When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn’t find it. Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came out,’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”
Parallel Translations
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When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn’t find it.
Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came out,’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.”
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When the vnclene sprite is gone out of a man he walketh throughout dry places seking reest and fyndeth none.
Then he sayeth: I will retourne ageyne into my housse from whence I came oute. And when he is come he fyndeth the housse empty and swepte and garnisshed.
Then he goeth his waye and taketh vnto him seven other spretes worsse then himsilfe and so entre they in and dwell there. And the ende of that man is worsse then the beginning. Even so shall it be with this evell nacion.
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Nowe when the vncleane spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh throughout drie places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Then he saith, I wil returne into mine house from whence I came: and when he is come, he findeth it emptie, swept and garnished.
Then he goeth, and taketh vnto him seuen other spirites worse then himselfe, and they enter in, and dwell there: and the ende of that man is worse then the beginning. Euen so shall it be with this wicked generation.
Cross-references (53)
- Luke 11:24-26 (v43) The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back…
- Luke 8:28-32 (v43) When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of…
- Luke 11:26 (v45) Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes…
- Matthew 8:29 (v43) Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
- Mark 5:9 (v45) He asked him, “What is your name?” He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
Show all 53 cross-references
- Hebrews 6:4-8 (v45) For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the…
- Hebrews 10:26-31 (v45) For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain…
- Amos 8:11-13 (v43) Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of…
- Mark 5:7-13 (v43) and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t…
- 2 Peter 2:14-22 (v45) having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;…
- Job 2:2 (v43) Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from…
- Isaiah 35:6-7 (v43) Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in…
- 1 Peter 5:8 (v43) Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
- 1 John 4:4 (v44) You are of God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
- Job 1:7 (v43) Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from…
- Isaiah 41:18 (v43) I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry…
- Ezekiel 47:8-12 (v43) Then he said to me, “These waters flow out toward the eastern region, and will go down into the Arabah. Then they will go toward the sea;…
- Mark 16:9 (v45) Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
- John 15:22-24 (v45) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my…
- Jude 1:10-13 (v45) But these speak evil of whatever things they don’t know. They are destroyed in these things that they understand naturally, like the…
- Psalms 63:1 (v43) God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no…
- Psalms 81:11-12 (v44) But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they…
- Acts 8:13 (v43) Simon himself also believed. Being baptized, he continued with Philip. Seeing signs and great miracles occurring, he was amazed.
- Romans 11:8-10 (v45) According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this…
- 1 Corinthians 11:19 (v44) For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.
- Hebrews 10:39 (v45) But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.
- 1 John 2:19 (v44) They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that…
- 1 John 5:16-17 (v45) If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to…
- Jude 1:4-5 (v44) For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the…
- Revelation 13:8-9 (v44) All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life…
- Hosea 7:6 (v44) For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all the night. In the morning it burns as a…
- Matthew 12:24 (v45) But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”
- Matthew 12:29 (v44) Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his…
- Matthew 13:20-22 (v44) What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it; yet he has no root in himself, but…
- Matthew 21:38-44 (v45) But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his inheritance.’ So they…
- Matthew 23:24 (v45) You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
- Luke 11:21-22 (v44) “When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he…
- Luke 11:49-51 (v45) Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the…
- Luke 19:41-44 (v45) When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But…
- John 12:6 (v44) Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box, used to steal what was put into…
- John 13:2 (v44) During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
- John 13:27 (v44) After the piece of bread, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
- Acts 5:1-3 (v44) But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of…
- Ephesians 2:2 (v44) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works…
- Ephesians 6:12 (v45) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 (v45) who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (v44) even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness…
- 1 Timothy 6:9-10 (v44) But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and…
- Matthew 23:15 (v45) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you…
- Matthew 23:32-39 (v45) Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna? Therefore…
- Acts 8:18-23 (v44) Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me…
- 1 Timothy 6:4-5 (v44) he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil…
- Revelation 13:3-4 (v44) One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled at the beast. They…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv43–45 43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of…
43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Ver. 43. When the unclean spirit] Unclean the devil is called: 1. Affectione (saith Jacobus de Voragine), because he loveth uncleanness. 2. Persuasione, because he persuades men to it. 3. Habitatione, because he inhabits unclean hearts; he finds them foul, he makes them worse. Wheresoever the Great Turk sets his foot once, no grass grows, they say, ever after. Sure it is no grace grows where the devil dwells. Pura Deus mens est, saith one. And religion loves to lie clean, saith another. The Holy Spirit will be content to dwell in a poor but it must be a pure house. The devil, on the contrary, delights in spiritual sluttishness. Harpy-like, {a} he defileth all he toucheth; and camel-like, drinks not of that water that he hath not first fouled with his feet.
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Is gone out of a man] In regard to inward illumination and outward reformation, 2Pe 2:20; such as was found in Bishop Bonner, that breathing devil, who at first seemed to be a good man, a favourer of Luther’s doctrines, a hater of Popery, and was therefore advanced by the Lord Cromwell; to whom he thus wrote in a certain letter: "Stephen Gardiner, for malice and disdain, may be compared to the devil in hell, not giving place to him in pride at all. I mislike in him, that there is so great familiarity aud acquaintance, yea, and such mutual confidence, between him and M., as naughty a fellow, and as very a Papist, as any that I know, where he dare express it." Who can deny but that the devil was gone out of this man, for a time at least?
He walketh through dry places] Here the proverb holds true, Anima sicca sapientissima, sensual hearts are the fennish grounds that breed filthy venomous creatures. Job 40:21, Behemoth lieth in the fens. This, Gulielmus Parisiensis applieth to the devil in sensual hearts. {b} Contrariwise, the spirits of God’s saints, which burn with faith, hope, and charity, and have all evil humours dried up in them by that spirit of judgment and of burning, these the devil likes not. The tempter findeth nothing in them, though he seek it diligently. He striketh fire, but this tinder takes not. Cupid complained he could never fasten upon the Muses, because he could never find them idle. So here. Or thus, "he walketh through dry places;" i.e. he is discontented and restless (see the like, Jer 17:5-6), for otherwise dry and wet is all one with him.
{a} A fabulous monster, rapacious and filthy, having a woman’s face and body and a bird’s wings and claws, and supposed to act as a minister of divine vengeance. ŒD
{b} In locis dormit humentibus, hoc est, in omnibus deliciis madentibus.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v43 The speech appeareth parabolical, the persons concerned in it…
The speech appeareth parabolical, the persons concerned in it are expressed in the last words, the men of that wicked generation. The text is thought to be well expounded by Peter, 2Pe 2:20, If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. Our Lord here compares the Jews to a man out of whom the unclean spirit was gone. The devil is called the unclean spirit, both in regard of his own impure nature, and because his work is to tempt men to sin, which is spiritual filthiness. The Jews were a people holy to the Lord, a people distinguished from pagans by a visible profession; so as the devil in a great measure had left them. Now, saith he, the devil is an unquiet spirit, and findeth no rest if he cannot be doing mischief to men. For the phrase, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, we must know, that in parabolical speeches we must not make a severe scrutiny upon every phrase. Dry places are for the most part places least inhabited, for want of the conveniences of water. The devil cannot be at rest where he hath no mischief to do to men.
Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out: the devil so leaveth none, but he will be attempting to come into them again; and he ordinarily succeeds where Christ hath not prepossessed the soul: all other reformation proves but a sweeping and a garnishing, while the soul is empty of Christ. It may be swept from the filth of flagitious sins, and garnished with the paint of religion, or some habits of moral virtue; but none of these will keep out the devil.
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Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. Seven, that is, many. The meaning is, he makes that man much worse than before. So (saith he) it shall be to these Jews. God gave them his laws, and so delivered them from such a dominion as the devil doth exercise over pagans. In force of this law, the scribes and Pharisees amended many things, so as they were like a house swept and garnished. God sent his Son to dwell amongst them, but him they rejected; so the house was empty, though swept and garnished. The devil will come again, and they will be ten times worse.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v43 The design and scope of this parable is to…
The design and scope of this parable is to show that the Pharisees, by rejecting the gospel and refusing to believe in Christ, were in a seven-fold worse condition than if the gospel had never been preached to them, and a Saviour had never come among them; because by our Saviour’s ministry Satan was in some sort cast out: but for rejecting Christ and his grace, Satan had got a seven-fold stronger possession of them now than before.
From this parable, learn, 1. That Satan is an unclean spirit; he has lost his original purity, his holy nature, in which he was created, and is become universally filthy and unclean nature. Nay, he is a perfect enemy to purity and holiness, maligning all that love it, and would promote it.
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2. That Satan is a restless and unquiet spirit; being cast out of heaven, he can rest nowhere; when he is either gone out of a man through policy, or cast out of a man by power, he has no content or satisfaction, till he returns into a filthy heart, where he delights to be as the swine in miry places.
3. That wicked and profane sinners have this unclean spirit dwelling in them: their hearts are Satan’s house and habitation; and the lusts of pride and unbelief, malice and revenge, envy and hypocrisy, these are the garnishings of Satan’s house. Man’s heart was God’s house by creation, it is now Satan’s by usurpation and judiciary tradition.
4. That Satan by the preaching of the gospel may seem to go out of persons, and they become sober and civilized; yet may he return to his old habitation, and the last end of that man may be worse than the beginning.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv43–45 But he answered and said unto him that told…
But he answered and said unto him that told him,.... Of his mother and brethren being without doors, desiring, and waiting to speak to him,
Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? These questions are put, not as if he himself was ignorant who were his mother or his brethren; or as suggesting as if he had none; or as denying that these were in such a relation to him; or as casting any slight upon them; or as intending to teach men disrespect to parents and kindred, according to the flesh; but as displeased with the man, or men, for interrupting him in his work; and to let them know, that the business of his heavenly Father was preferred by him to any his natural relations could have with him; and that he might have an opportunity of pointing out who were his relations in a spiritual sense.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv43–45 But how dreadful will be the consequence of their…
But how dreadful will be the consequence of their rejecting me? When the unclean spirit goeth out - Not willingly, but being compelled by one that is stronger than he. He walketh - Wanders up and down; through dry places - Barren, dreary, desolate; or places not yet watered with the Gospel: Seeking rest, and findeth none - How can he, while he carries with him his own hell? And is it not the case of his children too? Reader, is it thy case? Luke xi, 24.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv43–45 Verse 43. When the unclean spirit] If there had…
Verse 43. When the unclean spirit] If there had been no reality in demoniacal possessions, our Lord would have scarcely appealed to a case of this kind here, to point out the real state of the Jewish people, and the desolation which was coming upon them. Had this been only a vulgar error, of the nonsense of which the learned scribes and the wise Pharisees must have been convinced, the case not being one in point, because not true, must have been treated by that very people with contempt for whose conviction it was alone designed.
He walketh through dry places] Δι' ανυδρων τοπων. There seems to be a reference here to the Orphic demonology, in which evil spirits were divided into various classes, according to the different regions of their abode, or places in which they delighted. These classes were five:
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1. Δαιμονες ουρανιοι, Celestial demons.
2. Δαιμονες ηεριοι, Aerial.
3. Δαιμονες ενυδριοι, Aquatic.
4. Δαιμονες χθονιοι, Terrestrial.
5. Και δαιμονες υποχθονιοι, And subterranean demons.
See Orph. ad Mus. ap. Schott. The Platonists, the followers of Zoroaster, and the primitive Jews, made nearly the same distinctions.
Seeking rest] Or refreshment. Strange! a fallen corrupt spirit can have no rest but in the polluted human heart: the corruption of the one is suited to the pollution of the other, and thus like cleaves to like.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v43 Mat 12:43-45. When the unclean spirit, &c. — In…
Mat 12:43-45. When the unclean spirit, &c. — In these verses, with a view to show how dreadful the state of the Jewish people would be, if they continued to reject him and his gospel, our Lord introduces a parable, borrowed from the late subject of his dispute with the Pharisees. He compares their condition to that of a man, who, after having had an evil spirit expelled out of him, is again, through God’s permission, as a punishment of his continuing in sin, taken possession of by that spirit, with seven others still more wicked, and is thereby brought into a worse condition than ever. The parable evidently supposes the existence of demoniacal possessions, for if there had been no reality in them, the comparison would have meant nothing; and it supposes, also, that the Pharisees allowed their existence, otherwise our Lord’s words, instead of convincing or instructing them, must have been treated by them with contempt. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man — Not of his own accord, or willingly, but compelled by one that is stronger than he; he walketh — Wanders up and down, through dry places — Barren, dreary, desolate; or places not yet watered with the gospel. The words contain a plain allusion to the common notion, that evil demons had their haunts in deserts and desolate places. Compare Isa 13:21; where, instead of satyrs, the LXX. read δαιμονια, demons. See also Rev 18:2. Seeking rest — To his own malignant nature, in observing barren wastes and desolations, rather than such agreeable scenes as might present to his view the memorials of God’s goodness to the human race: and findeth none — How should he find any, while he carries with him his own hell? And is it not the case of his children, too? Reader, is it thy case? Then he saith, I will return into my house — He resolves to make another attack on the person out of whom he had been expelled: whence I came out — He speaks as if he had come out of his own accord: see his pride! And when he is come, he findeth it empty — Of truth and grace; of wisdom and piety; of God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit: swept and garnished — That is, prepared to receive him: swept, from love, lowliness, meekness, and all the fruits of the Spirit, and adorned with levity and folly, vanity and sin. In other words, he finds the miserable sinner unaffected with his late affliction and deliverance, and still a slave to those vices which render him an agreeable dwelling for Satan. Then goeth he and taketh seven other spirits — That is, a great many, the number seven denoting perfection, whether of good or bad things; more