{"id":6690,"date":"2015-07-09T00:05:54","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T07:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6690"},"modified":"2015-07-08T12:29:17","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T19:29:17","slug":"robbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/07\/09\/robbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Robbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>Jesus went into the temple complex and drove out all those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers\u2019 tables and the chairs of those selling doves. And He said to them, \u201cIt is written, My house will be called a house of prayer. But you are making it a den of thieves!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The blind and the lame came to Him in the temple complex, and He healed them. When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that He did and the children in the temple complex cheering, \u201cHosanna to the Son of David!\u201d they were indignant and said to Him, \u201cDo You hear what these children are saying?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d Jesus told them. \u201cHave you never read:<\/p>\n<p>You have prepared praise<br \/>\nfrom the mouths of children and nursing infants?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there. (Matthew 21:12-17)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\tWas Jesus against commerce in a religious setting?  Was he against profit?  Did he dislike business?  The religious leaders had decided that ordinary money could not be used in the temple area and insisted that it first be exchanged for special temple money. Only the special money could then be used to buy the only animals that the religious establishment allowed for sacrifice. Of course the religious leaders took a cut of the profits.  Jesus\u2019 words alluded to what  Jeremiah had written:  \u201cWill you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, \u201cWe are safe\u201d\u2014safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!\u201d declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 7:9-11).<\/p>\n<p>\tThen, when the religious authorities criticized Jesus for letting the children cheer and call him the Son of David, he quoted a section of Psalm 8 to them\u2014a section that had to do with praising God.  The religious authorities had been upset because of the messianic implications of what had happened in the temple and what was being said by the children.  Jesus just upped the ante and claimed not just to be the Messiah, but God.<\/p>\n<p>\tThere is nothing wrong with profit and doing business.  A worker, as Jesus said, was worthy of his hire.  But if it stands between a person and God, then it has to go.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus went into the temple complex and drove out all those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers\u2019 tables and the chairs of those selling doves. And He said to them, \u201cIt is written, My house &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/07\/09\/robbers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6690"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6692,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6690\/revisions\/6692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}