In the animal
kingdom a den is a place of shelter and retreat. Consider a lion, he is
the king of the jungle, but especially of his den. There he struts his
stuff without fear of being attacked. His den is the place where he feels
the most comfortable. In the “human” kingdom, dad uses the den to do the
very same thing. There he struts his stuff, walks around in his pajamas
and comfortably sits to read the newspaper. Neither the lion nor dad have
a thing to fear in their den.
The apostle
Matthew records an incident where the Lord became angry with some people
and accused them of converting God’s house of worship into a den of
thieves (Matthew 21:12-17). Apparently these people had become religious
entrepreneurs. By using the word “den” it seems that for many years
these people had been using the temple to sell their goods and become
wealthy. The temple became their place of retreat and shelter. There they
felt very comfortable and had become oblivious to the writings of Jeremiah
(7:11) where he had prophesied that God’s temple would “be made
merchandise of.”
One can
imagine all of the commotion and goings on in the temple. Jews from all
over the country would travel to Jerusalem and once there they would buy
the animals to offer sacrifices. Well, if the sacrifices were to be
offered in the temple, what more convenient place to sell the animals than
the temple itself. Some people thought about this and set up their booths
in the temple, as if it were a county fair, and exchanged monies and sold
animals.
The had
ignored the purpose of the temple of God. It should have been a place of
worship but commercialism had taken over. Jesus seeing this became very
angry and turned some of the tables over saying aloud that they had made
the temple a den of thieves (Matthew 21:12-17; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46;
Jeremiah 7:11).
Dear reader,
think on this incident next time your church sponsors or hosts a blood
drive, food drive, weight watchers meeting, church play, bull heads club
meeting, bake sale, car wash, fund raiser, etc. Is the building being used
for the purpose it was intended for or is it being “made merchandise of”?
Think about it, please.