wicked than himself — Whence it appears that there are degrees of wickedness among the devils themselves. And they enter in, finding easy access, and dwell there — Namely, for ever, in him that is forsaken of God. And the last state, &c., is worse than the first — The devils having taken a sevenfold stronger possession of him than they had before. So shall it be also unto this wicked generation — Who resist the convictions which my doctrine and miracles have raised in them. Instead of growing wiser and better, they will become seven times more foolish, sinful, and miserable, “as both the natural and judicial consequence of their rejecting the methods used by divine grace for their recovery; till, as if they were possessed by a multitude of devils, they are madly hurried on to their irrecoverable ruin in this world and the next. They who have read the sad account, given by Josephus, of the temper and conduct of the Jews after the ascension of Christ, and just before their final destruction by the Romans, must acknowledge that no emblem could have been more proper to describe them. Their characters were the vilest that can be conceived, and they pressed on to their own ruin, as if they had been possessed by legions of devils, and wrought up to the last degrees of madness.” — Doddridge. But this parable is also designed to teach men, in every age, the danger and awful consequences of resisting the convictions produced in their minds by the truth and grace of God; or of grieving, quenching, and doing despite to the Holy Ghost, by breaking through their resolutions, and relapsing into their former sins; the effect being commonly to render them more obdurate and abandoned than before.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v43 When the unclean spirit ... - The “general sentiment”…
When the unclean spirit ... - The “general sentiment” which our Saviour here teaches is much more easily understood than the illustration which he uses. The Jews had asked a sign from heaven that should decisively prove that he was the Messiah, and satisfy their unbelief. He replies that, though he should give them such a sign a proof conclusive and satisfactory, and though for a time they should profess to believe and apparently reform, yet such was the obstinacy of their unbelief and wickedness, that they would soon return to their former course. and become worse and worse. Infidelity and wickedness, like an evil spirit in a possessed man, were appropriately at “home” in them. If driven out, they would find no other place so comfortable and undisturbed as their bosoms. Everywhere they would be, comparatively, like an evil spirit going through deserts and lonely places, and finding no place of rest. They would return, therefore, and dwell with them.
He walketh through dry places - That is, through deserts - regions of country unwatered, sandy, barren, desolate. That our Saviour here speaks according to the ancient belief of the Jews that evil spirits had their abodes in those desolate, uninhabited regions, there can be no doubt; nor can there be any doubt that the Bible gives countenance to the opinion. Thus Rev 18:2; “Babylon - is become the habitation of “devils” and the hold of “every foul spirit;” that is, has become “desolate - a place where evil spirits appropriately dwell. So Isa 13:21; “And satyrs shall dance there:” “i. e.” according to the ancient Greek translation, “devils or demons shall dance there.” See also Jer 50:39. Compare the Isa 34:4 note; Deu 32:17 note.
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Seeking rest, and findeth none - These desolate and dry regions are represented as uncomfortable habitations; so much so, that the dissatisfied spirit, better pleased with a dwelling in the bosoms of people, as affording an opportunity of doing evil, seeks a return there.
Mat 12:44
Then he saith, I will return into my house ... - The man is called his house, because the spirit had dwelt in him.
He findeth it empty ... - There is here a continuance of the reference to the dwelling of the spirit in people.
The man was called his “house.” By the absence of the evil spirit the house is represented as unoccupied, or “empty, swept,” and “garnished;” that is, while the evil spirit was away, the man was restored to his right mind, or was freed from the influence of the evil spirit.
Garnished - Adorned, put in order, furnished. Applied to the “man,” it means that his mind was sane and regular when the evil spirit was gone, or he had a “lucid interval.”
Mat 12:45
Then goeth he ... - Seeing the state of the man; dissatisfied with a lonely dwelling in the desert where he could do no evil; envious of the happiness of the individual, and supremely bent on wickedness, he resolved to increase his power of malignant influences and to return.
He is therefore represented as taking seven other spirits still worse than himself, and returning to his former habitation. Seven denotes a large but indefinite number. It was a favorite number with the Jews, and was used to denote “completeness” or “perfection,” or any “finished” or “complete” number. See 1Sa 2:5. Compare Rev 1:4. Here it means a sufficient number completely to occupy and harass his soul.
Even so shall it be with this generations - This shows the scope and design of this illustration. The state of that man was a representation of that generation of people. Much might be done to cure their unbelief, much to reform them externally; but such was the firm hold which the principles of infidelity and wickedness had taken of their minds “as their proper habitation,” that they would return, after all the means used to reform them, and they would be worse and worse. And this was literally accomplished. After all the instructions and miracles of the Saviour and his apostles; after all that had been done for them by holy people and prophets, and by the judgments and mercies of God; and after all their external temporary reformations - like the temporary departure of an evil spirit from a man possessed - yet such was their love of wickedness that the nation became worse and worse. They increased in crime, like the seven-fold misery and wretchedness of the man into whose bosom the seven additional evil spirits came. They rejected God’s messengers, abused his mercies, crucified his Son, and God gave their temple, and capital, and nation into the hands of the Romans. and thousands of the people to destruction.
It is not “proved” by this passage that evil spirits actually “dwell” in deserts It is proved only that such was the opinion of the Jews; that that opinion was drawn from some expressions in the Bible; and that “such expressions were sufficiently clear to justify the Saviour in drawing an argument from them to confound those who firmly believed that such was the case.” Nor is there any absurdity in the opinion; for,
There are evil spirits. See the notes at Mat 8:33. They must exist in “some place.” There is as much propriety that they should be located about our earth as anywhere. The clear doctrine of the Bible is, that many of them have much to do with our world. It is as reasonable that they should dwell commonly in desolate and uninhabited regions as anywhere else.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v45 Seven is taken frequently, in Scripture, for an indefinite…
Seven is taken frequently, in Scripture, for an indefinite number; for several. (Bible de Vence)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a…
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, &c.--On this important parable, in connection with the corresponding one (Mat 12:29) see on Luk 11:21-26.
A charming little incident, given only in Luk 11:27-28, seems to have its proper place here.
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Luk 11:27 :
And it came to pass, as He spake these things, a certain woman of the company--out of the crowd.
lifted up her voice and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked--With true womanly feeling she envies the mother of such a wonderful Teacher. And a higher and better than she had said as much before her (see on Luk 1:28). How does our Lord, then, treat it? He is far from condemning it. He only holds up as "blessed rather" another class: Luk 11:28 :
But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it--in other words, the humblest real saint of God. How utterly alien is this sentiment from the teaching of the Church of Rome, which would doubtless excommunicate any one of its members that dared to talk in such a strain!
