Hi everyone. Welcome again to logical bible
study. This is the Catholic podcast
where we take an in-depth, look at scripture and in particular,
we do an exegesis of verse-by-verse analysis of the
Gospel readings, that you would hear it today's mass.
So, if you went to mass today, you would hear this really
interesting reading from Luke. Chapter 11, and that's what we
will have a go out today. So Luke chapter 11, verses 14 to
26. Jesus was casting out a devil
and it was dumb. But when the devil had gone out
the dumb man spoke and the people were amazed, but some of
them said, it is through be eligible.
The prince of devils that he casts out devils, Others asked
him as a test for a sign from heaven, but knowing what they
were thinking, he said to them, every Kingdom divided against
itself is headed for ruin and a household divided against itself
collapses. So, to with Satan, if he is
divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand since you
assert that it is through be eligible that I cast out devils?
Now if it is through be eligible but I cast out Devils through
whom, do your own experts, cast them out, let them be your
judges then, but if it is through the Finger of God, that
I cast out Devils, then know that the kingdom of God has
overtaken you so long. As a strong man, fully armed
guards, his own Palace, his goods are understood herbed, but
when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats him, the
stronger man takes away. Away all the weapons.
He relied on and shares out his spoil.
He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather
with me scatters when an unclean Spirit goes out of a man.
It wanders through waterless country looking for a place to
rest and not finding one. It says I will go back to the
home, I came from but on arrival, finding it swept and
tidied it then goes off and brings seven other Spirits more
wicked than itself and they go in and set up house there.
So That the man ends up by being worse than he was before.
So fascinating reading today about devils and about
Beelzebub, the prince of devils and about the kingdom of God,
coming on the people. So, let's start by asking what
the context is. So Jesus Is On The Way From
Galilee up to Jerusalem and he's doing Ministry along the way.
We're starting at verse 14, it says Jesus was casting out a
devil or a demon. Now, we know, from earlier in
the gospels, that Jesus has the power to cast out demons.
He's been doing that for a while now and this particular demon is
dumb. The Greek word here Cabos, which
is translated dumb can actually mean deaf as well, or it could
even be someone. That's both a deaf-mute.
So we'll go with your lectionary translation here and assume that
the person is dumb. So, the demon is causing this
person to be unable to speak. This itself, shows the demons
have the power to cause quite severe physical conditions, in
some cases, some physical conditions can be attributed to
Demons. Now, it's likely that this man
who is possessed has been brought to other exercise.
It's because they did have other Exorcist set the time, but it
hadn't worked. So now they bring him to Jesus.
So the Devil comes out of the dumb, man.
And he speaks now, we're not told how exactly Jesus does the
exorcism here. Whether he uses certain words,
or if he lays his hands on the, we're not told that just that he
is able to cast out the demon and the people were amazed,
which makes sense, because presumably a demon, which can
cause dumbness is probably quite a strong demon and no other
exercise have been able to successfully.
Successfully cast out the demon but here Jesus can do it.
So the people are amazed now at this point Matthews version of
the story adds in some interesting information.
It says that the crowds say to themselves nothing like this has
ever been seen in Israel. So in the Jewish tradition,
there's people who can hear lepers, there's curing the sick,
raising the dead and expelling demons.
Of course, that has been done during Israel's history, but
never quite like this. In a sudden sequence of
incidents by one man who is Is announcing the coming of God's
kingdom. This person who showed up who
can do all of these amazing things all at once.
So never has Israel seen anything like this verse 15, but
some of them said, now, Matthews version of this account.
Makes it clear that it's primarily the Pharisees who were
saying the things that were about to here.
So it's not the crowds in general.
It's apparently the Pharisees and they say it is through be
eligible. The prince of devils.
So let's stop and talk about who be eligible is.
It's the name of a Canaanite god in the Old Testament and it
roughly means the the prince God or the prince of the Masters
Palace or something like that. So you can see that it's
mentioned. Specifically in second Kings,
chapter 1, verse to be eligible is one of the Canaanite gods
that some of the Israelites ended up, worshiping the word be
eligible itself. Derives from two other words so
Baal which means Lord and Z ball.
Which means exalted dwelling. So when you put barnsey ball
together, you get be eligible prince.
The prince God. So to the Jews at this time,
basically all false gods are considered to be demons.
We've lost sight of this in in a lot of our physiology as well,
but certainly the chime of Jesus and the Jews believe that most
false gods that other religions worship to were, in fact, a real
beings. But they are demons.
