Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical. net.

Mark chapter 11 verse 17 and he was teaching them and saying to them,

is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

But you have made it a den of robbers.

This is Jesus words right in the middle of him cleansing the temple. So he is just turned over tables of money changers and people selling pigeons and the whole picture that had developed there at the temple.

So picture it this way you had the different courts of the temple in the

very center of the temple so this was not just like a church building this was the

place where you go to encounter the glory of God, the presence of God among his people.

And so in the very center of the temple you have the Holy Follies.

And obviously only the High Priest enters into the

Holy of Holies and only on a very rare basis to offer sacrifice for sins.

You begin to expand out. You have a court of Jewish men where Jewish men can come and

worship God and counter the glory presence of God among his people. Then you have court of

Jewish women where Jewish women can go dedicated to where

they can encounter God's glory.

Then on the outer court, you have the court of the Gentiles, the court of the nations. This is the place where people who are not Jewish

men or women can come and encounter the glory of God. So when the people set up tables to exchange money and sell pigeons?

Where do you think they set up their tables?

Certainly not in the Holy of Holies,

and certainly not in the court of Jewish men and certainly not in the court of Jewish women.

Instead they had set up all of this commerce in the court of the Gentiles, the place that was dedicated

to the worship of God among the nations.

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