His Mother and Brethren Seek to Speak with Hint and the Answer (Mat 12:46-50).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv43–45 43. When the unclean spirit — Our Lord draws…
43. When the unclean spirit — Our Lord draws a picture of the present apostate generation, (including the blaspheming Pharisees,) from the demoniac whom he had dispossessed before the commencement of this discourse, and whose case had given rise to it, (Mat_12:22.) That generation had melted, and been transiently converted, under the preaching of John.
They were precisely like the man he had just dispossessed. But how had the devil again possessed them! Dry places — Waterless, and therefore uninhabited deserts. Walketh through dry places — The demon, driven by divine power from the hearts of men, is pictured by our Lord as not going to hell directly, but as lingering in the unpeopled regions of the dry desert. Seeking rest, and findeth none — Because he pants for a residence in a human being.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv43–45 43. dry places] The waterless desert uninhabited by man…
43. dry places] The waterless desert uninhabited by man was regarded by the Jews as the especial abode of evil spirits.
43–45. A Figure to illustrate the surpassing Wickedness of the day
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Luk_11:24-26, where the connection is different. St Luke, as usual, omits the direct application to Israel.
The connection is not clearly marked. It seems to be this: Christ has been speaking of “this generation;” He now contrasts it with past generations. The Jews of former times were like a man possessed by a demon, the Jews of this day are like a man possessed by many demons.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv43–45 (43) When the unclean spirit is gone out of…
(43) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man.—The parable comes in abruptly, possibly because here, as elsewhere, we have a part and not the whole of a discourse, striking passages noted and put together, now in this order, now in that, while the links that joined them are missing. The inner connection of thought is, however, clear enough. How was it, it might be asked, that Israel had sunk to such a depth of evil? and the answer was found in the similitude which thus opens. The phenomena which furnish the comparison were probably familiar enough. So far as possession was identical in its phenomena, wholly or in part, with insanity, there might be sudden and violent relapses after intervals of calmness and apparent cure. The spirit of the man, under the influence of exorcisms, or prayers, or the sympathy of friends, might assert its freedom for a time, and then yield again to the oppressor. In the history of such a demoniac, which our Lord narrates in the language of the popular belief, He sees a parable of the history of the Jewish people.
Walketh through dry places.—The description reflects the popular idea that the parched deserts of Syria and Arabia and Egypt were haunted by demons, who thence came to invade the bodies and the souls of men. So in the book of Tobit (Tob_8:3), the demon Asmodeus flees to the upper parts of Egypt.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv43–45 Vers. 43-45. Parallel passage: Luk_11:24-26, almost verbally, but omitting…
Vers. 43-45. Parallel passage: Luk_11:24-26, almost verbally, but omitting the application at the end of our ver. 45. A solemn warning against a merely negative improvement. External preparation, mechanical religion, is insufficient; a definite acceptance of my teaching is required. Our Lord"s primary thought Would appear to be the relation in which those to whom he was speaking stood to himself. But he frames his words so as to include the whole of that generation of Jews (vers. 39, 45). For his present hearers truly represented their contemporaries.
Observe
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(1) the close of this discourse resembles that of the sermon on the mount;
(2) the connexion of thought is the same in Luke, though there the passage comes immediately after our ver. 30; i.e. if you are not with me you are really against me; you are only swept and garnished, and the evil spirit returns.
When; but... when (Revised Version); otan de . St. Matthew does not bring this forward as a separate utterance; he wishes the connexion between it and the preceding to be seen. There is a contrast between the behaviour of the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba, and that of the Jews. The unclean spirit (Mat_10:1, note) is gone out of a (the, Revised Version) man (to pneuma ... tou anyrwpou). The first article is inserted for the sake of vividness; the second points back to the spirit; he leaves the man in whom he had dwelt. The two together make the saying parabolic instead of abstract. He walketh ; passeth (Revised Version); diercetai . Perhaps merely "goes through," with the connotation of distance traversed, (Joh_4:15 Act_9:38) but probably "goes about," i.e. to different spots, (cf. Luk_9:6 Act_8:4, 40 20:25, and so of a rumour being spread abroad, Luk_5:15) in restless wandering. Through dry (waterless, Revised Version; di anudrwn) places. Which supplied nothing wherewith he might refresh himself, (Psa_63:1) and which would, of course, have no houses. (Psa_107:4-7, Psa_107:33-36) Seeking rest, (Mat_11:28, Mat_11:29, notes) and findeth none; and findeth it not (Revised Version).
Vers. 43-45. The empty house.
The heart of man is a house in which dwell good or evil. When evil has taken up its abode there, the moralist will endeavour to drive it out. But if he is not able to substitute a positive good, his work will issue in worse than a failure; the evil will come back with increased power and resume possession of its old haunts. Let us endeavour to see the reason of this, and then how the mischief can be prevented.
I THE EVICTION. The house was inhabited by a most undesirable tenant, who kept it in an ill condition, neglected, and filthy. So the landlord turned him out, and had the house cleaned down and garnished ready for a better occupier. This is analogous to a partial reformation one that is only negative. We may compare it with the work of John the Baptist when that is not followed up by the gospel of Christ. The old state of sin has become unendurable; a desperate effort has been made to break off the bad habits. The drunkard has given up his drink; the profligate has left his vice; the worldly person has turned aside from his old follies. The evil spirit has been expelled. More has been done. Not only has there been an expulsion; there has been a cleansing, there has been a re-decoration. The empty house is swept and garnished. An improvement of manners has taken place. Some attempt has been made to add grace and beauty to the once wrecked and degraded soul.
II THE EMPTINESS. An empty house is a dreary sight. Gaunt and silent in a street full of life, it seems to be the abode of ghostly shadows that flit to and fro am peep out of the windows at twilight. If we enter it, it strikes us with a dismal sense of desertion. Its wails echo to every footfall; the stairs creak painfully under our tread; a gust of wind sighs through the vacant passages; suddenly we are startled by the slamming of a door somewhere up in the garret. It is an eerie place. An empty mind is equally desolate; and a heart from which the old affections have been torn is a dreary vacancy. Such things cannot be endured, and they do not last.
III THE RETURN. The empty house invites stray guests. It cannot remain perfectly deserted, if it has nothing better than rats and mice to scamper over the ceilings and chase one another behind the wainscoting. The poor empty soul will soon be infested with a brood of "tenants-at-will." "If there is nothing to keep them out, the old habits will return and reassert themselves. The disappointment of the hope of reformation is likely to give rise to an utter abandonment of despair. When the reformed drunkard breaks out with his old vice again he plunges deeper than ever in the mire.
IV THE REMEDY. How can this terrible end be prevented? The evil arises from the emptiness of the heart. This vacuum must be filled. If the old evil is not to return, a new good must take its place. The only way to keep the old tenant out is to put a new tenant in possession. Negative morality is of little value. "Thou shalt not" is a poor substitute for a gospel of redemption. The heart needs to be filled with a new passion in order that it may leave no room for the old passions to return. Now, this remedy is found in Christ. The love of sin is only perfectly banished when the love of Christ has filled the heart. But when Christ is in possession sin cannot reassert its insolent claims. W.F.A.
