Unclean Spirits Are Out Seeking Men To Possess (11:24-26).
This passage now comes as a warning to men of the danger of being outside the Kingly Rule of God, and especially of seeking to idols and the occult. And it compares such things with what it is like to be in the Kingly Rule of God where men are truly ‘blessed'. It is a reminder that while Satan is defeated and on the run, his forces are still active in retreat.
In the chiasmus of this whole Section this passage parallels the sending out of the seventy. While Jesus appointed servants are out seeking to bring men under the Kingly Rule of God, evil spirits are out seeking to possess men for Satan's kingdom. The guerrilla warfare continues. The description is enough to cause a shudder in the heart. It is of eight evil spirits out to possess someone. But they can only do it to those who ‘open themselves', either through idolatry or the occult.
a The unclean spirit when he is gone out of the man, passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding none (Luke 11:24 a).
b He says, “I will turn back to my house from where I came out.” And when he is come, he finds it swept and put in order (Luke 11:24).
c Then he goes, and takes to him seven other spirits more evil than himself. And they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first (Luke 11:26).
b And it came about that, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which you sucked”. (The woman is turning Jesus thoughts back to His house, but His house is not swept and put in order. It is still rebellious) (Luke 11:27).
a But he said, “Yes rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it” (They are in the opposite of waterless places, and they do find a place of rest) (Luke 11:28).
We note here that in ‘a' the unclean spirit finds only emptiness and waterlessness and barrenness. It seeks a satisfactory resting place and finds none. But in the parallel the one who hears the word of God finds fullness, and thirst-quenching and fruit-producing water, and a satisfactory resting-place, for he is ‘blessed' by God. In ‘b' the unclean spirit decides that his best solution is to return ‘to his house from which he came' for he can find nowhere better, but in the parallel while the woman sees Jesus' home as a supremely blessed place, Jesus does not. He knows there is something better, being in the Kingly Rule of God. In ‘c' is the central message. Those whose lives are left empty of the Kingly Rule of God can only deteriorate, and sometimes very quickly. Unless when we are freed from the past we make a positive response to God in Jesus Christ we may finish far worse off than we were before. People only go up or down.