Luke 11:24-26--Return of an Unclean Spirit

Luke 11:24-26
English Standard Version
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Return of an Unclean Spirit
24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

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The people saw both the open waters and the desert as places where the evil spirits dwelt.  I won't discuss the background for why that may be right now as that's not important.  It's more important to see that this demon that Jesus is talking about is in a mostly lifeless environment.  There are no people for the demon to possess.  It is just a "wandering spirit" that is essentially homeless it is restless.

This demon seems to have been cast out of someone because we wouldn't imagine that a demon would leave its home by its own will.  We know that its host did not die because the next verse tells us that the unclean spirit says that it will go back to the house (the host) from which it came, to see if it might still be welcome there.

When it returns, it sees that the host has not changed at all....still doing all the things they did before that made them susceptible to demonic oppression and possession.   In fact it sounds like the man may have engaged in even more activities and may have put out the welcome mat and hung out sign saying that there is a vacancy or room for rent.  The demon sees all the signs that preparations have been made not only for himself but for him to invite many others (the number seven is a number of "completion" or "totality" in the Bible) who are even more evil than itself to come to rest there and dwell there.  Now the man is even worse off than before, though he may not think he is or may not realize it.

So, what is the point of this story?  Remember the context of the previous passage about by whose power Jesus cast out demons and by whose power and authority the sons of these religious leaders cast out demons.  Jesus says that the proof that His power is from God is that the gospel changes people's lives and is more powerful than the demons that were cast out so that the demons do not return and know they are no longer welcome there.  We would say now that the person is filled with the Holy Spirit, though I'm not sure we could have said that at this point in biblical history.

Let's think about this hypothetical demon-possessed man from Jesus' story.  We would assume that the man never heard the gospel before when he was originally demonized, but what if the man heard the gospel as part of the exorcism and rejected it?  What if the man chose to turn back to the powers of darkness.  Would this not be a bondage even worse than the first because the man willfully chose to put himself into bondage this time?  No wonder every demon would feel at home in such a man.  So then, if we don't preach a true gospel that transforms people from the inside out and changes their lives so that the demons know they are no longer welcome, it does us no good to go around trying to set people free form their spiritual bondage if they will just turn right back around and offer themselves up for bondage again (many in the world are like Gomer in the book of Hosea after being saved out of a life of prostituting ourselves are unfaithful to the one who saved us and turn right back to our old tricks and get ourselves trafficked into slavery once again.  Is not this second slavery worse than the first because we have already tasted the freedom and deliverance and salvation that the LORD provides.  We should never turn back once we have truly tasted it.