How the Tables Have Turned: Jesus, the Temple, and the Pattern of Divine Justice
"You've probably heard someone say, 'how the tables have turned.'" I used that familiar phrase as a doorway into something bigger: the way reversals show up in scripture, in American history, and in everyday life. In this post, I walk through what the phrase means, why Jesus literally overturned tables in the temple, how the American Revolution reflects a similar kind of reversal, and what it looks like to stay faithful when the "tables" of power and influence feel stacked against truth.
Greetings, Patriots. I'm Perry Greene. Welcome to GodNAmerica, where faith and freedom walk hand in hand through the stories that shaped our nation.
You've probably heard someone say, "how the tables have turned." It is a familiar phrase. It describes a reversal: the powerful fall, the weak rise, and justice finally catches up to people who once seemed untouchable.
In the episode, I pointed out that the phrase has roots in old board games (often described in the 17th century), where a board could be switched and players would take the other person's place. In that kind of moment, the momentum flips. The one who was losing starts winning. The tide turns.
Over time, that everyday image became a symbol for the remarkable reversals of life: the underdog rising, truth prevailing, and justice arriving when it has been delayed.
Scripture gives a vivid picture of this theme when Jesus literally turned the tables.
The Bible says in Matthew 21:12-13 that Jesus entered the temple, drove out those buying and selling, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."
In the message, I emphasized that these were not light folding tables. I described them as heavy tables set up in the court of the Gentiles, the place in the temple where non-Jews could come to seek God. Instead of welcoming worshipers, that space had become a marketplace. Instead of holiness, there was greed.
That detail matters, because it shows what was being damaged.
Worship was being crowded out by commerce.
Access was being blocked in the very area meant to be open.
The people who should have modeled reverence were exploiting others.
When Jesus overturned the tables, it was not chaos for its own sake. It was correction. It was a public exposure of hypocrisy. It was a defense of the humble. It was a restoration of honor to His Father's house.
That is the kind of reversal divine justice produces. It flips the order of things: the proud are humbled, the meek are lifted, and the truth scatters lies like light through darkness.
From there, I connected that pattern to the American Revolution. In worldly terms, the colonies were the weaker side: untrained militias facing what was, at the time, the greatest empire on earth. Britain ruled the seas, commanded wealth, and carried itself like it was untouchable.
And yet the tables turned.
I quoted Thomas Paine's line from The American Crisis: "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." In the story I told, that triumph came with a hard turn. The ragtag Continental Army, fueled by faith, conviction, and the belief that liberty is a gift from God, overcame impossible odds.
At Yorktown in 1781, troops who had once marched through the colonies under the King's banner laid down their arms in surrender. The table had flipped.
I also drew a comparison that matters for how people interpret the Revolution. In my framing, it was not about revenge. It was about restoration. Just as Jesus' action in the temple was meant to correct what had been corrupted, the Revolution was described as reclaiming what God intended: that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator, not a king, with certain unalienable rights.
In other words, freedom is not something an earthly crown can grant or revoke. It comes from God. And because it comes from God, no earthly power can rightfully take it away.
After scripture and history, I brought the phrase back to the present, because "how the tables have turned" still carries weight today. People live in a world full of tables: systems of power, influence, and manipulation. In the way I used the image, a "table" is not only furniture. It is any setup that puts people in certain positions - who gets heard, who gets ignored, who gets rewarded, and who gets exploited.
Illustrative examples (not from the episode as specific stories) might include:
A workplace culture where honesty costs you, but flattery pays.
A community pattern where the vulnerable are treated as problems instead of neighbors.
A personal habit where prayer gets pushed aside until there is a crisis.
A public system where rules exist on paper, but favoritism decides outcomes.
When those arrangements are built on greed, deception, or control, they can look stable for a long time. They can train people to assume the table is permanent. But the point I made is that they are not permanent when they are built on wrong foundations. Some of those systems are built on greed, deception, or control. They can look stable. They can look permanent. They can look like they will never be challenged.
But the message was simple: those tables do not stand forever.
When Jesus enters, He does not just rearrange the chairs. He overturns the tables.
I anchored that warning in Galatians 6:7: "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap." People may sow deceit, oppression, or corruption and seem to prosper for a season, but reaping comes. Justice comes. The tables turn.