Clean, but empty.
A notion prevailed in Chaldea which presents a striking similarity to that appealed to by our Lord in this parable of the evil spirit returning to possess the empty house. It was thought that when once the possessing demons were expelled from the body the only guarantee was to obtain, by the power of incantations, an opposite possession by a favourable demon. A good spirit must take the place of the evil one in the body of the man. This is part of one of their incantations "May the bad demons depart! May they seize upon one another! The propitious demon, The propitious giant, May they penetrate into his body!
We must try to see the connection in which this parable stands.
I IT PICTURES THE HISTORICAL FACT CONCERNING. ISRAEL. The nation had, once for all and resolutely, turned out the demon of idolatry when they returned from Babylon to repossess their land. For a long time the land was clean from that sin, empty of that bad spirit; but as Jesus read the bad hearts of those Pharisees, and the mischievous influence of their teachings, it seemed clear to him that the old demon of idolatry had come back in disguise, and brought with him seven other spirits, worse than himself. That generation was more utterly corrupt than even the old ages of violent idolatry. Hypocrisy, self-will, hard-heartedness, pride, malice, were devils morally worse than idolatry.
II IT REVEALS AN EVER-RECURRING FACT CONCERNING ALL MEN. They are easily satisfied with reforms that merely mean putting aside some evil indulgence. They give up certain habits, and so are clean; but they only turn out the evil and leave his place empty. A soul must be occupied, and if its interest in evil is removed, it must be interested in good. Religion should fill up all empty places, and leave no room for returning evil. The man who relapses into sin after being delivered from its power, almost always goes greater lengths in sin than he went in the early stages. Every relapse is more dangerous than the disease. It is quite possible that a man who has conquered some old vice or besetting sin may, as a reformed man, pass under the dominion of spirits who are far more plausible and no less evil than the one he has subdued. Instead of one coarse spirit, think of eight subtle intellects crowding into a man"s soul. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv43, 45 Mat_12:43; Mat_12:45
Mat_12:43; Mat_12:45
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man.
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Furnished, but vacant
The central lesson of this text is this: that reformation is not necessarily salvation-that, indeed, reformation without godliness may bring a curse rather than a blessing. And it is not the history of the Jewish nation only which illustrates this principle. Look at the reaction which, in our own country, followed the Puritan Reformation. Again, there are not a few in our day who have lost all faith in the gospel of Christ, but who are firm relievers is the power of science and material civilization to elevate and bless mankind. Science may expel the devils of ignorance and superstition; it may sweep the house, and garnish it with information on a thousand subjects. But can it supply the house with a tenant strong enough to keep out the seven worse devils when they come? I do not know that ignorance is more dangerous than intellectual pride. I do not know that a superstitious idolatry is worse than an atheistic materialism. Nay, it may perhaps be more healthful for a man to worship the stars than to worship his own telescope, it is surely better to feel after God in the darkness, than to cease caring for Him in the light. Coming nearer home, my text also teaches us a pratical lesson as to our dealings with individuals whom we are seeking to save and BLESS. AS a parent you endeavour by earnest discipline to expel from your child the demons of disobedience, untruthfulness, self-will. You do well in thus sweeping the house; but this is not salvation. One deed done by your boy through the love of God or Christ or goodness, is worth all the sweeping and garnishing in the world; for it indicates that the house is tenanted. Take another case. Here, let us suppose, is a drunkard whom you are anxious to reform. He is ruining his body, breaking his wifes heart, injuring his family. You succeed in reforming him. This a matter for rejoicing. You have done well in sweeping the house from one vice; but that vice had its root in ungodliness, and if after his reformation the man continues ungodly, there is danger of that ungodliness breaking out in worse sins than ever. Finally, the text has a solemn application to the state of our own souls. The grand question is: Are our souls inhabited by the principles of godliness? Is the spirit of God dwelling within us? Let us choose and cherish all things good. (T. C. Finlayson)
To let, furnished
You may perhaps have seen some large mansion filled with substantial and elegant furniture, and surrounded with a beautiful and well kept garden, and having in its windows a placard bearing the words To let, furnished. I fear there is many a man in modern Christendom of whom such a house is only too fitting an emblem! He may have been well instructed in the truths of Christianity; his mind may be richly stored with the fruits of modern culture; he may be brilliant and accomplished; his acquirements may be substantial, his manners gentlemanly, his tastes refined, his conduct decorous: but the well-furnished rooms are all vacant: they are not tenanted by the spiritual life; they are sadly too open to the incursions of evil; and one day, perhaps, the seven devils may come and abuse to their own purposes all those intellectual and aesthetic treasures. (T. C. Finlayson.)
Reaction
I suppose there never was a time in the history of England which equalled in licentiousness and profanity the period ushered in by the Restoration. And doubtless the chief cause of this is to be found in the endeavour of the Puritans, when they were in power, to force upon the nation both their own theology and their own code of morals. The Puritans, in their intense eagerness to reform the nation, fell into the great mistake of supposing that they could make the people orthodox and virtuous by Acts of Parliament. At least, their deeds were in accordance with some such theory. The Book of Common Prayer was forbidden, under penalty, to be used either in churches or in private houses. Punishments were threatened against such as should find fault with the Calvinistic mode of worship. Public amusements were attacked. Theatrical representstions were proscribed. One statute ordered that all the maypoles in England should be cut down. The Long Parliament gave orders that Christmas Day should be strictly observed as a fast-a day of national humiliation. No person was to be admitted into the public service until the House of Legislature should be satisfied as to his real godliness. Thus the Puritans set themselves most vigorously to sweep England and to garnish it. And it cannot be denied that to some extent they succeeded. The country did present an aspect of greater devoutness and morality. But all such Acts of Parliament could not communicate one spark of religious life; they could sweep away much visible dust, they could garnish the house with external observances, but they could not send the indwelling tenant. And so, in due time, to the untenanted house came the seven devils:-first, hypocrisy and all manner of cant, and secret debauchery, even during the Protectorate; and then, at the Restoration, an unblushing profanity sand licentiousness, the like of which England had never seen before. The king and his courtiers set the example of profligacy. The statesmen of the land became mere selfish tricksters. Literature draggled itself in the mire of pollution. The stage became utterly corrupt. Conventicles were proscribed. John Bunyan was only one of many who were sent to prison for preaching the gospel. (T. C. Finlayson.)
