Mark 11:15-19. Jesus comes to Jerusalem and goes to the temple where He drives out anyone who is buying or selling there. He overturns the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the pigeon sellers. He does not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And He teaches, saying "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?' But you have made it a den of robbers." After this, the chief priests and scribes seek away to destroy Him, "for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching."

This is the beginning of the end for Jesus, as He well knew. There was a reason He did not go to the temple and do this earlier - He would have called attention to himself and thwarted his mission of proclaiming the kingdom. There is a time for everything, even righteous anger and justice, and God alone knows when that time is.

Jesus knew what was going on in the temple, He did not have to see it for Himself to know that the temple was being used as a marketplace, often with people cheating the poor. He knew, but He waited to go there until the time was right. I'm sure that He felt the same kind of slow-burning anger that many of us are feeling right now as He went about His daily duties in fulfilling His mission (I'm sure he felt that way about a lot of things, and still does!). But He waited until the time was right - until He knew it was His time - before pushing the powers that be to the point that they felt they had to do something about Him.

This is a fantastic lesson for us right now. The injustice, abuse of power, corruption, abuses of the weak and the poor, the mutilation and killing of children, the lying and the cheating, and all of the other egregious misdeeds by those in power have reached what feels like a breaking point. Many feel that something must be done, something akin to turning over the money-changers' tables in the temple. But it is not time yet. Once those tables are turned over, the die will be cast. It will be the beginning of the end for many of our systems and institutions, and many people will suffer in many different ways.

God knows about the evils, and He is, I'm sure, feeling more anger than we are. He will act when the time is right. He will turn over those tables and scatter the evildoers. He may use unexpected people or events to do this, or He may use nature, we just don't know. Only He truly knows the tables that must be turned over and the robbers who must be sent packing, and He will act when He has both given the evil doers every possible chance to repent, and when He can protect the rest of His people as best as possible. We just must pray and have patience.

Also, in some ways, I think He has already begun. I see evidence that many of the mighty are falling. Maybe the tables will be turned over at different times. Maybe this is one way He is protecting the innocent - as we see things start falling apart, we can take action to protect ourselves!