So they understood be eligible. The prince God to basically be
the prince of demons or roughly equivalent to what we would
consider today to be the devil. They would call that be
eligible. So in here, they accuse Jesus,
they say it is through be eligible, the prince of devils
that he casts out Devils. So they're saying that Jesus is
actually possessed by be eligible and that's why he can
cast out demons. We know that the devil is able
to perform Supernatural works and the Jews know that as well.
They know that the demons and the devil can do quite
miraculous things particularly sorcery.
So, the crowd to juicers that, Jesus must be doing sorcery, he
must be empowered by the devil here.
Notice that the Pharisees or the crowd acknowledge that Jesus is
doing something Supernatural here.
They can see he's got something special something Supernatural,
but they're not willing to accept that.
It's from God. They think it's from Satan or be
eligible. Verse 16 others in the crowd
asked him as a test for a sign from heaven.
So there's another group in the crowd, probably Pharisees again,
who want Jesus to prove that he really is sent from God by doing
a miraculous sign. They don't believe he's from
God, so they don't think he'll be able to do it.
So they're testing him. It's a kind of skepticism.
Now, Jesus has already been doing miraculous signs.
You would think that by now, they've seen enough miraculous
signs to prove that he really is, who he claims he is,
including the one he just did he just cut?
Cast out pretty significant demon, but this group of people
probably the Pharisees they want something blindingly.
Obvious, they want an on-the-spot miraculous Cosmic
phenomenon, so it's kind of like they're saying, Force us to
believe so that we will not have to trust in you or change our
hearts. So they really asking to do it
in a way that will mean that they don't have to have genuine
faith. I just want to be shocked into
it. They want a full complete 100%
proof that's going to force them to believe that really, they're
asking for the easy option here. Even then if you imagine if
Jesus did do some miraculous sign, they probably still
attributed to the devil. This group of Pharisees or the
crowds here, who are skeptical, it's kind of reminiscent of an
incident in Numbers, Chapter 14, verse 11, where God is dealing
with a very skeptical group of Israelites.
And he says, how long will this people spurn me?
How long will they refuse to believe me?
Despite all the signs? I have performed among them so
Jesus is probably thinking pretty similar to God in that
number situation, verse 17. But Jesus knowing what they were
thinking. Notice this Jesus is able to
read multiple people's minds at once and he knows what they're
thinking and at this point he realizes the crowd has two main
objections. There's one group who think is
empowered by be eligible or the devil and there's another group
that are asking for a sign. He's going to deal with both of
those objections in turn. Now, in today's passage is just
dealing with the first one. The charge that has empowered by
the devil. He doesn't get to the second one
in today's passage, but he will eventually.
Now, the other gospels tell us at this point Jesus actually
calls the Pharisees over to teach them, so he gives him a
teaching opportunity. He and he's going to give them a
kind of mini parable about a divided house to help them.
Understand what is really going on in these exorcisms?
He wants them to understand, it's not be eligible.
So he gives them this mini parable about a divided house.
Here's how he starts in verse 17, every Kingdom divided
against itself, is heading for ruin, and a household divided
against itself, collapses. So, you use, Is the analogy of a
house and the kingdom. And the same point is made in
both. If there's internal fighting
amongst a kingdom or a house, well then the kingdom or the
house won't last long, it's not going to be able to stand, that
makes sense. And of course, they might be
quite familiar with this because they were under the control of
the Romans at this time in history.
And they will be quite familiar with the internal struggles that
go on between the Roman emperors, verse 18.
Jesus says so too with Satan. If he Is divided against
himself. How can his kingdom stand since
you assert that is through? Be eligible that I cast out
Devils. So Jesus, introduces Satan here.
That's the word. He's going to use here for the
devil. Notice the Jesus.
He clearly teaches. That Satan has his own kingdom.
He actually uses that word. He says, how can Satan's kingdom
stand. So from this verse, we learn
that Jesus that Satan genuinely does have a kingdom and of
course, that's what Satan said in one of his Temptations.
He said, I can give you all the kingdoms of the world.
Now when he says to the to the Pharisees, or the crowd here,
how could his kingdom stand? If it is divided against
himself? It's a rhetorical question.
The obvious answer is his kingdom would not be able to
stand. That would not be possible if
there was fighting going on within his kingdom.
So Jesus Point here is if Satan was being forced to get rid of
his own demons or if be eligible was getting rid of his own
demons and be eligible works for Satan, it would not be a very
strong Kingdom. But we know this Satan's kingdom
is strong and it is still standing.
