“And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”” (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭21:13‬)

In the context of the new covenant, being the better covenant of the Presence of God coming to dwell INSIDE each man, as opposed to the earlier pattern of the first Adam, where the presence of the LORD came to visit WITH man, what is the LORD’s house now? Is it a building, or is it the temple of the body of man? For is it not written that “Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). For have we not entered into a new covenant? Have we not entered into the new covenant of the better wine of habitation versus the old wine of visitation? For what else is a house but a place for visitation and habitation? So if you yourself are God’s temple, then what kind of house are you then? If the LORD were to come back today, by what name could He call His house? As “a house of prayer”? Or “a den of thieves”? For is this not surely then the plainest of all directives for the call to prayer? Are we a praying house?

So in the context of the house of the LORD now being the body of man, when the LORD says that we have made His house “a den of thieves”, where He Himself places a den of thieves in italics, what does that mean in the context of the first part of His statement that His house shall be called a house of prayer? It tells us that we are all thieves when we do not make the house of our body a house of prayer. When we busy ourselves with the things of the world, represented by being money changers, and make the things of the world the priority of our house and the thing by which we shall be called, we defile what our house was called to be, and we rob our house of what it was called to be. Which is not only the house of His Father, but a house of prayer.

And just like in the first coming that Jesus came to shake all things and clean out His temple by chasing out the money changers, so too with His second coming is He coming to clean out His house of all the money changers. Which includes all those who call themselves a house of prayer, but are in fact a den of thieves and have robbed the house of its true purpose and calling, but also all the many who on that day will say to Him, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then He will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’For did you ever see upon Jesus’ first coming that He ever prophesied for money, or drove out demons for money, or perform miracles for money? He did it for the love of His Father and the love of His neighbour that His house may be called a house of prayer, not a house of money changers. For all those who operate in His house by the laws of the world, which is for the motive of money and personal glory, He shall clean out of His house so that once again His house may be called a house of prayer.

"Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he will build the house for My name." (1 Kings 5:5)

"Even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples." (Isaiah 56:7)

Sol Deo gloria.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be all the honour and all the glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17).

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