Matthew 21:12–17

¹² Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³ 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.’ ” ¹⁴ Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant ¹⁶ and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” ¹⁷ Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there. 

Commentary
Vs. 12 “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.” 

Having arrived in Jerusalem the Lord Jesus Christ now goes to the Temple and upon entering it He begins to drive out all those who bought and sold in the Temple and overturns the tables of the money changers and those who bought and sold doves. In so doing the Lord Jesus Christ shows His great disapproval at all those who make the worship of God into a means by which they can make profit for themselves. Equally to note is that both buyer and seller are culpable in the eyes of God in corrupting the house of God in this way, something for us all to consider with all the buying and selling that is so prevalent in church assemblies, and specifically and of great concern is all the merchandizing of our faith in Christian dome today.

Vs. 13 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.’ ”

The Lord Jesus Christ’s great indignation at seeing His Fathers house being corrupted by the merchandizers, is not just seen, but also heard, as He quotes the Scripture to them from both Isaiah and then Jeremiah saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” (Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11). Now the quote from Isaiah is a Kingdom declaration of the inclusion of both Jews and Gentiles in the house of God. Something which was being utterly perverted as the merchants and money changers and such were using the Temple grounds for selling their own wares which were being sold as needed for the worship of God, while the money changers (in accord with the oversight of the chief priests) were forcing the peoples from the nations to exchange their currency for the Temple’s currency, which was being exchanged to them at an unfair rate of exchange. While the quote from Jeremiah is taken from a passage when ancient Israel’s leadership had utterly corrupted the true worship of God by combining it with their sins which included the worship of Baal, but also the house of God had become a place where religious thieves were not only permitted, but also allowed to practice their craft, thus the Lord’s use of the passage here in His Temple cleansing (see Jer.7:8-11).

Vs. 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

Having cleansed the Temple, the Lord Jesus now has the blind and the lame come to Him and He heals them! Which was a very deliberate act on His part, just as the Temple cleansing was, thus presenting for us all a striking contrast as to what the Temple should be used for, and what the Temple was being used for by the then religious rulers.

Vs. 15-17 ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant ¹⁶ and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” ¹⁷ Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.

It seems just incredible that the chief priests and scribes instead of glorifying God for the wonderful works that they saw the Lord Jesus Christ do (as the children were doing) they were only indignant at His healing the blind and lame, and specifically at the children for singing to Him in the Temple “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Thus, the chief priests and scribes being in great distress at the whole scene unfolding before with the children even praising Jesus as the Messiah they now say to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” To which Jesus immediately responds, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” For the children’s praising the Lord Jesus Christ was fulfilling the Scripture in Psalm 8:2 which states:

“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have ordained strength,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger”

Therefore, the chief priests and scribes were not only on the wrong side of prophecy (and history) but in so doing they were on the wrong side of God. Their spiritual blindness though could not mask nor conceal what God had revealed to the little children right in their midst, that the Day of Salvation was now dawning upon them! Therefore, with the chief priests and scribes lack of spiritual sight, and thus complete lack of understanding about these things, the Lord Jesus Christ leaves them and goes out to the city of Bethany and lodges there.

Scripture Quotations: The New King James Version. (1982). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.