Before we look at those verses, let’s discuss the context of Matthew 12.

12:22-24 Jesus healed a demon possessed blind and mute man. The crowds are amazed and said, “This cannot be the Son of David, can it?” The title “Son of David” was a title for the Messiah to come, so they are wondering if this man Jesus is the Messiah. The Pharisees do not even try to deny that the miracle was done. Instead, they said that Jesus cast out demons by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons. The name Beelzebul is thought to be a corruption or parody of the Philistine god Baal-Zebub, who was worshipped by the Philistines in the city of Ekron.  Beelzebul is also a fallen angel in Milton’s Paradise Lost, ranking next to Satan. It is powerful proof of Jesus’ miracles when even his enemies can’t deny that the miracle has been done. The crowd would have argued with them that truly a miracle had been done.

12:25-27 Jesus point out how illogical it is to say that He is casting out demons by the power of Satan. That would be Satan casting out his own demons. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. The he pointed out their inconsistency and hypcocrisy. The Jews had their own exorcists who supposedly cast out demons (I doubt that they really did). In Ephesus Acts 19:¹¹ God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. ¹³ But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had the evil spirits, saying, “I order you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!” ¹⁴ Now there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit responded and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit, pounced on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” This incident in Ephesus shows that the Jewish exorcists really did not have power over the demons. They were fooling the people just like people like Bob Larsons does when he claims to cast out demons. Check out the videos of him casting out the demons of lust, greed, etc. and see if you think he is really casting out demons. I don’t.

12:28-29 Jesus then says that if he casts out demons by the Spirit of God (not by Satan) then that means that the kingdom of God had come to them. The kingdom of God or or heaven would be a spiritual kingdom, the church. Jesus’ 3 years of miracles would be proof that the “kingdom is near” as he preached in Mark 1:15; 4:17. His miracles should have gotten the Jews ready to accept that spiritual kingdom, the church, but they were expecting a physcial kingdom with power over the Romans just like the kingdom of David. He then gave a simple analogy. A robber can’t enter a man’s house and steal his possessions unless he is stronger than the owner of the house. The robber must overpower the owner and tie him up, and then he can rob him. Jesus casted out demons to show that he had more power than Satan, that He could bind Satan.

12:30-32 Jesus then warned against the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This is the sin that the Pharisees were committing by denying that the miracles of Jesus were being done by the Spirit, saying that they were done by the power of Satan. Jesus said that blaspheming the Son of Man could be forgiven. Someone might say that Jesus is not the Son of God, and yet later be convinced that he was (just as with the conversion of the blasphemer Saul).  “I was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man” (1 Timothy 1:13). But God forgave him. But Jesus said that someone who blasphemes the Spirit would not be forgiven. So is that the “unpardonable sin”? I don’t think so. Someone might deny the miracles of Jesus but then later change his mind and believe that Jesus really did miracles. It doesn’t seem like God would not forgive that person, or even one of these Pharisees in this chapter. So what does it mean? I think it means that if the Pharisees see the miracles of Jesus firsthand and then say they are done by the power of Satan, then their hearts are so evil that they will never be converted or forgiven. Never be forgiven is based on the assumption that their hearts are so evil that they never will repent and believe in Jesus. That makes me think that the blasphemy of the Spirit cannot even be done today since no one actually witnesses the miracle of Jesus, and thus cannot deny those miracles first hand.

12:33-37 Jesus then said that the Pharisees’ blasphemous words against the Spirit was exposing their true evil character and hearts. A tree is known by its fruit, and their evil words were the fruit that showed that they were bad trees with bad hearts. In 70 AD they would be judged for their rejection of Jesus and His miracles!

