But when the unclean spirit has gone out of the man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and does not find [it].
Jesus has just called this generation evil, and now He draws a strange picture: an unclean spirit leaves a man and wanders. Who is the man, and why does a spirit that has left still count the house as its own?
Is it the man who walks through the dry places, or the spirit? One writer answers that the wanderer is the spirit, and that "the man" stands for more than one person:
It is the unclean spirit of idolatry. It left the Jewish nation at the Babylonian captivity. At the close of this present time of grace it will return in a worse form. The Jews rejected the Lord Jesus, who came in His Father's name, so they will receive another who comes in his own name (John 5:43)... The Lord Himself gives the interpretation of the passage: "So also will it be with this evil generation." This shows that "the man" stands for the Jews. They were possessed once, then set free, and at last, in their final stage of unbelief, possessed again by the spirit of idolatry in its most extreme form.
This picture continues what Jesus had been saying about the nation in front of Him:
Every student of Scripture will agree that the unclean spirit means idolatry. Its worship is tied to demons instead of God. Are we to think that our Lord breaks off what He had been saying about the nation, to speak of single people? Clearly it is about Israel. As a nation, Israel never fell into idolatry after the return from Babylon as it had before. Not that they were better men. The unclean spirit of idolatry was no longer their special temptation... The house had been swept and put in order. That is how it was when our Lord was here. Israel had laid aside their idolatrous habits. They went to the synagogue every sabbath day, and they were eager enough to travel over sea and land to make one convert.
The word for "rest" here is the same word Jesus used one chapter earlier, when He invited the weary to come to Him:
The Greek word anapausis (from anapauo, "to give rest") fits refreshment after work or tiredness. It also fits a pause in action, and it is used in several ways. It is the word often used in the Greek Old Testament for the "rest" of the sabbath. The Lord invited all who laboured and were heavy laden to come to Him. He would give them "rest." He also invited them to take His yoke, and they would find "rest" (Matthew 11:28-29). The unclean spirit walks through dry places seeking "rest," but finds none (Matthew 12:43; Luke 11:24).
The spirit can walk back in because nobody else has moved in:
A person might claim to follow Christ, on the strength of evidence and convictions of one kind or another, and look like one of His followers. But the mere absence of outward evil will never bring a soul to God. A soul must know God Himself and receive Jesus Himself. It is not enough that the unclean spirit has gone out. A man may leave off gross evil. He may give up false religion, or, as in this case, idolatry. None of this consecrates a man. What settles the matter is the presence of God in possession of a soul, a new nature — not merely the absence of this or that evil. The unclean spirit can return to the house unless God's Spirit already fills it in power. That power alone shuts Satan out.
It is also a warning to anyone who has only cleaned up his life:
You may be sure of this: if someone is not truly restored to God, it is only a question of time before he goes the same way he went before, only worse... What is the use of deliverance from one evil spirit, if the empty heart then opens its doors and invites in the sevenfold power of evil, more wicked than the first?
The spirit finds no rest anywhere else because it still has a house to go back to:
This was then His judgment. The unclean spirit of idolatry had gone out of the people. Away from Israel it could find no rest, for Israel was sadly its true house, when they should have been the house of God. So it would return with seven spirits worse than itself... What a solemn judgment on the people! Those among whom the Lord had walked would become the home of an unclean spirit — of unclean spirits in overwhelming number.
- Empty — the spirit leaves, and nothing takes its place; that emptiness, not filth, is the whole problem.
- Restless — it searches dry places for the very rest Christ was offering one chapter earlier, and finds none.
- Owned — it still counts the house its own, because no one stronger moved in; reform never changed the deed.
- Returned — for Israel this points ahead to the return of idolatry, and to their welcome of another who comes in his own name.
- Worse — a life or a nation merely swept is not saved; only God in possession shuts the door.
Then he says, I will return to my house whence I came out; and having come, he finds [it] unoccupied, swept, and adorned.
Jesus is describing what happens after an unclean spirit leaves a person. The spirit comes back, finds the place clean and tidy, and finds nobody living there.
The spirit does not say "a house" but "my house." It speaks like a landlord returning to property it still owns. One writer explains why that claim still holds.
God's dealings may have driven the restless spirit of evil out, through the outward effects of mercy. But he has not forgotten his house, though he has wandered a long time. Providence, the dealings of God, have long kept him at a distance, but though empty it has not stopped being his house. On his return there is nothing to block his entrance, no power of the Lord there. However swept and decorated, it is still the empty house of Satan.
Three words describe the house, and the decisive one is "empty." Where the writers below say "decorated," the ESV says "put in order." The cleaning was real. The emptiness was fatal, because Israel had turned away the one Person who could fill the house.
For a time the unclean spirit of idolatry left Israel. But the nation's character had not really changed. They were proud of their reform, and that pride kept them from seeing their need of Christ Himself. So the house stayed empty, even though it had been swept and decorated. They had refused the rightful occupant — their Messiah.
A tidy house is no defence.
His absence — the absence of an unclean spirit — has left the house open to other influences. So on his return he finds it swept and decorated. This, however, does not disappoint him. Instead, he judges it to be more suited to his purpose than ever.
Commentators take the unclean spirit to be idolatry, and the house to be the nation. One writer follows the picture from Israel's captivity in Babylon to the end of the age.