So that can't be right. So he's giving them kind of
logical reasoning here to help them show that look, obviously,
I'm not casting out demons using Satan's power because Satan is
very strong and his kingdom is strong, and if I was casting out
demons in his name, his kingdom would no longer be strong and
that doesn't make sense. So he's trying to get them to
realize that he is not acting in the name of Satan.
Why would Satan do that to himself basically verse 19.
Now if it is through be eligible that I cast out Devils through
whom do your own experts, cast them out some translations, have
this as your son's through, whom do your son's cast them out.
So here, Jesus, clearly teaches that some of the Jewish leaders
in his time did have the power to do exorcisms.
That's interesting. We often don't realize that but
they're apparently were some Jewish leaders that could do it.
But we know from other places in the gospel, But even those
Exorcist can't do exorcisms on their own authority alone, they
have to call on the name of God or the name of a prophet where
is Jesus can do it on his own authority.
So Jesus point is that look if you want to say that I'm
empowered by Satan, when I cast out demons, you're going to have
to say the same thing about your own experts.
And that's another really good point that Jesus makes there and
Jesus finishes that section by saying, we'll let them be your
judges, then then he goes to verse 20.
But if it is, Through the Finger of God that I cast out Devils.
Then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken.
You a better translation. There might be the kingdom of
God has come upon you. This is a profound teaching if
it is through the Finger of God, that I cast out Devils, then the
kingdom of God has come upon you.
Here we learn that Satan's kingdom does have dominion over
the world, but through Jesus Incarnation and his teaching and
his healings, the kingdom of God is breaking into the world at
the time. That Jesus is saying this, the
That's Satan's works are clearly being undone through the
ministry of Jesus. That should indicate to the
crowds that the kingdom of God, which they waited for for a long
time that has now obviously arrived in the person of Jesus.
He's saying to them. Look if I'm casting out demons,
this is a strong sign that the kingdom of God has arrived and
it's turning back. It's destroying the works of
Satan in a sense. This is also a warning for the
Pharisees to get on the right side of the battle.
He's saying the victim of the kingdom of God is here.
Whose kingdom are you? Going to belong to some Scholars
think there might be links here to Exodus chapter 8, verse 19.
Remember that famous scene where the Pharaohs magicians are able
to. Replicate all the Miracles that
Moses is doing eventually at the end of Exodus chapter 8, verse
19, Pharaoh's magicians, finally confessed that their power to do
sorcery, is weaker than God's power.
And in fact, in that phrase, they actually use the phrase,
the Finger of God. The same phrase Jesus uses here.
Interestingly Matthews version of this phrase.
He identifies the Finger of God as the spirit of God.
So those two phrases are apparently interchangeable.
What's the Finger of God? How does what's God's action in
the world? It's the spirit of God.
That's what Jesus is casting out demons using Jesus, is now going
to give another mini Parable to help them understand how the
kingdom of God, is overpowering the kingdom of Satan.
So he's giving them an insight into the mechanics here.
Verse 21. So long is a strong man, fully
armed guards, his own Palace, his goods are undisturbed.
So the mental picture here, his painting, is that if a man is
guarding his possessions, diligently, a strong man, well
then no one is going to be able to deal to steal his Goods verse
22. But when someone stronger than
he attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the
weapons. He relied on and shares out his
spoil. So the image here, isn't When
stronger man comes along defeats the man, in the palace, and
takes his Goods. What's going on here, Jesus
doesn't make it entirely clear but we can work it out.
Logically. Jesus is saying that Satan is
the strong man guarding his possessions.
So he's the one who has a palace in what would his possessions be
humans? Satan's possessions are humans
and that's what he wants to guard.
But Jesus is the even stronger man who has come to claim the
goods of Satan. So he's come to claim people.
Back into the kingdom, and that makes sense in context, doesn't
it? Because by Jesus performing
these exorcisms, Satan's kingdom is being weakened.
More people are being transferred from Satan's kingdom
to God's kingdom. That's quite a nice analogy,
isn't it? People moving from the kingdom
of darkness, to the kingdom of light, that's actually developed
more later in the New Testament. If you look particularly at
Hebrews 2:14-15, there's that language of Jesus transferring
us to his kingdom from Satan's kingdom some Scholars.
Think the might also be an additional reference here to a
passage in the Old Testament or a couple of passages in Isaiah
when Jesus he talks about plundering his goods and
dividing The Spoils of the strongman there's similar
language used in Isaiah 49 verses, 24 to 25 and Isaiah 53.
