     This is our decisions that we keep our hearts clean or we litter them so that spiritual matters become less and less visible among the growing number of things that may look nice, but create an ever greater veil between us and God. Jesus wants to remove this veil so that we can see God as He really is. He also wants to remove another veil, the one that covers the truth about ourselves. It is this veil that Satan helps us to expand so it becomes ever thicker. The Jews had such a veil in their temple, and they were sure that God was behind it. And when God personally torn this veil, it turned out that God wasn't there.

    Do you think you no longer have any of these veils? Are you sure you know God? Are you sure that God lives in your heart?

  Satan does everything to make those who consider themselves believers think in this way. But don't you ever ignore certain signs that indicate that your heart has not yet been completely cleansed by God? Do you react to these signs as Josiah reacted to the content of the Book of Law found in the temple, or are you trying to prove to yourself that everything is all right with your heart?

    Can I say with a clear conscience that these veils are no longer in my heart? Can you say that?