The Parables of the Divided House and the Strong Man
They watched Him heal a man who was blind and mute, and they called it the devil.
Nobody in that crowd said the man was still blind. Nobody said the demon was still there. The miracle was admitted in full. Then the men in charge — the scribes down from Jerusalem, the Pharisees who had already met to decide how to kill Him — gave it a new name. This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
They did not say it to His face. They said it to the crowd. The crowd had just asked the right question — Is not this the son of David? — and the leadership answered it for them, out loud, where everyone could hear.
He heard it. He knew what they were thinking. And He turned and answered the men who said it.
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. If Satan is casting out Satan, Satan is at war with himself, and his kingdom is coming down. Look at his kingdom. It is standing. It has never stood better. Whatever is driving these devils out, it is not the devil.
Then He told them what it was. If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. A strong man keeps his house. His goods are in peace. Until someone stronger walks in, binds him, strips him of the armour he trusted, and starts carrying his goods out the front door in daylight.
That is what an exorcism is. That is what the crowd had just watched. The strong man was bound. The plunder had begun. And the man doing the carrying was standing right in front of them.
The crowd thought they were watching an argument between a healer and his critics. They were not. And He told them so. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
No middle. Not for the Pharisees. Not for the crowd. Not for the reasonable man standing at the back waiting to see how it turned out. Two houses. Nowhere to stand between them.
Then He named the sin. Not a mystery. Not something a believer stumbles into by accident. They saw the Spirit of God set a man free and called it Satan. A word against the Son of man can be forgiven. That cannot.
Then the last picture. The spirit goes out. The house is swept and empty. He comes back with seven worse than himself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. He does not say how a house stays full. He leaves you standing in the clean, empty room.
Which house are you in? Not which one you admire. Which one you are in.
Do not take our word for it. The Bereans searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Open Matthew 12. Open Mark 3. Open Luke 11. Read what He said to the men who called Him the devil — and then read what He said to everyone else who was listening.
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