Jesus highly valued familiar contact with God, otherwise known as prayer. Jesus’ communion with God was more than words and emotions. Prayer is primarily spiritual. When the Lord Jesus formed Adam from the dust of the ground, he looked normal (Genesis 2:7a). Yet, Adam was not made in the image of God until the Lord God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7b; John 3:5-6). The Hebrew word for “breathed into” in Genesis 1:27, “naphach”, is similar to the Hebrew word for “Spirit” in Genesis 1:2 (“…the Spirit of God was hovering…”). Prayer is spiritual breathing.
Breathing is difficult with the stench and noise of animal commerce present (45; Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15-17). God ordered the tabernacle and later the temple to be built so the human race (Israelites and Gentiles) could commune with God. The Jewish religious leadership instituted the buying and selling of animals for sacrifice in the large Gentile Temple court, the one area where Gentiles were permitted. Jesus was furious when he saw this. Three years earlier, he had expelled the sellers and animals from this area. Now, they returned.
Jesus drove out all who were buying and selling there once again. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. Jesus quoted Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. Then he taught at the temple. The Gentiles could breathe the Spirit’s breath once again. Whatever is keeping me from God’s breath is keeping my temple from being born again (John 2:21).
