THE EMPTY HOUSE
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Empty House, Empty Lamps
a) The two parables have quite different subject matter. One concerns a man possessed of demons. The other is about maidens at a wedding. However the point both parables is similar.
b) The parables warn us that we must properly obey God's word, and not be neglectful or do it by half measures. Carefully hearing and doing with a faithful heart filled with a passion for God’s grace and goodness — nothing less will do as a preparation for judgment day.
c) Here is one of the parables that focuses on some of the great mistakes that people make. We considered these in one of our introductory lessons, Great Mistakes. These mistakes include failing to properly hear and obey God’s word, and to get ready for the judgment (Matthew 7, Matthew 25).
2. The Empty House
Matthew 12:43-45
43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
a) The subject of the parable is a house occupied by an an undesirable tenant. When the tenant vacates or is evicted, the house is swept and made neat and clean. However the house is left unoccupied. The tenant who left, unable to find anywhere else to live, sneaks back to the house bringing seven other homeless with him, and they all move in and become squatters.
b) What makes this parable unusual is that the tenant is a demon and the house is a human being. In this parable of the Empty House, Jesus simply describes some familiar facts about demon possession. The people listening to Jesus would not find the parable strange, because they knew from experience that demons could enter into a person and do him harm.
c) A demon (or daemon) is an insanely evil and outcast spirit being, who seeks a parasitical incarnation in a fleshly body. This invasion causes various kinds of mental and physical illness and abnormality in the victim.
d) When we learn the circumstances in which Jesus told this parable, we understand why Jesus chose demon possession as an illustration. Jesus had cast out a demon from a man who was both blind and dumb, and the man was then able to see and hear (Matthew 12:22-24). Some debate and discussion arose out of this miracle, and this led Jesus to utter the parable of the Empty House.
e) The point of the parable is aimed at the Pharisees who were maligning Jesus in the discussion (Matthew 12:24-28).
f) Pharisee was a member of one of the opinionated and self-glorifying sects among the religious leaders and lawyers in Jerusalem. Pharisees accepted miracles, resurrection, angels, spirits, etc whereas their rivals the Sadducees did not.
g) The typical Pharisee was certainly like a house "swept clean and put in order", for he lived in a most orderly, scrupulous, and religious manner. The problem was that he was an empty house, a house "unoccupied". For though he might zealously purify himself by religious rituals, he neglected to fill himself with justice, mercy, compassion, and such like. So he was a nice neat house but untenanted, just waiting for evil to come back and squat. Since the discussion had been about casting out demons, Jesus used that topic as an analogy of an even worse problem suffered by the Pharisees.
h) We learn the lesson from this parable that, when we get rid of evil, we must fill the void with good, otherwise the evil will come back with a vengeance. It is like weeding a garden but neglecting to fill it with good plants and leaving the ground bare. Many more weeds will soon infest the soil than you removed.
i) To make ourselves ready for judgment day, we cannot be satisfied with merely ridding ourselves of evil. We must also fill ourselves up with good. When we consider the "deeds of the flesh" (Galatians 5:19-21), we should make up our minds to be rid of such as these. Yet we must also go on to consider "the fruits of the Spirit" and make up our minds that we will be filled with such as these (Galatians 5:22-25).
The End ...
1. Empty House, Empty Lampsa) The two parables have quite different subject matter. One concerns a man possessed of demons. The other is about maidens at a wedding. However the point both parables is similar.
b) The parables warn us that we must properly obey God's word, and not be neglectful or do it by half measures. Carefully hearing and doing with a faithful heart filled with a passion for God’s grace and goodness — nothing less will do as a preparation for judgment day.
c) Here is one of the parables that focuses on some of the great mistakes that people make. We considered these in one of our introductory lessons, Great Mistakes. These mistakes include failing to properly hear and obey God’s word, and to get ready for the judgment (Matthew 7, Matthew 25).
2. The Empty House
Matthew 12:43-45
43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
a) The subject of the parable is a house occupied by an an undesirable tenant. When the tenant vacates or is evicted, the house is swept and made neat and clean. However the house is left unoccupied. The tenant who left, unable to find anywhere else to live, sneaks back to the house bringing seven other homeless with him, and they all move in and become squatters.
b) What makes this parable unusual is that the tenant is a demon and the house is a human being. In this parable of the Empty House, Jesus simply describes some familiar facts about demon possession. The people listening to Jesus would not find the parable strange, because they knew from experience that demons could enter into a person and do him harm.
c) A demon (or daemon) is an insanely evil and outcast spirit being, who seeks a parasitical incarnation in a fleshly body. This invasion causes various kinds of mental and physical illness and abnormality in the victim.
d) When we learn the circumstances in which Jesus told this parable, we understand why Jesus chose demon possession as an illustration. Jesus had cast out a demon from a man who was both blind and dumb, and the man was then able to see and hear (Matthew 12:22-24). Some debate and discussion arose out of this miracle, and this led Jesus to utter the parable of the Empty House.
e) The point of the parable is aimed at the Pharisees who were maligning Jesus in the discussion (Matthew 12:24-28).
f) Pharisee was a member of one of the opinionated and self-glorifying sects among the religious leaders and lawyers in Jerusalem. Pharisees accepted miracles, resurrection, angels, spirits, etc whereas their rivals the Sadducees did not.
g) The typical Pharisee was certainly like a house "swept clean and put in order", for he lived in a most orderly, scrupulous, and religious manner. The problem was that he was an empty house, a house "unoccupied". For though he might zealously purify himself by religious rituals, he neglected to fill himself with justice, mercy, compassion, and such like. So he was a nice neat house but untenanted, just waiting for evil to come back and squat. Since the discussion had been about casting out demons, Jesus used that topic as an analogy of an even worse problem suffered by the Pharisees.
h) We learn the lesson from this parable that, when we get rid of evil, we must fill the void with good, otherwise the evil will come back with a vengeance. It is like weeding a garden but neglecting to fill it with good plants and leaving the ground bare. Many more weeds will soon infest the soil than you removed.
i) To make ourselves ready for judgment day, we cannot be satisfied with merely ridding ourselves of evil. We must also fill ourselves up with good. When we consider the "deeds of the flesh" (Galatians 5:19-21), we should make up our minds to be rid of such as these. Yet we must also go on to consider "the fruits of the Spirit" and make up our minds that we will be filled with such as these (Galatians 5:22-25).
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