Matthew 12:22-30
²²Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw.
²³All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?”
²⁴But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”
²⁵And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?
²⁷If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges.
²⁸But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
²⁹Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
³⁰He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
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Then was brought unto him
Namely, By the person’s friends
One possessed with a devil, blind and dumb
Many, no doubt, supposed these defects to be merely natural: but the Spirit of God saw otherwise, and gives the true account, both of the disorder, and of the cure.
How many other disorders, seemingly natural, may even now be owing to the same cause!
And he healed him
He immediately expelled the evil spirit, and in an instant removed the effects of his diabolical influence.
And all the people were amazed
At so extraordinary a miracle, by which the noblest sense, and likewise the most useful faculty of the human body, were restored together.
Is not this the Son of David?
That is, The Messiah.
The Pharisees
The Pharisees who were present, and the scribes, who had come down from Jerusalem.
Heard it
That is, heard this natural reflection of the people, and observed that they were beginning to infer, from the wonderful miracles which they saw Jesus perform, that he was the expected Messiah.
Fearing lest such a belief, if it should gain ground, would put an end to their credit with, and authority over, the people, they said,
This man doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebul, etc.
Thus giving the most malicious and unreasonable turn to the matter which could be imagined.
And Jesus knew their thoughts
“It often happens, that through ignorance or weakness men form wrong judgments of things;” a conduct which, though censurable, admits of some excuse: “but when wrong judgments proceed from evil dispositions, then, indeed, do they become highly culpable.
Therefore, to show that the judgment which the Pharisees passed at this time upon our Lord’s miracles was of the latter kind, the evangelist observes, that Jesus knew their thoughts: He knew that the wickedness of their hearts, and not the weakness of their understandings, had led them to form the opinion they had uttered, if it was their real opinion; or rather, to affirm it contrary to the conviction of their minds, which was the reason that, at the conclusion of His defence, He reprimanded them in the sharpest manner.” And said:
Every kingdom divided against itself etc.
He proceeds to demonstrate the absurdity of their calumny, by an argument drawn from the common affairs of life:
As if he had said, “If evil spirits assist me in working miracles for the confirmation of my doctrine, they do what they can to promote the spiritual worship and ardent love of the true God, and, as effectually as possible, excite men to the practice of universal justice, benevolence, temperance, and self-government; all these virtues being powerfully recommended by my doctrine.
But thus to make the evil spirits fight against themselves, is evidently to make them ruin their own interest; unless it can be thought that the strength and welfare of a society is advanced by jarring discord and destructive civil wars. Your judgment, therefore, of my conduct, is palpably malicious and absurd.” (McKnight).
Beelzebul / Beelzebub
The word Beelzebub signifies the lord or master of flies.
This was the great idol of the Ekronites; and from his name we may infer that they considered him as having the command of the various insects wherewith, in those warm climates, they were infested, and which ofttimes gathered into such swarms as proved both a noisome and a deadly plague.
The Greeks, likewise, had a god, whose title was μυιαργος, Muscarum venator, The destroyer of flies. But he was in no great reputation among them, their country not being subject to this sort of calamity.
The Ekronites being near neighbours to the Jews, the great veneration which they had for this idol made him the object both of the horror and detestation of the devout worshippers of the true God.
Accordingly, to express in what detestation they held him, they appropriated his name to the most hateful being in the universe, calling the devil, or the prince of the evil angels, for the next verse shows, that Beelzebub and Satan are different names of the same person; and consequently that Satan was considered as the prince of those demons who were cast out by Christ, and who are elsewhere represented as his angels.
The word in the Greek is Beelzebul, which signifies, the lord of a dunghill, and seems to be a contemptuous change of the former name, by which it was intimated, that the noblest of the heathen deities were more fit to dwell on a dunghill than to be worshipped in a magnificent temple.
And if I by Beelzebul, etc.
This is the second argument made use of by Jesus for confuting the calumny of the Pharisees;
By whom do your children cast them out?
As if he had said, “For the same reason that you attribute my miracles to the devil, you may attribute all the miracles that ever were wrought in the world to the devil, and particularly the miracles of your own prophets which, nevertheless, you acknowledge to be divine.”
