Only one person in history can build the house of "who you are. Jesus! Hence the Wonderfully Weird Command, Be a House of Prayer. Our command is found in Matthew 21:13; Jesus says, "My house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." When Jesus spoke of a "house of prayer," understand he is quoting from the book of Isaiah. "These [faithful people] I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer…. (56:7)." This means when people build their lives based on and around the LORD almighty, Life is Good, and joy is experienced in the house of who they are, personally and collectively (The Church).
On the other side of our verse is the phrase "den of thieves." When Jesus spoke these words, he quoted from yet another book of the Hebrew Scriptures, Jeremiah, "Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? (7:11)." The den of robbers refers to the false aggressive religious people who relationally rob people of God's Spirit and truth in who they are, all in the Name of the LORD. It's not hard to spot these fools in the faith; rather than being persuasive toward God's truth, beauty, and unity, they are bullies who seek the opposite and take the joy out of life.
Bullies are typical in God's institutions – marriages, family, government, church, etc. When bullies infiltrate and take over God's House, the "den of thieves" is what it is called. Religious bullies have always been around, and they are easy to spot. Guilt and shame are their languages, and contentiousness is their preferred way to lead and govern. The sad part, bullies, don't recognize themselves as so. On the contrary, they see themselves as heroes who come in to save the day, all in the name of Jesus. Like the day of the prophet Jeremiah and the day Jesus turned over the tables in the temple, bullies must be stopped.
How do we stop this robbery? We are to be a house of prayer! To be a house of prayer means to be true worshipers of Christ and to pray and work simultaneously to persuade life's bullies to turn or face the aftermath. To keep God's house, "LIFE," in order, true Christians must not stand silent and let the oppressors hurt. When they do nothing, more harm is the reality, the "den of thieves." These thieves or bullies in God's House (Life) must be justly dealt with to experience a good and happy life the Way God planned it to be.
Today, to stop the bullies and thievery in God's reality, let's pray and work on building God's House together. A house made by people who learn the Wonderfully Weird Commands of Christ to develop a good character. Good traits allow people to build a profoundly good life for others and deeply good for themselves through the persuasive Carpenter of life, Jesus.
With a praying and servant's heart,