Anchor My Faith

The Unclean Spirit Left Home

Scripture: Matthew 12:43-45

With the last lesson we finished up a rather unclear topic which connected careless words with the day of judgment. It reminded me of classes I took and classes I taught while at the university; they all ended with a time of judgment called an exam. Jesus was, in particular, warning the scribes and the Pharisees, to be careful what they say because there will be a time of judgment when their words will be examined. With this lesson, we will look at the topic of the return of an unclean spirit.

^{Mt 12:43} “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

As we walk with Jesus along the gospel harmonization path, we better see a connection of events. In this particular section of travel, we listened to Jesus teach about the seriousness of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Jesus then connected the things we say to our hearts and used the illustration of a tree and the kind of fruit it bears. If the tree is bad it produces bad fruit and if the tree is good, it will produce good fruit. Everyone listening could understand that. Jesus then replaces the tree with our heart and makes it clear that like the nature of the tree and the kind of fruit it produces, it is the nature of the heart that produces the kind of words we speak; words that can glorify God or words that could even seal our place in hell.

Jesus finished up what he was teaching by saying, “by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Since the words we speak are connected to the character of our hearts, Jesus is next going to point out the importance of caring for our hearts and he does that with an illustration, which at first doesn’t seem to be connected. Jesus had just used two kinds of trees to illustrate two kinds of fruit and applied that to our hearts. Now he is now going to use an illustration of unclean spirits and a house and connect that to us.

Jesus begins with a person who had an unclean spirit and was healed, as the unclean spirit has gone out of the person. When an unclean (evil) spirit possesses a person, they claim that body as their home and are quite comfortable and undisturbed there. If the spirit is forced out it would search for a place of rest, but in that area of the world all it would find is deserts described here as waterless places. Jeremiah describes such a place as the wilderness, a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and deep darkness, and a land where none passes through, where no man dwells (Jeremiah 2:6). The spirit that was cast out of his comfortable dwelling place does not find it very nice or pleasant there and desires to be back in his former home.

This brings to mind the parable of the father who had two sons. The younger demanded his inheritance and got it and went to a distant land, and with sinful living waisted it and as a result found himself in a miserable condition. He like the unclean spirit desires to be back in his former home.

With the unclean spirit gone, the person is described as a house that is empty, swept and put in order and we are ready for the next scene. Both the younger son and the unclean spirit are ready to go back to their former home and enjoy life as it was in the past.

Conclusion

The unclean spirit was cast out of the person and the younger son left on his own, but we now find them both desiring to return home. We know that the younger son went back, desiring to be accepted as a servant, but he was accepted back as the son he was at first. What would the unclean spirit do and what would happen if it goes back to the person it was cast out of?