Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 12:45

"Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation." — Matthew 12:45 (ASV)

Seven other spirits more wicked than himself — The number seven, as in the case of Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2), represents a greater intensity of possession. This manifests in more violent paroxysms of frenzy and offers less hope of restoration.

In applying the parable to the religious life of the Jewish people, we must ask three questions:

1. What corresponds to the first possession and the expulsion of the evil spirit?
2. What corresponds to the seven other spirits who joined the first, and were even more evil?
3. What is the last state—which was still in the future when our Lord spoke—that was to be worse than the first?

The answer to the first question lies on the surface of their history. Their besetting sin from the time of the Exodus to the Babylonian Captivity had been idolatry and apostasy. The worship of other gods exercised a strange and horrible fascination over them, depriving them, as it were, of light, reason, and the true freedom of their will. They were enslaved and possessed.

Then came the return from the Exile. At that time, not so much by the teaching of the prophets as by that of the scribes and Pharisees, idolatry seemed banished forever. But the house was “empty, swept, and garnished.” There was no indwelling presence of the enthusiasm of a higher life—only an outward ceremonial religion, rigid precepts, and the show of piety. The hypocrisy of the scribes was the garnishing of the house.

Then the old evil returned in the form of Mammon-worship—the covetousness which is idolatry (Ephesians 5:5). With it came bitterness, hatred, the license of divorce, self-righteousness, a lack of sympathy, and an antagonism to good that came terribly near to “the sin against the Holy Ghost.”

That state was bad enough as it was, but our Lord’s words point to a future that would be even worse. To take an adequate measure of the “last state” of that “wicked generation,” we must turn to the picture drawn by the Jewish historian of the crimes, frenzies, and insanities of the final struggle that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem.