A Den of Robbers.

"Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are safe!' - only to go on doing all these abominations?  Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?"  Jeremiah 7:9-11 (NRSV)

This passage from the Hebrew scriptures is the basis for Jesus' actions in the Temple - "He said to them, 'It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer", but you are making it a den of robbers.'"  Matthew 21:13 (NRSV)

In this way Jesus is firmly in keeping with the tradition of the Hebrew Prophets.

"From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day, yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks.  They did worse than their ancestors did."  Jeremiah 7:25,26 (NRSV)

"they walked in their own counsels, and looked backwards rather than forwards."  Jeremiah 7:24 (NRSV)

All these things that they do in God's House - lie, steal, commit adultery, kill - go on today.

But, like the Hebrew Priests, they are blind.

And they plot to kill the prophets.

"The inheritance will all be ours." they say.

But God is not a fool.

You cannot deceive Him.

And if they kill the Prophet God will raise him from the dead.

[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.  All rights reserved.]

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