Sometimes that turning begins quietly, through repentance, conviction, and courage. Other times it arrives like a storm, when God exposes what has been hidden and brings down the mighty from their thrones. That distinction matters because it keeps people from misunderstanding what justice looks like. Quiet turning can show up when someone admits sin, changes direction, and stops participating in what is wrong. Storm-like turning can show up when wrongdoing is forced into the open and consequences finally arrive.
In both cases, the reversal is tied to truth coming into the light. The episode was not presented as a call to panic. It was presented as a call to stay awake: to repent where repentance is needed, and to stand firm when courage is required.
I referenced Mary's song in Luke 1:52: God "has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble." That is not only a Christmas sentiment. It is a pattern of God's correction.
From there, I pointed to how our forefathers understood this principle. They risked everything because they believed God sides with the righteous, not merely the powerful, and because they believed freedom is sustained by faith, not force. The claim I made was that they built a nation on the idea that God's moral law must stand above man's law, and that when it does not, the people must act. I used familiar statements that have been repeated in American political memory: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," and "we must obey God rather than men."
Whether someone hears that as a religious claim, a historical claim, or both, the practical point I emphasized is that liberty and righteousness are connected, and that freedom is sustained by faith and moral clarity rather than force alone. When corruption and arrogance grow, and when people who think they are above justice manipulate the system, it is worth remembering that history has a way of turning its own tables. What is done in secret does not stay in secret. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled.
That brings the theme to a personal place, too. Every generation faces its own "court of the Gentiles" - the public square where people gather, speak, trade, argue, and search for meaning. In the episode, I said every generation must stand there and insist: this is a house of prayer; this is a land of freedom; we will not let it be defiled.
In the end, "how the tables have turned" is more than an idiom. In the way I presented it, it is a promise: God still moves, still corrects, still restores. Truth can be pressed to the ground, but it rises again.
So I closed with a call to live as people who trust the turn: people who believe that the same Jesus who overturned the tables of greed will one day overturn the tables of injustice in our world.
Application
Here are practical ways to live like people who trust the turn - who believe that the same Jesus who overturned the tables of greed will also overturn the tables of injustice.
Start with inspection, not accusation. Identify the "tables" in your own life first: habits, compromises, or motivations that have turned worship into transaction.
Keep the house of prayer a house of prayer. Guard time for prayer, scripture, and worship so that busyness and bargain-making do not crowd out reverence.
Practice clean dealing. In a world where manipulation is normal, choose integrity in money, work, speech, and relationships.
Refuse cynicism. A delayed reversal is not a denial. Stay steady when justice seems slow.
Be courageous in the public square. Speak truth with humility, participate in civic life with moral clarity, and defend the vulnerable without becoming vengeful.
Watch what you sow. Galatians 6:7 is not only a warning for others; it is a rule of reality. Sow honesty, repentance, generosity, and courage - and keep sowing it.
TL;DR
"How the tables have turned" describes a reversal: the losing side becomes the winning side, and the powerful are brought low.
In the episode, I traced the phrase to old board games where players could switch places and momentum could flip.
Matthew 21:12-13 shows Jesus overturning the tables of money changers in the temple as an act of correction and restoration.
I described the court of the Gentiles as a space meant for seeking God that had been turned into a marketplace of greed.
The American Revolution was presented as a major historical "table turn," with Yorktown (1781) as a vivid example of reversal.
The argument I made is that liberty comes from God, not from kings or governments, and cannot be rightfully taken away by earthly power.
Galatians 6:7 and Luke 1:52 frame divine justice as sowing and reaping, and as God humbling the proud while lifting the humble.
The call is to stay faithful, prayerful, and courageous as each generation guards liberty and righteousness.
Devotional Questions
Where do you see "tables" in everyday life - places where power, money, or influence can crowd out what is right?
In Matthew 21:12-13, what do Jesus' actions show about what He values in worship?
What is the difference between correction and revenge, and why does that difference matter when people talk about justice?
Galatians 6:7 says people reap what they sow. What are examples of "seeds" that lead to peace, and seeds that lead to conflict?
When you feel discouraged by corruption or unfairness, what helps you stay faithful instead of cynical?