Jeremiah and Jesus

  There were two occasions when Jesus cleansed the temple; one in the early part of His ministry and again in the last portion of it. He drove out those who were using the temple for their monetary gain, displaying His anger at their evil as strongly as on any other occasion in those three and one half years of work. He accused them of turning the temple into a house of robbers and thieves. He overturned their tables and with a whip drove out the animals they were selling for sacrifice.

  But this was not the first time rebuke for such things had been given. Many years before this the prophet Jeremiah found the temple being abused in a similar fashion. This provoked God and the prophet to anger. ":Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord" (Jer. 7:11).

  Does it not seem that in the history of ancient Israel we see the same sins over and over from one generation to the next? Why would they not learn? Do we learn from them?