John 2:17

Zeal, taken in a good sense, is a certain fervour of the Spirit, by which the mind, all human fears forgotten, is stirred up to the defence of the truth. To take the passage mystically, God enters His Church spiritually every day, and marks each one's behaviour there. Let us be careful then, when we are in God's Church, that we indulge not in stories, or jokes, or hatreds, or lusts, lest on a sudden He come and scourge us, and drive us out of His Church.

(in loc.) His disciples seeing this most fervent zeal in Him, remembered that it was from zeal for His Father's house that our Saviour drove the ungodly from the temple.

The disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for Your house consumes me" (Ps. 69:9). They had been growing in goodness for only a short time, yet they were already recalling passages from the Scriptures, and finding testimonies in them, they were being more and …

The disciples remembered. Here is noted the approval of the correction made through Scripture. Therefore he says: His disciples indeed remembered, not then, but after the resurrection, when they understood the Scripture; then, I say, they remembered that it is written: The zeal of your …

All the graces that were to be found among the Old-Testament saints were eminently in Christ, and particularly this of zeal for the house of God, and in them, as they were patterns to us, so they were types of him. Observe, (1.) Jesus Christ was zealously affected to the house of God, his church: he loved it, and was always jealous for its honour and welfare.

Observe here, (1.) The first place we find him in at Jerusalem was the temple, and, it should seem, he did not make any public appearance till he came thither; for his presence and preaching there were that glory of the latter house which was to exceed the glory of the former, Hag. ii. It was foretold ( Mal. iii.

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It was written ... - This is recorded in Psa 69:9. Its meaning is, that he was affected with great zeal or concern for the pure worship of God. The zeal of thine house - “Zeal” is intense ardor in reference to any object. The “zeal of thine house” means extraordinary concern for the temple of God; intense solicitude that the worship there should be pure, and such as God would approve.

The second miracle which our Lord is recorded to have wrought demands our attention in these verses. Like the first miracle at Cana, it is eminently typical and significant of things yet to come. To attend a marriage feast, and cleanse the temple from profanation were among the first acts of our Lord's ministry at His first coming. To purify the whole visible Church, and hold a marriage supper, will be among His first acts, when He comes again. We see, for one thing, in this passage, how much Christ disapproves all irreverent behavior in the house of God .

in the temple--not the temple itself, as Joh 2:19-21, but the temple-court. sold oxen, &c.--for the convenience of those who had to offer them in sacrifice. changers of money--of Roman into Jewish money, in which the temple dues (see on Mt 17:24) had to be paid.

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eaten me up--a glorious feature in the predicted character of the suffering Messiah (Ps 69:9), and rising high even in some not worthy to loose the latchet of His shoes.

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The second miracle which our Lord is recorded to have wrought demands our attention in these verses. Like the first miracle at Cana, it is eminently typical and significant of things yet to come. To attend a marriage feast, and cleanse the temple from profanation were among the first acts of our Lord's ministry at His first coming. To purify the whole visible Church, and hold a marriage supper, will be among His first acts, when He comes again. We see, for one thing, in this passage, how much Christ disapproves all irreverent behavior in the house of God . We are told that He drove out of the temple those whom He found selling oxen and sheep and doves within its walls—that He poured out the changers' money and overthrew their tables—and that He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!" On no occasion in our Lord's earthly ministry do we find Him acting so energetically, and exhibiting such righteous indignation, as on the occasion now before us. Nothing seems to have called from Him such a marked display of holy wrath as the gross irreverence which the priests permitted in the temple, notwithstanding all their boasted zeal for God's law. Twice, it will be remembered, He discovered the same profanation of His Father's house going on, within three years, once at the beginning of His ministry and once at the end. Twice we see Him expressing his displeasure in the strongest terms. "The thing is doubled" in order to impress a lesson more strongly on our minds. The passage is one that ought to raise deep searchings of heart in many quarters. Are there none who profess and call themselves Christians, behaving every Sunday just as badly as these Jews? Are there none who secretly bring into the house of God their money, their lands, their houses, their cattle, and a whole train of worldly affairs?

The zeal of thine house - See Psa 59:10. Zeal to promote thy glory, and to keep thy worship pure.