sons of Chanan‖ is mentioned in early rabbinic writings as being greedy and corrupt, where extra profits were
made off the worship of YHWH, driving up the prices of sacrifices.
Now, sacrifices needed to be offered. Jewish pilgrims didn't bring lambs, goats, bulls or pigeons from Rome
or Babylon or cities that were far from Jerusalem. They needed to buy kosher animals at Jerusalem. And,
those who lived outside Israel brought their own foreign currencies which were converted by the
moneychangers into money that was usable at the Temple, so that the Temple tax could be paid in the
proper coinage.
But, these sons of Levi had allowed the commercial aspect of the Temple to crowd out other things,
preventing people from thinking rightly about YHWH. They had made the Temple a house of merchandise
instead of the only true house of worship on the entire planet.
And so, Y‘shua cleansed the Temple, using a whip, because of His great concern; His tremendous zeal and
fiery concern about everything that will keep men from YHWH. He is not a Messiah who is a pacifist or a
wimp. He will take drastic actions if necessary on behalf of YHWH‘s House as Y‘shua‘s disciples later
remembered; especially as they read Psalm 69:9, ―Zeal for Your House has consumed me‖, which they
applied to the Messiah.
In His holy zeal, Y‘shua cleansed the Temple at the beginning of His service to YHWH and at the end of His
ministry. And, Y‘shua will do this everywhere He desires to come into. Don‘t be surprised if we allow the
Temple of YHWH‘s Spirit to get crowded out by other things—the Son of YHWH will take His whip to our
lives to drive out all those things that will distract us from serving YHWH—which is our true life.
This cleansing of the Temple by the young carpenter from Nazareth at Passover, when it was crowded by
hundreds of thousands of Jewish people from all over the world, did not sit well with the Jewish leaders. It
challenged their authority, it made them look bad and it cut into their profits. A confrontation resulted.
The Jewish leaders said to Him, ―What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?‖
―Yeshua, who do you think you are? We are the Coheneem - the Priests and the religious leaders of Israel.
You are challenging our system and the chain of command. What right do you have to do that? Do
something: give us some evidence that you have authority to challenge us. Do you possibly think that you
are greater than us?‖
Y‘shua answered them, ―Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up‖. I won‘t do a miracle on
command to prove Myself to a group of faithless people who are hostile to Me. The only sign for you, to
prove to you that I do indeed have greater authority than you, is the miracle of My death and resurrection,
which I already know is coming. But these Jewish leaders didn‘t understand what Yeshua had said to them.
The Jewish leaders then said, ―It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and will You raise it up in three
days?‖ If the literal sense makes sense, seek no other sense. But if the literal sense doesn‘t make sense,
then seek a non-literal sense, a symbolic meaning. Did it make sense that Y‘shua would rebuild the Temple
in three days? No - not really. Not at that time. And so Yochanan clarifies things: ―But He was speaking of
the temple of His body‖. He was predicting His death and His resurrection victory over death.
So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the
Scripture and the word which Y‘shua had spoken. In retrospect, Y‘shua‘s powerful statement to these Jewish
leaders created belief: faith in the words of Y‘shua and in the Scriptures, both of which foretold His death.
Y‘shua‘s death and His resurrection remains the great sign and proof of Y‘shua's authority, that He acted
with YHWH's blessing and approval and authority in all that He did and said. His resurrection proves that He
was superior to all the Jewish leaders in Israel, since the Son of the House is greater than the employees
who merely work at the House.
This confrontation at Passover sets the tone for Y‘shua's relationship with the religious leaders that will
culminate in His death at another Passover three or four years later. The religious leaders will look for ways
to discredit and challenge the authority of Y‘shua. And, this statement would remain misunderstood and
remembered for three or four years and used against Him at His trial, which took place close by (see
Matt 26:61).
Let‘s conclude with the reaction of other Jewish people who were in Jerusalem during this special Passover,
starting with verse 23: ―(23) Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many
believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. (24) But Jesus did not commit himself