Verse 12. There's some descriptions there
of the coming Messiah. How he's going to kind of divide
the spoils. And so some think that that's
kind of fulfilled here in the way that Jesus talks about how
he's going to break into Satan's, Kingdom and take the
spoils for himself. So that's an interesting
possible connection. Well, here we have a clear
teaching that Jesus is more powerful and Satan, some
Christian Cults. Don't agree with that.
Some think that Jesus and Satan are equal will hear Jesus
himself in his own Parable describes himself as stronger
than Satan. So that's an important thing to
keep in mind. In fact, John the Baptist uses
the same Greek word when he says earlier, one mightier than I is
coming. John 3:16 John, the Baptist says
Jesus is mightier than I same Greek word.
Now marks version, if you look at marks version of this same
passage and it's important to compare across the synoptic
gospels where possible marks version seems a little more
precise. When Jesus describes this mini
Parable and marks version, he describes it as involving two
phases. First, the strong man and is
bound and then his goods are plundered.
Whereas in Luke's version we have a shorter version which
doesn't talk about the Being but marks version here, seems to be
a bit more precise and you can have a read of that.
It's in Mark chapter 3 we get to verse 23 and Jesus says, he who
is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me
scatters. Now this is clearly a metaphor
of some sort. It could be an agricultural
image referring to harvesting as in those who don't help with the
Harvest. A depicted as doing the opposite
of harvesting which is scattering grain or maybe it
refers to gathering in scattering people.
It could either option but either way it's a metaphor.
That means this. Basically Jesus says if you're
not helping me then you are completely opposed to me.
So Jesus says that while he's on Earth, there's no neutral.
You're either with him or you're against him.
Now, in this context it's a reference to the Pharisees who
are opposing Jesus by their opposition to Jesus.
They're actually furthering the king.
Name of Satan rather than the kingdom of God.
Those are the only two kingdoms in effect.
You're either part of one or the other.
That verse would be quite striking for Luke's original
readers. He who is not with me is against
me. So it would have forced them to
think about, which side they are on and we should think about
that too. Are we part of the kingdom of
God or the kingdom of Satan? Both of those kingdoms are still
on Earth today. Although the kingdom of God is
expanding, now, in Matthew and marks version of this same
story. This is the point at which Jesus
goes on to describe the unforgivable sin but in Luke's
version, it's actually in the next chapter in chapter 12.
So we'll talk about that when we get there.
Jesus is now going to continue the theme of casting out demons.
He has more to say about it. He's now going to explain to the
crowd, why it is important that the kingdom of Satan, is
actually replaced with something else.
It's an interesting subtle thing, he's going to say here.
Now, this next bit doesn't appear to be a parable, it could
be taken that way, but it appears that Jesus is actually
describing the way things really work in the Demonic realm.
So he's describing them actual State of Affairs here.
So here's what he says. As when an unclean Spirit goes
out of a man, it wanders through waterless country, looking for a
place to rest. So the image here that Jesus is
setting up is when a demon is cast out of a person in that
Society then it would kind of wander around the countryside of
Israel looking for someone to inhabit and not finding one.
It says, I will go back to the home where I came from.
So the demon can't find anyone to inhabit and so it goes back
to the place where it came from. The person that was cast out of
now this could be a hypothetical situation, but I think Jesus
intends us to understand that demons can operate this way.
So it goes back to the person that came from verse 25 but on
arrival, finding it. Swept and tidied.
So the demon comes back to the person who was cast out of and
he finds that. There's no one inhibiting the
person's body. It's just waiting to be
inhabited so it then goes off and brings seven other Spirits
more wicked than itself. Now, seven is obviously a
symbolic. Jewish number.
So it could mean many spirits or Perfection of evil or something
like that, or it could literally mean he gets a seven literal
other demons. So, think about this picture.
Jesus is painting here, a demon goes and gets many other demons
more wicked than itself. Or in fact, more literally more
evil than itself and they all go in and set up house there.
So all of them come back into that person who has been cleared
of demons and they all go in inhabit, the person again.
So it is possible for someone to have a demon cast out of them
and then To need another exorcism later in life and
indeed assist. Today will tell you that that
can happen if the person allows themself or to be inhabited by a
demon again, or they don't replace it with the kingdom of
God. And that's the point.
Jesus is going to make here. Why does Jesus even bring this
up here? He seems to be getting into some
very specific demonic theology here.
