Jesus Rebuilds The Temple

“And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, ‘Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!’ Then His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.’ So the Jews answered and said to Him, ‘What sign do you show to us, since you do these things?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ Then the Jews said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.” John 2:14-22.

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Cor. 6:19.

Jesus found that His Father’s house had become a house of merchandise. It is exactly the same with our bodies. Lusts and desires fill our hearts with all kinds of thoughts and selfish interests. There is not the necessary quietness for prayer. And if we do find time to pray, it is not long before our thoughts are somewhere else entirely. It is all those things in the body which disturb our thought life which Jesus came to cleanse and put to death, so that our fallen bodies could be raised again as a temple for the Holy Spirit. Here the Jews were given an object lesson by this manifestation of His zeal, and were shown what was necessary in order for the temple to be raised. This is the same zeal we read about in Isa. 63.