Lesson 28a: Remember Shiloh!

A28.1 A rabbinical tradition recorded in the Talmud spells out the indictment against Yeshu Hannozri (Jesus of Nazareth).  It reads:

Wanted: Yeshu Hannozri He shall be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.  Anyone who can say anything in His favor, let him come forward.  Anyone who knows where he is, let him declare it to the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.

A28.2 This indictment was posted in public places including the gates of the temple.  You remember the gospel account records that Jesus went to the temple on Palm Sunday.  There he healed some people.  He also looked around with anger.  I am sure He had seen the poster, or at least knew of it.  Here, at once, we see the humanity of Jesus and also his glory.  He looked around with anger on that Palm Sunday, but He did not do anything  --   then.  Instead He went home to Bethany, where He was staying at Mary and Martha's house.  He rested all day Monday, (and I think He prayed a lot) - then showed up in the temple again on Tuesday.  He cleansed the temple, chasing out the money changers, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer' but you have made it a den of thieves!"  Luke 19:46

A28.3 Jesus was following a Rabbinical preaching tradition; comparing two scriptures containing the same phrase. 

My house is a house of prayer.  Isa. 56:7  But you have made it (my house), a den of thieves.  Jer. 7:11* 

A28.4 The Rabbis and the Pharisees were educated men.  They would have expected Jesus to be erudite (deeply learned and polished).   In fact, Jesus knew both the Hebrew and the Greek scriptures perfectly, knew how to teach using Rabbinical methods, and knew how to cut to the quick (the bone marrow), with His application of Scripture.  He flattened them with His one sentence sermon.   They made no reply.

A28.5 The broader context of Jeremiah seven (beginning at verse nine) reveals why verse eleven would have been so devastating to the Jewish religious leaders.

"Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, "We are delivered to do all these abominations?  Has this (My) house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes?  Behold, I even I, have seen it," says the Lord. (Yahweh)

But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel,

"And now, because you have done all these works," says the Lord, "And I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, "therefore I will do to this house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.  And I will cast you out of My sight."  Jeremiah 7:9-15

A28.6 As you recall, Shiloh is the place where God had told the people of Israel to pitch the tabernacle (the tent / temple), when they first came into the land of Caanan.  There it remained until the days of Samuel.  When he was still a boy, the prophet Samuel was warned by God that the High priest Eli and his sons were about to be judged.  Eli's sons were killed in battle.  When Eli heard the news he fell over backwards and broke his neck.  That same day the Ark of the Covenant was captured, and  (archaeological and Biblical evidence shows) the tabernacle was burned, along with the rest of the settlement at Shiloh.

A28.7 During the days of Josiah, king of Judah, the word of the Lord (Yahweh) came to Jeremiah, telling him to remind the priests in the temple of what God had done to Shiloh.  God said He would do the same to Solomon's temple.

Jesus told the scribes, Pharisees, priests, and high priests of His own day that God would also destroy them, and their temple, for the same reasons.  Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it, especially in this case.  Jesus made his point.

A28.8 According to Josephus (Jewish historian of the first century), There were 2.5 million people in Jerusalem at that time -- for the Passover.  Jesus spoke these words against the false religious establishment in the hearing of tens thousands of them who were on the temple grounds that day. 

A28.9 The prophet Malachi said...

"Behold, I send my messenger, (John the Baptist) And he will prepare the way before Me.  And the Lord, (Jesus), whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of My Covenant, (The Messiah), in whom you delight,  Behold, He is coming", says the Lord of hosts.  "But who can endure the day of His coming?  And who can stand when He appears?  For He is like a refiner's fire, And like launderers' soap.  He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;  He will purify the sons of Levi,  (the priests), And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.  Malachi 3:1-3

A28.10 Of course the second temple (Herod's temple) was destroyed in 70 AD by the invading armies of Rome under the general Titus.  The Talmud says it happened because of the sins of Annanias and Caiphas!  A happy footnote however is that a great many of the priests had become obedient to the faith within only one year of Jesus' ascension  -- as recorded in Acts 6:7b

...and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.  Acts  6:7b

* The Masoretic text of the Hebrew Old Testament does not contain the words "My house", but the Greek Septuagint does!  The rabbis and the Pharisees were familiar with both texts.  Perhaps they were surprised that Jesus was too!

Discussion:

Memory Verse:  "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer', but you have made it a 'den of thieves'."

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