A House of Prayer
After the Savior’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, “Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves.” He explained His actions this way, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12-13). The only time that the phrase “house of prayer” shows up in the Old Testament, at least in the King James version, is in this passage: “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7). So He may have been referring to these words of Isaiah who declared that the temple should be “an house of prayer for all people.” In this dispensation the Lord again said that the temple should be a “house of prayer”: “Organize y...