Jeremiah 9-11

1 Timothy 6

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

“Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” 
—Matthew 12:45

In Matthew 12, the Pharisees and teachers of the law disagreed with Jesus’s theology as to who He says He is and what He is doing; they called Him the devil and were plotting to kill Him. Although Jesus conducted countless signs and miracles to prove His authority and who He says He is, they completely rejected the activity of God among them.

To the Pharisees and teachers of the law, Jesus said, “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation” (Matthew 12:43-45).

Many of us attribute this teaching to what happens when a demon is cast out of a person, but when we consider the context in which Jesus is teaching this, He is using this parable to illustrate that our disobedience to His signs is not a neutral position; it is a downward spiral. The more we refuse and dig in against God’s activity among us, the worse it gets. What started out as casual disobedience, by the end of His parable, becomes seven times more wicked as it resists God’s activity.

The more a culture digs in against God’s activity, the worse it gets. We see this throughout the Old Testament. Pharaoh resisted God’s activity and suffered destruction. The Israelites refused to follow God’s commands, even though God performed many signs through Moses, and wandered in the desert for forty years until they died. Jezebel and Ahab hardened their hearts toward God and continued to prostitute themselves to other gods, filling the land with idolatry, and died brutal deaths. What we need to understand is that disobedience is not a neutral position; it is a downward spiral leading to something seven times worse.

What started out as a swept-clean room put in order gets filled with seven other spirits more wicked than itself as it resists God’s commands. If we make peace with sin, as it starts to wrap around our life, it may not kill us the first time, the second time or the third time, but eventually the choice to allow sin to wrap around our life is going to squeeze the life out of us and kill us.

Lord Jesus, I choose to submit to Your activity and acknowledge Your divinity. You are God and I believe in You. Thank You, Lord.