The return of the dispossessed spirit
And if we look to England at the period of the Reformation, we find that men, raised up by God, and endowed of Him with singular boldness, and wisdom, and piety, exorcised the unclean spirit of Romish superstition, and ejected from amongst us the corruptions of Popery. It was a sublime moral revolution, and never did the human mind struggle free from a more oppressive shackle, never was there thrown off from a people a mightier weight, than when Reformers had won the hard-fought battle, and Protestantism was enthroned as the religion of these realms. But we should like to have it carefully considered, whether there has been no receiving back the unclean spirit. The human mind, long enslaved, was intoxicated with its freedom, and, in place of stopping at liberty, went on to lawlessness. Hence the overspreading of the land with a thousand sects and a thousand systems; as though, in casting out the one spirit of ecclesiastical tyranny, we had taken in the seven of ecclesiastical disunion. And over and above this melancholy disruption of the visible Church, Popery itself has too often found a home in our Protestantism: for whenever formality has insinuated itself into religion, or self-righteousness, or the substitution of means for an end, then has there been introduced the very essence of Romanism: the ejected spirit has come back, the same in nature, though less repulsive in appearance. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The genius of moral evil
I. Amazing audacity-My house.
II. Unscrupulous dishonesty.
1. Not a particle of its materials belong to him.
2. Not an effort in its workmanship was his.
III. Intense selfishness. Why does he return to the house, for injury.
IV. Egregious folly. Possession precarious. (Dr. Thomas.)
Transient religious impressions
I. The withdrawal of the evil spirit,
II. His restless anxiety to return.
III. The re-entrance he at length effects.
1. Of the state in which he found it. Empty. Garnished but not furnished.
2. The possession he again takes.
IV. The affecting ,consequence of his repossession.
1. He will now run greater lengths in impiety than before.
2. He is less likely than ever to be recovered from Satanic dominion.
3. It must prove the occasion of more severe and aggravated suffering. (H. Bromley.)
The house swept and garnished
I. A miserable condition indicated. It is that of a man under the influence of an evil spirit.
1. This influence is powerful. It is inward, controlling, directing.
2. It is defiling.
II. An agreeable deliverance experienced. Men may undergo considerable change for the better, without being really converted.
1. In the Word of God this truth is frequently set forth.
2. It is confirmed by innumerable instances.
3. This subject demands serious thought, and vigorous self-examination.
III. A fearful relapse described.
1. When the evil spirit returned he found the house unoccupied.
2. His return under these circumstances was easily effected.
3. The consequences attending this re-possession were truly awful. (Expository Outlines.)
The dangers of relapse
Evil, in every form or stage, is dangerous. But if one comes out of these evils, and lapses back into them, the dangers are increased. This is well understood in disease. When the fever has subsided, and pulse and temperature have become normal, if then, through some indiscretion or exposure, the disease returns, the physician looks for a wider variation of pulse and temperature, and greater danger. The forces of nature are weakened; the house of the body was swept clean of all those gracious energies that filled it full of life and health, and now the disease runs riot through all its undefended chambers and passages. So one may dwell in a marsh at the foot of a mountain-a miserable existence, it may be, in malarious damps and under fatal shades; but it is better to stay there than to climb the mountain and heedlessly slip over a precipice. Life may be maintained below, though under wretched conditions; but the fall may cripple or end it. So one may live a contented life in rude poverty; the single room of the hut, water from the spring, the wild forest around, the homespun suit, the plain diet, the unhelped toil, the dull and narrow routine-a picture for pity, perhaps, and not representing the best forms of life; but if one escapes it, and comes into finer and larger ways of living, and then is driven back to the old place and ways, the lapse breeds a discontent and misery before unknown. To venture forth and then return; to rise and fall back; to promise and not fulfil; to undertake and not do-this is the tragedy of character.
I. One who lapses from religious earnestness does not easily regain it; and if the lapses are frequent there is danger of losing it altogether. The Divine flame cannot often go out and be re-kindled. Once out, it is apt to stay out. The religious nature cannot be tampered with, and retain its integrity. It is largely made up of emotions and passions that lose their quality, and turn into scourges, if treated fitfully. You may bend a bar of iron, and straighten it again; but after repeating this process a few times it suddenly parts in your hands, and only fusing fire can weld it. Take a finer passion-love. You cannot give and take back love without ceasing to love; it is, by its nature, a continuous thing. Violate its nature as such, and it becomes a name and a disgust. One cannot fall in love many times, and have a heart left … Fire always burns; water seeks its level; the crystal keeps its angle; light extinguishes darkness. So in spiritual matters; we cannot trifle with these great passions of love and reverence, devotion, fidelity and enthusiasm without destroying them … It is dangerous, because self-destructive to say, I will do a thing, and then not do it; to take a place of responsibility, and shirk its duties when they begin to press hard and grow monotonous. If we trifle with truth and duty, we do not merely lose them; we change them into avenging spirits that return to us with consuming power.
II. One who takes up and lays off a duty, and is fitful in religious habits and feelings, grows sceptical of the reality of these things. A religious life gets its vindication and comes to a full proof of its reality, only as it is continuous and lived out to the full. One cannot in a year test the full power of a single Christian quality. A personal vindication of the faith is a life-work, and requires all its years. Thus only does one come to know in whom and what one believes. But if the test is a short or vacillating one; if you try prayer, worship, self-denial, meekness, charity, forgiveness, self-control, devotion for a while, and lapse out of them, you doubt their reality. Why should you not? They bore you no fruit, gave you no proof. But alas for him who reaches such a conclusion by such a process. It is something to believe in goodness, though we may not be good; to believe that honest men walk the streets, though we may not be honest; that the light which shines from the downcast eves of modesty is not a false light, though it may have died out in our own; that when men speak of prayer and faith, they speak of realities and powers, though we may be strangers to them. But to doubt them, to disbelieve their existence-that is perdition. Then the soul begins to depart from all things, the glory of humanity fades Out; inspiration ceases to play within us; nobility is gone out of all our life.
III. The reasons for stedfastness. Only one true goal of human effort-character. To know its conditions and obey them is the sum of all knowledge and duty. Regularity, bending the powers to one end, doing always the right thing under the right motive-it is thus that character takes shape and becomes a reality. A habit of religious thought may be formed as truly as a trade can be learned, and under the same law of repetition, guided by will and sympathetic purpose. Lapse, alternations, fluctuations, now earnest, now slothful, now up and doing, and now doing nothing, now alive with religious enthusiasm, now sunk down in apathy-such a history is the defeat and the denial of character. There is still hope no doubt, for one who has had such a history; but he must take care not to repeat it. Character is justly adjudged by its faults and vices, rather than from its virtues; just as it is the weakest spot in the iron that measures the strength of the bar, and just as the rope will hold only the weight that the frayed and chafed strands can endure. In character, the vice blackens the virtue; the virtue cannot whiten the vice … And so, when we turn to the Bible, we find all the promises and all the rewards poured out on those who are faithful unto the end. The patience of the saints is the burden of its exhortation. Be thou faithful unto death, and thou shalt win the crown of life. And in keeping with this, the picture of heavenly perfection, is that of constancy-serving God day and night in His temple; and so they reign for ever and ever. (T. T. Munger.)
