Matthew 12:43-44, “43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 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.”
While it seems that Jesus was speaking to His generation, is He contrasting it with Israel? Is it a summary of the past, present, and future of unbelieving Israel in parable form?
The man is a type the Jewish nation returning from the Babylon captivity, cured of his/ Israel’s idolatry. In the book of Ezra, we read of the temple being finished and dedicated. Ezra 6:19, "And the children of the captivity kept the Passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month." There had been Israelite's who had married foreign (strange wives). In the past, foreign wives were a portal to idolatry, so they were “put aside” in obedience to God.
In the many attempts to rebuild the temple, there were attack made as the walls had been destroyed. Nehemiah was allowed to return to Jerusalem and organize the rebuilding Jerusalem's walls.
From the end of the captivity to the present, the Jewish people have not been idol-worshipers, rather like a house that is empty, swept, and put in order. Sadly, when the Messiah presented himself He was rejected. Although many still hold to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Israel has become increasingly secular.
Matthew 12:45, “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.”
Does “last state” refer to the end days, when an apostate nation/ world will worship the Antichrist? The tribulation follows the end of the church age and is a period in which God works to bring Israel to faith. The nation (house) of Israel will be filled with idolatry and unspeakable evil. Although unbelieving Israel will suffer the judgments of the Great Tribulation, a remnant of Israel will take refuge in Petra during the second half of the tribulation.
Just a sample of the Tribulation during which there will demonic locusts with a king whose named Abaddon.
Revelation 9:2-3, “2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.”
Revelation 9:7-10 provides a horrific image of these demonic locusts. They had hair like women's, lion-like teeth, armor-like iron breastplates, making them impossible to destroy. They will have tails like scorpions, the sting of which will cause five months of unrelieved suffering and death will be impossible.
Lesson learned from Matthew 12:43-45, clear your house of unclean spirits and keep your house (Israel and/ or the individual) free of unclean spirits by the acceptance and protective covering of Jesus.
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