Wednesday, July 26, 2006
THE LAST STATE
Vv 43-45. "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."
Unoccupied, swept clean, and put in order describes the vacuum of the human heart whose chemotherapy is repentance, not morality. The Jews returned to Jerusalem, not with repentance but a system of fundamentalism that focused, not on blessings reaped by obedience to God’s Law, but to their own manmade laws that focused on what was not to be done.
That which starts out as a positive moral idea, that is devoid of repentance or true living spirituality, is nothing more than a time bomb that awaits opportunity to justify the lusts that have compounded as it matures in self-justification. Then it goes, and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked that itself, and they go in and live there. Morality has now blinded the religious and Satan perfectly dwells within their camp and they are oblivious to the fact that they are possessed.
This is the last state, a state desensitized to sin, to where man has become worse than he was in the first place. Israel and her religion now has no resemblance of what God had so graciously given to them for their own protection. They had swallowed the hemlock of Satan and now could not even recognize the very God that was trying to save them from themselves.
He tried to open their eyes with familiar texts of Jonah and Solomon to no avail. Therefore, He prophesies to the group that would crucify Him, “That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” Morality was the damnation of the scribes and the Pharisees who led the Jewish people in a direction that held no hope of receiving their kingdom’s blessings.
Unoccupied, swept clean, and put in order describes the vacuum of the human heart whose chemotherapy is repentance, not morality. The Jews returned to Jerusalem, not with repentance but a system of fundamentalism that focused, not on blessings reaped by obedience to God’s Law, but to their own manmade laws that focused on what was not to be done.
That which starts out as a positive moral idea, that is devoid of repentance or true living spirituality, is nothing more than a time bomb that awaits opportunity to justify the lusts that have compounded as it matures in self-justification. Then it goes, and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked that itself, and they go in and live there. Morality has now blinded the religious and Satan perfectly dwells within their camp and they are oblivious to the fact that they are possessed.
This is the last state, a state desensitized to sin, to where man has become worse than he was in the first place. Israel and her religion now has no resemblance of what God had so graciously given to them for their own protection. They had swallowed the hemlock of Satan and now could not even recognize the very God that was trying to save them from themselves.
He tried to open their eyes with familiar texts of Jonah and Solomon to no avail. Therefore, He prophesies to the group that would crucify Him, “That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” Morality was the damnation of the scribes and the Pharisees who led the Jewish people in a direction that held no hope of receiving their kingdom’s blessings.
# posted by Castusfumus : 6:34 PM