To this purpose Dr. Chandler paraphrases the verse, Ye do not impute the miracles of your prophets to Beelzebub, but on the evidence of these miracles ye receive them as the messengers of God. Nevertheless, ye reject me, who work greater and more numerous miracles than they, and impute them to the power of evil spirits. Is this conduct of a piece? Wherefore these prophets shall be your judges; they shall condemn you.”
It seems, however, more probable that, by your children, is meant your disciples, or your countrymen in general, for “that many of the Jews did, at this time, attempt to cast out devils, is plain from Mark 9:38; Luke 9:49; Acts 19:13; Matthew 8:2.
Calvin thinks that God conferred power of this kind on some particular persons among the Jews anciently, that by thus proving his presence among them he might retain the nation in the faith of his covenant; and that the people, having experienced God’s power in those instances, came foolishly to institute for themselves the office of an exorcist.
Agreeably to this it may be observed, that our Lord’s argument does not require that the demons were actually expelled by these exorcists. It is sufficient that the Jews thought they were expelled, and did not find fault with those pretended miracles, as they did with Christ’s real ones.”
Therefore they shall be your judges
Ask them, if Satan will cast out Satan; let even them be judges in this matter. And they shall convict you of obstinacy and partiality, who impute that in me to Beelzebul, which in them you impute to God.
But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God
As it is evident, and you cannot reasonably deny that I do.
Then the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you
The time is certainly come which God has appointed for taking the power out of the hands of the devil, in order that he may himself rule, both in the bodies and souls of men.
The word εφθασεν, rendered is come, implies, is come unawares; before you expected it. In other words, the Messiah’s kingdom is come, and you ought with joy to enter it.
How can one enter, etc.
How could I cast out Satan, and destroy his works, if I did not first overcome him?
The house of the strong man (or, strong one, as του ισχυρου should rather be rendered) into which Christ entered, was the world, fitly called Beelzebul’s house, or palace, because there he is served by luxury, lust, covetousness, pride, anger, and the other evil passions of men.
The goods or vessels belonging to the strong one are the wicked, called Satan’s vessels metaphorically, as Paul is called Christ’s chosen vessel (Acts 9:15).
Or, by the vessels, or furniture of Beelzebul’s house, we may understand the lusts and passions of men’s hearts, the instruments by which he keeps possession of them.”
He that is not with me is against Me
He that does not unite and co-operate with Me, who am contending against Satan and his kingdom, is against Me, as being unwilling that his kingdom should be destroyed.
And he that gathereth not with Me
That does not set himself, according to his ability, to gather subjects into my kingdom, and promote the cause of truth and grace among men,
Scattereth abroad
Hinders the work of God upon earth, and either prevents men from entering upon a life of piety and virtue, or obstructs their progress therein.
In other words, there are no neuters in this war: every one must be
▪︎ either with Christ or against him;
▪︎ either a loyal subject or a rebel;
and there are none upon earth who neither promote nor obstruct his kingdom.
For every one does either one or the other daily. Much more criminal and fatal, then, must the character and conduct of those be, who, with deliberate, implacable malice, oppose Christ’s cause, and are resolved, at all adventures, to do their utmost to bring it down, as the Pharisees were now attempting to do by these vile suggestions, whereby they endeavoured to represent Christ, who came to save men, as an accomplice with Satan, who was labouring to destroy them.
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A soul under Satan’s power, and led captive by him, is blind in the things of God, and dumb at the throne of grace; sees nothing, and says nothing to the purpose.
Satan blinds the eyes by unbelief, and seals up the lips from prayer.
The more people magnified Christ, the more desirous the Pharisees were to vilify him. It was evident that if Satan aided Jesus in casting out devils, the kingdom of hell was divided against itself; how then could it stand!
And if they said that Jesus cast out devils by the prince of the devils, they could not prove that their children cast them out by any other power.
There are two great interests in the world; and when unclean spirits are cast out by the Holy Spirit, in the conversion of sinners to a life of faith and obedience, the kingdom of God is come unto us. All who do not aid or rejoice in such a change are against Christ.
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