The captivity drove the unclean spirit out of his house. Ever since, "that generation" has been empty, swept, and decorated. But their rejection of the true Christ will lead, in the last days, to their receiving the Antichrist (see also John 5:43). Then the unclean spirit returns with seven other spirits more wicked than himself. They enter in and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. Our Lord's application of the parable is beyond dispute: the same will happen to this evil generation.
Several writers apply the picture beyond the Jewish nation. The point is not which idols went out, but whether anyone moved in afterwards.
The broom of Babylon may have swept the house of Israel, and to this day they may hate idols. But a clean house may be just as fit for Satan as a dirty one. Reformation will not do. So it is with Christendom. I trust there is not a single heart here that trusts in reformation... The Lord teaches us that the swept and decorated house may be worse than before.
If emptiness is the danger, the cure is not more sweeping but a new tenant.
The man the devil went out of is our Lord's own picture: an empty house will never lack a tenant. The sweeping and decorating and all that will not keep out the devil. It may only make him more eager to move in. Nothing will save from it but the positive possession of the house by another, who will not and need not give it up. So we must bring Christ into everything. Whatever we leave Him out of, we will find we have only made room for another — Christ's opposite.
The same holds for anyone who has cleaned up his life.
A person may be convinced by evidence of one sort or another. He may claim to follow Christ and stand with Him outwardly. But the mere absence of outward evil will never bring a soul to God... A man may leave off gross evil, he may give up false religion, or, as in this case, idolatry; but none of this consecrates a man. The unclean spirit can return to the house unless the power of God's Spirit already fills it. That power alone shuts Satan out.
- Empty is the key word. The house is clean, tidy and decorated — and still ruined, because no one lives in it.
- Empty means claimed. The spirit calls it "my house," and nothing bars his return where the Lord's power is absent.
- Empty means attractive. The clean-up does not put the old tenant off. Writers say it suits his purpose better than before.
- Empty describes a nation. Israel came home from Babylon free of idols, but refused her Messiah. Commentators say the end of the story is idolatry back again, with the Antichrist welcomed.
- Empty has one cure: an owner. Reform, good behaviour and religion never drive Satan out. Only Christ living in the house keeps it.
Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits worse than himself, and entering in, they dwell there; and the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first. Thus shall it be to this wicked generation also.
The Lord ends His picture of the emptied house by turning it on His hearers: "So also will it be with this evil generation." So who is the house, why did sweeping it make things worse, and does the warning stop with Israel?
One writer takes the word "generation" here to mean the nation itself:
Generation is certainly to be understood in the sense of race. The unclean spirit is idolatry. It had left the nation, and even now the nation is swept from that evil spirit and unoccupied, and boasts of reform. It will not be so forever. The unclean spirit will return and bring seven others with him, and take possession of that house again... The return of the unclean spirit with its seven companions will take place during the great tribulation.
Israel's history bears this out. After the exile in Babylon the nation dropped the idols it had once loved, and by the time Christ came it looked tidy:
As a nation Israel never fell into idolatry after the return from Babylon, as before. Not that they were better men. But the unclean spirit of idolatry was no longer their special temptation... Israel had laid aside their idolatrous habits. They went to the synagogue every Sabbath day. They were eager enough to travel over sea and land to make a single convert. The house looked clean, and there was nothing on the outside to shock the eye if you looked at it.
The fatal word in the verse before is "empty." The cleaning was real, but no one moved in.
In fact, religious pride in their reform kept them from seeing that they needed Christ Himself. So the house stayed empty, even though it had been swept and decorated. They had refused its rightful occupant, their Messiah.
That absence is what makes the return easy:
When he returns, nothing blocks his way in, for the power of the Lord is not there. However well swept and decorated it is, it is still the empty house of Satan. He comes back with his friends, and it is worse than before.
The number of spirits is not random:
The Lord pictures the unclean spirit returning to the man he had left, bringing seven other spirits more wicked than himself. But that makes eight, and brings about the "last state" which "is worse than the first."
For the nation, this was a verdict. God had once walked among them:
What a solemn judgment on the people this was! Those among whom Jehovah had walked would become the dwelling place of an unclean spirit — of a whole host of unclean spirits. Not of seven only, the complete number, but along with these... that other unclean spirit as well, who would drag them back into the wretched idolatry they had escaped from!
The same picture fits more than Israel. It fits any religious system that has cleaned itself up:
The broom of Babylon may have swept the house of Israel, and to this day they may hate idols. But a clean house may be just as fit for Satan as an unclean one. Reformation will not do. So it is with Christendom... The Lord teaches us that the swept and decorated house may be worse than before.
The warning also fits one person on his own:
Taken in a second way, this passage can be sensibly applied to a person who goes through a certain moral change and shows some improvement in his outward conduct. Afterwards he falls back and becomes more openly corrupt and wicked than ever.
Judgment on the old nation is not the Lord's last word. He speaks at once of a people of His own:
They would not have Him. They will become the dwelling for the devil in all his power — their last state worse than their first. But, says the Lord, I am going to have a new thing now — a people according to My own heart... His only true relations were those who received the word of God, and did it.
- Empty. The house was swept and decorated, but no one lived in it. They had refused its true Owner.
- Empty invites. An empty house is not a guarded house. With no power of the Lord there, nothing blocks the enemy's return.
- Empty multiplies. One spirit comes back with seven, and the eight together produce a "last state" worse than the first.
- Empty spreads. The same pattern runs past Israel — to reformed religion, and to anyone who improves his conduct but takes in no new owner.
- Filled. The Lord's remedy is not a cleaner house but a new people. His true relations are those who receive God's word and do it.