Well, the point he seems to be making is that he wants the
crowds to understand that in his time whenever a Jewish rabbi or
A Jewish expert, does an exorcism.
Then really, they're just they're not, there's nothing
stopping the demon from coming back into the person.
He so, he's telling the crowd that if they really want to do a
proper exorcism and allow God to work in the person, they need to
put something back into the person to prevent the demon from
ever coming back. They need to fill the void that
the demon has left with something positive, the kingdom
of God. And Jesus says that, if that
happens, if the seven demons do go back into the man, that man
ends up being worse than He was before the more literal
translation here is a bit better.
I think it says and that last state of the man becomes worse
than the first so it's clearly far worse for a man to be
possessed by 7D demons rather than just one.
So Jesus is going to go on and explain how to solve that
problem, how to prevent it. They're from being seven demons
that come back into someone in this case.
Now, later in the New Testament similar language is used for
Christians and their salvation. So The language of that statute,
the last state is worse than the first.
It is used later in Paul's letters and Hebrews in reference
to people who used to be Christians, but then they turn
their back on. God, it says well the last state
is worse than the first because they're more accountable to know
the truth but they still turn their back on God.
So we need to keep that in mind to the point.
At this stage Jesus is making is that if a demon is cast out of a
man, something else needs to come and inhabit him in order to
prevent worse demons from coming back Now here Jesus doesn't
exactly explain what should enter the man?
He doesn't give us an explanation of that but I think
in context we can work it out. Jesus is suggesting that he
means the kingdom of God needs to claim the man.
So he wants the crowds to understand that if you cast the
kingdom of Satan out of someone you then need to put the kingdom
of God into the person elsewhere, Jesus explains more
clearly. That people need to be inhabited
by the Holy Spirit specifically. So if you look at 1 Corinthians
3 verse 16, It says that if a spirit of God dwells in a person
or the Holy Spirit, then there's going to be no room for evil
spirits to dwell there. In fact Matthews version of this
text. Remember says it is by the
spirit of God that I cast out demons.
So apparently one aspect of Jesus exorcisms that makes it
better than the common Jewish exorcisms is when Jesus does an
exorcism. He replaces it with the spirit
of God, he puts the Holy Spirit into a person.
After he casts the demons out and that's what he wants the
crowds to understand. It's not just enough to cast out
one demon. You need to actually understand
that there's a war between kingdoms and we need to claim
people for the kingdom of God. So Jesus has addressed, the
first crowds concern or the first concern from the crowd
about casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub.
All and now he's going to address the second which is
about. Can you show us a sign Jesus?
And he's going to do that in the coming versus.
That's the end of our text for today.
Let's turn to the catechism to see what it has to say about
this passage paragraph 700. This is in symbols of the Holy
Spirit and here we learned that the finger can be used as Symbol
of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly paragraph, seven
hundred says it is by the Finger of God, that Jesus cast out
demons. If God's law was written on
tablets of stone by the Finger of God, then the letter from
Christ entrusted to the care of the Apostles is written with the
spirit of the Living. God not on tablets of stone but
on tablets of human hearts the him Veni Creator.
Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the finger of the father's
right hand. So That language of the Finger
of God, is actually used all throughout scripture and
paragraph 700 attempts to bring all those references together
paragraph. 385 this is a really interesting one.
It's in the section about the fall of Man and the problem of
evil. And here's what it says, God is
infinitely, good and all his works are good yet, no one can
escape the experience of suffering, all the evils in
nature, which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to
creatures and above all to the question of moral.
Where does evil come from? I saw it when several comes and
there was no solution. So the st.
Augustine and his own painful Quest would only be resolved by
his conversion to the Living. God for the mystery of
lawlessness is clarified. Only in the light of the mystery
of our religion, the revelation of divine Love In Christ
manifested. At the same time, the extent of
evil and the super abundance of Grace we must therefore approach
the question of the origin of Evil by Fixing the eyes of our
faith on him who alone is its conqueror.
Quite an amazing paragraph there about the Theology of the fall
and the problem of evil, and that last part of it, where it
talks about, in order to understand the extent of evil,
we need to understand the super abundance of Grace.
It actually references here, Luke chapter 11, where it talks
about. Jesus casting out, evil and
putting the kingdom of God back into people.
So hopefully you found those paragraphs.
Interesting, I'll include those in the show notes as always.
Thanks for listening today. If you thought today's text was
interesting in the exegesis was useful, then please share it
around with people. So more and more people can come
to know God's word, more deeply, thanks and will continue in the
coming days.