The empty life
As wealth increases, as we multiply men-servants and maid-servants in our houses, as life becomes less primitive and more artificial, there come to be found a large number of persons, both men and women, who have little or nothing to do, unless they seek or make an occupation for themselves. It is out of such a condition of things that there is sure to arise, sooner or later, every imaginable evil that can afflict society or ruin the individual soul. Given the growth of wealth, luxury and indolence, and straightway you have prepared a nest in which a whole brood of vices will soon and swiftly be hatched. When one home is clouded or shattered by the shame of some wretched intrigue, and another stung and wounded by the cruelty of some causeless calumny, and a third dishonoured and disbanded perhaps by some foolish and criminal extravagance, have we ever paused to consider amid what idleness, what aimlessness, amid what vapid seeking for a fresh excitement in the dead dull level of an unemployed and uninterested life, these manifold forms of evil were conceived and initiated? Ah! if we could trace back some crime or baseness to its incipient beginning, how often should we find it true that, into the life, empty, swept and garnished, there had entered, just because it was so empty, its hands so idle and unemployed, its heart so uninterested and indifferent, a whole legion of devils to drag it down to hell. (Bishop H. C. Potter.)
The entrance of evil
It is not here said that the evil spirit breaks open the door, or that he does so much as draw the latch; but that he finds it empty and open already, and all things ready for his entertainment; so that, if we reach not out our hands to welcome him when he comes, and set not our doors open to let him in when he knocks, his temptations can never do us hurt; he can but entreat us, as he did Christ; and, if we fall, the fault is our own; we cast ourselves down headlong into misery and sin. (Bishop Cosin.)
The heart a house
So the malicious heart is a house for the spirit of envy: the drunken for the spirit of sobriety: the proud for the spirit of pride: the unchaste for the spirit of uncleanness: usurer for the spirit of covetousness. (T. Adams.)
Satanic disquietude when cast out of man
The discontented devil cast out of man seeks about for a new lodging; and finds all places dry: he esteems every place, but in mans heart, irksome and unpleasant, as a dry, barren, and healthy wilderness. Now, as when a man hath long lived in a fertile valley, abounding with delightful fruits, and necessary comforts, the grounds standing thick with corn, and a pleasant river running along, to glad his heart with a welcome moisture; it cannot be other than a displeasing change to be banished into a mountainous desert, where the scorching sun burns up the grass, and withers the fruit; or the unhindered force of the wind finds a bleak object to work upon; where the veins of blood, the springs of water, rise not, run not, to modify the earth, and cherish her plants. Such is Satans case and cause of perplexity. The wicked heart was his delighted orchard, where the fruits of disobedience, oaths, lies, blasphemies, oppressions, cozenages, contentions, drunken, proud, covetous actions and habits made him fat.
The concealed occupant
The devil may be within the grate, though he thrust not out his apparent horns, or say, he be walked abroad, yet be returns home at night: and in the mean time, like a mistrustful churl, locks the door after him; spares up the heart with security, that his treasure be not stolen. Thus as a snail, he gathers up himself into his shell and house of the heart, when he fears discovery, and puts not forth his horns. Sometimes he plays not in the sun actually, but burrows deep in the affections. The fox keeps his den close, when he knows that Gods huntsmen be abroad to seek him. (T. Adams.)
Satanic relaxation not expulsion
Nero is still in Rome, though he remits taxations, and forbears massacres for a season. (T. Adams.)
The apostate, or black saint
Man compared to a fort, and the devil to its captain.
I. The unclean spirits egress, forsaking the hold.
1. His unroosting:
(a) the person going out;
(b) the manner;
(c) the measure, of his going out.
2. His unresting: which is seen in
(a) his travel;
(b) his trial;
(c) his trouble;
(d) the event-finding none.
II. His regress, striving for a re-entry into that which he lost.
1. Intentively:
(a) his resolution;
(b) his revolution;
(c) the description of the seat;
(d) his affection to the same place.
2. Inventively: for he findeth in it,
(a) Clearness;
(b) Cleanness:
(c) Trimness.
III. His ingress: manifest by-
1. His associates;
(a) their number;
(b) their nature;
(c) the measure of their malice.
2. His assault:
(a) the invasion;
(b) the inhabitation;
(c) the cohabitation. (T. Adams.)
Partial Sweeping
For like as a lazy and slothful housewife uses to sweep a little of the loose dust and filth in the open and middle of the room, and lets many secret corners lie foul as before, and maybe leaves the dirt behind the door out of the public view of people: so the false and counterfeit Christian reforms his life in the sight of men; or, like the Pharisees, makes clean the outside of the cup and platter, but their hearts are still polluted, and as vile as ever. (B. Keach.)
