It's recorded collectively in three of the four gospels that Jesus having made the 'triumphal entry,' soon after entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, also forbidding anyone to carry any vessel through the temple.
John's gospel records Jesus earlier on, soon after performing the first of His miraculous signs, near the time of the Jewish Passover, entering the temple courts, making a whip out of cords and driving them all, along with sheep and cattle from the temple area, as He overturned their tables. John 2:17 states, "His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
The accounts told in Matthew, Mark and Luke all similarly record Jesus as saying, "It is written, He said to them, 'My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers." With this said, what can we learn from the zeal that Jesus demonstrated as He cleared the temple area, and how can we apply it to our Christian walk?
God's intent in these passages surely wasn't for us to become physically assertive and cause altercations every time we discover people or circumstances aren't what we would like them to be. We can see from such scriptures as James 1:20: 'For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God' and Ephesians 6:12: 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,' where the real battle lies. It is in the spiritual realm.
We know as Christians that our body is the temple of God and God's Spirit now resides in us as born-again believers. We are to recognize the spiritual battle taking place in our lives. Jesus knew His ultimate goal was to go to the cross where He would really turn the tables on satan and all demonic principalities and powers. He accomplished this by what is found in the Word in Colossians 2:14-15 which states, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross: and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."
By taking away the tool the enemy used to condemn us with every time we fail to keep it (the law, see Rom. 7:6, Gal. 3:13) we are now free of condemnation (See Rom. 8:1, 34, 2 Cor. 3:7-17) and are free to walk in liberty. (See James 1:25, 2:12) We now, because of Christ, turn the tables on the enemy by instead of receiving condemnation, we now do as it says in Isa. 54:17, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."
Jesus cleared the temple early on in His ministry and near the end, before going to the cross. We too must always be on guard throughout our time here on earth. We can now conquer the trials and circumstances in our lives as overcomers just as the Apostle Paul wrote, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerers through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." in Romans 8:37-39, "
Now, instead of being robbed, we have those things that are freely given us. (See Romans 8:32)
