Covenant Theology In Outline Form 28: Matthew 21:12 - 22

 Shema

And Jesus entered the temple 

Historical Prologue 

and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 

General Stipulations 

13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Specific Stipulations 

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 

Covenant Renewal 

 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” 

Document Clause & Witnesses 

And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

“ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

you have prepared praise’?”

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.  

Victory Statement 

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” 

Application: Was the Cleansing of the Temple a quasi-political or political act, or was it a merely spiritual act?   

The text follows the form of a suzerain covenant.    Yeshua’s target (and that if the author) is not merely “spiritual.”  They are calling attention to systemic corruption in the temple & targeting Annas & Caiphas authority which was quasi-ecclesiastical & quasi-political.   Annas & Caiphas were there by way of the appointment of the Roman Governor. 

Where you see the outline of a suzerain covenant, you see the 3 uses of the Law & Gospel.   The act isn’t merely broadly prophetic & therefore “spiritual.” It’s also ecclesiastical & civil, ergo it is a quasi-political act. 

What has been going on in the US in general & Minneapolis in particular is reprehensible, & people have been jacked up in & around churches themselves & are permitted entry into public but not private spaces in them, & although the protest in the church isn’t something I myself would do, it answers demonic activity & man’s inhumanity to man by answering this activity in a manner that highlights the hypocrisy of ministers of the gospel who work for the enemy during the day & use their churches as human shields on the weekend.   That’s most certainly what God says, & I agree.  

To Part 27