Changers Of Money
Changers Of Money [1]
Matthew 21:12; John 2:14. They set up their tables in the court of the Gentiles, to exchange at a price the foreign coin of Jews and proselytes coming from distant lands for the Hebrew half shekel (which was required from every adult from 20 years old and upward: Exodus 38:26) in presenting themselves to worship at the tabernacle or temple. At the beginning of His ministry, and at its close, Christ marked His mission as the foretold Purifier of the temple ( Malachi 3:1-5), for the presence of Jehovah, of which His own divinely formed body was the type. The court of the Gentiles, as distinguished from that of Israel and that of the priests, was designed not only for an unclean Jew, but also for the uncircumcised Gentile proselytes.
The Jewish traffic here was an insult to the Gentiles. It made what God designed to be "a house of prayer for all people" ( Isaiah 56:7) to become "a house of merchandise." The bustle around rendered prayer almost impossible. The priests let the court to the moneychangers, making godliness into a source of gain. Christ's clearing them oat with so puny a weapon as "a whip of small cords" is a warrant of His having "all power given" to Him by the Father, and of His future purging out of His kingdom "all things which offend, and them which do iniquity" ( Matthew 13:41). Then and then only shall the temple be mate "a house of prayer for all people" ( Isaiah 2:2-4).
