The robbers who infiltrate in the church
“Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.’” (Matthew 21:12-13)
This is what the Bible Malachi 3:8 says, “"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings.” As a result, the Bible says that the nation Israel was under a curse (v. 9). How did the Israel come to this point? Why did the Israelites rob the Lord? The more serious problem is that when the Lord said that the Israelites have robbed the Lord, they responded, “How do we rob you?” (v. 8) In other words, the Israelites didn’t realize that they were robbing the Lord. This was indeed the serious problem. How can a thief steal and not know that he is stealing? Without knowing they were robbing, their conscience was not stricken, and thus they would not even feel the need to confess and repent their sin.
In Matthew 21:12-13, Jesus drove out all who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. And He said, “’My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’” How can we Christians make the house of the Lord the “den of robbers”? Since we all know that the house of the Lord is the house of prayer, how can the Lord say that we who are gathered and praying to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus are robbers? Why does it sound like the Lord is saying that it can be a lot more than just one or two robbers in the church? Maybe the Lord isn’t seeing well. Obviously, when there are so many prayers in the house of the Lord, such as in the early morning prayers and all-night prayers, how is the Lord saying that we are making the house of the Lord the “den of robbers”? Who are those “robbers”? We Christians?
Those whom saw Jesus who entered the temple were those who were buying and selling, money changers, those selling doves. Jesus told them, “My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers’” (v. 13). Then were those who were buying and selling, money changers, those selling doves the robbers? At that time, those who traded in the temple were those who initially traded in the corners of the temple to provide convenience for those who came to observe the Passover from afar (cows, sheep, or pigeons). However, it became more and more depraved, flowed into commercialism, and became a marketplace in the temple (Park). And the “money changers” were people who changed money to provide convenience to those who could not bring temple taxes to foreign shekels (Park). Perhaps those who made a profit would be greedy for wealth and make the house of prayer to the place of buying and selling, and heard from Jesus that “you are making it a ‘den of robbers’.”
How can this reproof apply to us, the Christians, who are living in the 21st century? When we apply the “robbers”, who are like bandits, to us, we can say that we consider the God’s temple like the den and plunder the riches of those who come and go to the temple and take profit from them. Then wouldn't it be possible to say that we are the robbers, those who take profit from doing business in the church, like those who sell and buy money in the temple area at the time of Jesus? Here I am not talking about lay believers, but rather thinking about the pastors. In particular, I am talking about the fake pastors who preach a fake gospel and who receive donation money from a large crowd and intercept it. I think that those fake pastors who intercept and rob offerings that are offered by the saints who work so hard are the robbers who make the God’s house the den of robbers. That's why I think that the Lord is now angry.