A natural improvement, not a saving operation
And remarkable is the phrase of our Saviour, garnished, which we know is commonly a curious piece of art, men by their ingenuity strive to imitate nature; they will draw the face of a man, etc., with curious painting, very exact, so that it much resembles the persons natural face, yet it is not the same, it is but a piece of paint, an artificial invention. Even so in like manner by the improvement of mans natural parts, common grace, light and knowledge, he may appear in the view and sight of men, as a true child of God, and may talk and discourse like a saint, read and hear Gods Word-nay, and pray also with much seeming devotion and piety, and may likewise bridle many unruly lusts, and gross enormities of life, and give alms to the poor, insomuch that he may very exactly resemble a true and sincere Christian, and be taken by all godly people to be indeed such an one; but notwithstanding all, it is but an artificial piece, it is but like a curious paint, or vainglorious garnish; it is not the image of God, it is not the new creature; though it looks like it, much resembles it, yet is not the same; for the man is a mere hypocrite, a counterfeit Christian, the work upon him being only the product of natural improvements, and not the effects of the saving operations of the Holy Spirit. (B. Keach.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v43 43–45. When the unclean spirit, etc. The application of…
43–45. When the unclean spirit, etc. The application of these three verses is found in “even so it shall be unto this wicked generation,” the Jews. With an occasional tendency to repentance, as under the preaching of John, they became worse and worse until they crucified the Lord and were destroyed. A man with an unclean spirit, a demon, is chosen to represent them. He goeth out (transient repentance), returns with seven other evil spirits worse than himself (a relapse into sin), and the last state is worse than the first, more wicked and more wretched. So generally with those who dally with sin.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v43 Mat 12:43-45. “When the unclean spirit may go out…
AWFUL STATE OF THE BACKSLIDER
Mat 12:43-45. “When the unclean spirit may go out from a man, he goeth through dry places seeking rest, and findeth none.” Here we see the man is converted; this unclean spirit — licentiousness, drunkenness, or profanity, his besetting sin — having evanesced with this filthy demon, which had long polluted his soul by his slimy tread. Now that the demon is cast out, he goes tramping about, hunting a human soul to enter; meanwhile the elements around are dry, uninteresting, and affording him no sustenance, and giving him no satisfaction. “Then he says, I will return to my own house whence I came out.” Now the camp-meeting is over, and his victim has gone back home, exposed to the contaminating influence of his old companions in vice and folly; so this demon, weary and disconsolate of his tramp life around through dry and dreary places, resolves to give up his quest after others, and go back to the soul out of which he was ejected, when the Power fell on that crowded altar. “And having come, he finds it empty, having been swept and beautified.” The man has been genuinely and gloriously converted, the filthy demon cast out, and vast cart-loads of dead frogs, snakes, and immense debris swept away by the mighty bosom of pardoning love, the incoming tide of regenerating grace embellishing every chamber of his soul with the beauty and brightness of the heaven-born life. But there is no inhabitant, as the man has not yet received the second work of grace, in which the blessed Holy Spirit comes and takes up His abode in this beautiful new mansion of His own creation, simultaneously administering a deeper expurgation, eliminating out of the heart the old, sinful trend, transmitted from Adam the First, and always keeping the door ajar for every tramping demon that may chance to pass that way, not only saluting him “Welcome!” but making his quarters exceedingly comfortable. “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and having come in, they dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” This ejected demon, coming back, reconnoiters the situation of his old home, and finds that it has been swept and beautified; i.e., a great and wonderful change has taken place since he was driven out, all of which was much against him; yet there is one thing decisively in his favor, and ‘that is, the house is empty. If the young convert had only pressed on into sanctification, and been filled with the Holy Ghost, this old demon, recognizing the house so wonderfully renewed, beautified, and purified, and then the Prince of Glory dwelling in it, his courage utterly failing, he would have skedaddled away, and gone in quest of an easier subject. But now that the house is empty, he is much encouraged, rendezvouses his forces, taking with him seven desperate and formidable demons. They effect an entrance; old habits are resumed; and the poor backslider not only floats on the very wave of vice, but rides the topmost billow, as his comrades now are not simply those impure demons, such as he had before he was converted, but the more formidable devils of skepticism and infidelity carry him away in a tornado, precipitating him far away into the bleak wilds of unbelief, contempt, and mockery, turning on him an avalanche of black darkness, and plunging him into hell. “So it shall be to this generation.” These wonderful deliverances of our Savior have not only a personal, but a social, collective, and ecclesiastical interpretation. The besetting sin of the Jewish Church, through all the intervening centuries, was idolatry. They got worse and worse, and seemed utterly incorrigible, till they were carried into Babylonian captivity. That terrible ordeal cast out the demon idolatry. Consequently, after the return from captivity, the Jews never again went into the idolatries of the Gentile world. But what was their history? They retrogressed into cold, dead formality and bleak, hollow hypocrisy, which were seven times worse than their old idolatry. Consequently they rejected their own Christ, and put Him to death, imputing all of His mighty works to the devil, thus grieving away the Holy Spirit, committing the unpardonable sin, provoking the righteous indignation of the Almighty, bringing on them the Roman armies, precipitating their own swift destruction.
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Do not the prophecies reveal a similar course and doom appertaining to the Gentiles? So long as the Apostolic Church held fast to the glorious experience of entire sanctification, she remained pure, despite the burning stake and the ferocious lion. After the Emperor Constantine promoted her from martyr fires and the lion’s mouth to Caesar’s palace, she became worldly, plunging headlong into the idolatries of Romanism. The Lutheran Reformation cast out the demon of idolatry, so the Protestant Churches have never gone into image worship, Mariolatry, or the adoration of saints and angels; but she has drifted away into the same dead formality, cold ritualism, human ecclesiasticism, and lifeless, empty hypocrisy, which expedited the ruin of Judaism, and which is doubtless more abominable in the sight of God than papistical idolatry, thus ripening for the terrible fate of the foolish virgins.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v45 (See Scofield "Mat 24:34").
generation
(See Scofield "Mat 24:34").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v43 A comparison:
A comparison:
v. 43. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and findeth none.
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v. 44. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
v. 45. Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
The last words give the key to the entire passage. The people of that generation were like demoniacs, from whom the evil spirits have been driven. They had their opportunity now to be rid of the Evil One’s influence forever. If they would continue to despise His message, their experience would be like that of the man whom He describes. The deserts were represented as the habitation of the devils, Job 30:3; Lev 16:21, Banished into the wilderness of desolation, but continually moving in search of a resting-place, and failing to find relief from the tediousness and monotony, the evil spirit resolves to return to his former habitation. The recital is dramatic: Coming, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished; no good spirit has been permitted to make his home there; all love, meekness, and every good impulse has been thrust out, and vain, showy trifles of fashion and folly are decorating the heart. With so much encouragement the result is easily seen. Seven associates the evil spirit chooses, all of them morally even lower than himself; and all of the devils together make such a person their lasting home. Such is the damnable self-surrender of such as deliberately harden their heart in rejection of Christ and in voluntary unbelief. Theirs is the sin of sins. The fate here pictured by Christ is the one which will overtake all that despise the merciful visitation of Christ in and through His Gospel, that have heard His message of love, but have forgotten and despised His gifts. They are children of destruction in a twofold sense, by nature and by choice. And their end is damnation.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v43 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues to rebuke the scribes and Pharisees.
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When an unclean spirit ... with this evil generation
Jesus tells a parable to warn the people of the danger of not believing him. (See: Parables)
waterless places
"dry places" or "places where no people live"
does not find it
Here "it" refers to rest.
Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'
This can be translated as a statement rather than a quotation. AT: "So, the unclean spirit decides to return to the house from which it came"
to my house from which I came
This is a metaphor for the person in whom the unclean spirit was living. AT: "to the place I left" (See: Metaphor)
it finds that house swept out and put in order
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the unclean spirit finds that someone has swept the house clean and has put everything in the house where it belongs" (See: Active or Passive)
that house swept out and put in order
Again, "house" is a metaphor for the person in whom the unclean spirit was living. Here, "swept out and put in order" suggests that no one is living in the house. Jesus means when an unclean spirit leaves a person, the person must invite the Holy Spirit to live in him or else the demon will come back. (See: Metaphor)
It will be just like that with this evil generation
This means that if the people of Jesus' generation do not believe him and become his disciples, they will be in a worse situation than they were before he came.
translationWords
demon
evil
generation
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v43 12:43-45 The Messiah came in victory over demonic powers,…
12:43-45 The Messiah came in victory over demonic powers, but instead of repenting, the nation as a whole rejected the Messiah. Just as an exorcised demon will return if the house is not properly prepared against it, so judgment would come to this evil generation for rejecting the Messiah.
12:43 Demons were thought to prefer the arid desert (see Rev 18:2; cp. Isa 13:21; 34:14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.