12:38-42 The Pharisees then asked for a sign (sémeion: Sign, miracle, token, indication, wonder). That’s unbelievable! They are watching him do all the miracles. They never deny that he is doing actual miracles, but then they ask for a miraculous sign to prove that he is the Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus calls them an evil and adulterous (spiritual adultery) generation who crave after more miraculous signs when they would not believe in Jesus no matter what miracles he did. Jesus said that the only sign that would be given them was the sign of Jonah, that Jesus would be in the earth 3 days and nights like Jonah was in the belly of the fish. Of course that refers to his resurrection. The resurrection is the ultimate proof that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. John did say that Jesus’ miracles would cause people to believe in Jesus. John 20:³⁰ So then, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.” But the agnostics say that the main source for the miracles of Jesus was his followers who were biased, and that their records of his miracles can’t be trusted. That could have some plausibility to skeptics. But the resurrection stand alone as an historical event. We examine the resurrection of Jesus using the same methods we use to determine if we really landed on the moon. Is there sufficient credible eyewitness testimony that we landed on the moon? Most of us believe there was even though we didn’t see the landing firsthand. Is there credible eyewitness testimony that Jesus was raised? Yes. The apostles had no ulterior motives to make up a fake resurrection story. They did not gain power, money, or sex. They all died a martyr’s death without any of them recanting their testimony. The enemies of Jesus admitted that the tomb was empty. Their explanation that the disciples stole the body while the guards were sleeping is implausible. Why didn’t they just go arrest the disciples and track down the stolen body if that were so. The disciples were hiding when Jesus was in the tomb and would not have had the courage to sneak past probably 4 armed Roman soldiers guarding the tomb. They would not have been able to sneak past 4 sleeping guards, remove the 2 ton stone, steal the body and sneak past the guards even if the guards really had been sleeping. Finally the resurrected Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, converting him. Nothing short of that could possible have converted Saul. Jesus also appeared to James the Lord’s brother and converted him even though James did not believe that his brother was the Messiah when Jesus was alive. All the evidence says that Jesus was raised from the dead. That is the ultimate proof that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, that Chistianity is the only true religion, and that the Bible is the word of God. Paul made this point to the Athenian idol worshippers in Athens. Acts 17:³⁰ So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, ³¹ because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

The Pharisees rejected the miracles of Jesus. Jesus said that the men of Ninevah and the Queen of the South (Sheba) would rise up to judge that evil generation of Jews on their judgment day in 70 AD. The men of Ninevah accepted God’s message through Jonah and repented, but the Pharisees did not accept the signs that proved that Jesus was sent by the Father.

12:43-45 So we finally come to the passage in the title of this article, but I think it was necessary to look at the overall context of the chapter first, which we did. Matthew 12:⁴³ “Now when the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

We tend to try to apply this to us today instead of looking at those whom Jesus was referring to in this analogy. The passage is about the Pharisees whom Jesus was speaking to. This is the view taken by the Jewish Historian and Theologian Alfred Edersheim:

“He came back ‘with seven other spirits more wicked than himself’—pride, self-righteousness, unbelief, and the like, the number seven being general—and thus the last state—Israel without the foulness of gross idolatry and garnished with all the adornments of Pharisaic devotion to the study and practice of the Law—was really worse than had been the first with all its open repulsiveness. (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim 2.201)

On the surface, the Pharisees and the Jews had “cleaned house” of idolatry after the return from Babylonian captivity. We read of no Jewish idolatry from 536 BC to the time of Jesus. The Pharisees had their self righteous hypocritical religious rituals, claiming to be opposed Satan, even having their exorcists who they said could cast out demons. That would be the “casting out of the unclean spirit” in the analogy. But there was a void in their faith b/c they would not believe in Jesus. That would be the spirit “returning to find the house unoccupied and swept clean” in the analogy. On the surface, the Pharisees looked like true religous followers of Yahewh but it was all superficial b/c they refused to accept the miracles of Jesus and believe in Him. So Satan was able to come back into their lives after they rejected Jesus and his miracles, making them more evil than ever. That would be the spirit “bringing 7 more wicked spirits to the house”. He then says that this is about that evil generation. “That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” Josephus said that generation of Jews before 70 AD was the most evil that had ever lived. Several times Jesus said that “evil generation of Jews” would be judged and destroyed, and they were in 70 AD.

That is the original context of the passage. We can make application to us today. Many believe that it is sufficient to simply put way evil sins like murder and drunkenness, to be a good moral person. They say that it doesn’t matter what god or what religion one follows (Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) as long as someone is sincere and tries to be a good person. They might even have many religious rituals they perform. But all that is a house that is “clean on the surface” but without faith in Jesus it is a house doomed to allow Satan to come in and make the person and his descendants evil.

I have another application taken from C.S.Lewis. He said that we try to remove evil thoughts, worry, doubt, fear, and stress-and sometimes we can do that for a while by quoting Bible verses. But he says that often we get rid of evil emotions for a while but don’t fill the void with love, and that leaves us vulnerable to worse evil emotions coming back. I see that. I try to get rid of all that bad stuff, but it always seems to return, often worse than at first. The problem might be that I don’t fill my heart with love. Love for God and for others. When my heart is filled with constant love, it will help keep those evil emotions from coming back. I will be so engaged with loving thoughts and deeds that my mind will not be drawn back to the evil emotions and thoughts. I thought that was a good application.