“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. But don’t be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the Lord’s Temple is here.
They chant, The Lord’s Temple is here! The Lord’s Temple is here! But I will be merciful only if you
1. stop your evil thoughts and deeds
2. and start treating each other with justice;
3. only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows;
4. only if you stop your murdering; and
5. only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols.
Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you will never suffer because the Temple is here. It’s a lie!
Do you really think you can
1. steal,
2. murder,
3. commit adultery,
4. lie,
5. and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours,
and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are safe!”—only to go right back to all those evils again?
Don’t you yourselves admit that this Temple, which bears My name, has become a den of thieves? Surely I see all the evil going on there. I, the Lord, have spoken!
When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and He stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.
He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
{Jeremiah 7:3-11; Mark 11:15-17}