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by Clive Campbell
01/31/20
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Matthew 12:43-45 is a cryptic passage:

43 “(AZ)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 itunoccupied, 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 (BA)the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”

I think that I may have solved the mystery of its interpretation, but you don't have to agree with me. I believe that the man to which Jesus is referring is Judas Iscariot. I'm guessing that he was demon-possessed when Jesus met him but drove the demon out of him at some point. John 6 says:

70 Jesus answered them, “(DJ)Did I Myself not choose you, (DK)the twelve, and yet one of you is (DL)a devil?” 71 Now He meant Judas (DM)the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, (DN)one of (DO)the twelve, [k]was going to betray Him.

John 12 says about Judas:

6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he (H)had the money box, he used to pilfer (I)what was put into it.

Mark 14:21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

21 For the Son of Man [a title from Daniel 7, by the way] is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man [a]by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good [b]for that man if he had not been born.”

All part of God's plan:

Acts 2:23 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

23 this Man, delivered over by the (A)predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, (B)you nailed to a cross by the hands of [a]godless men and put Him to death.

The "waterless places" mentioned doesn't mean that the driven-out fallen angel was thirsty. That would make no sense for a being who is a spirit. "Water" figures metaphorically mean Gentiles in the Bible (Rev 17:15). It means that the fallen angel stays in the land of Israel to find rest in possessing another Jew. The Jews are the "synagogue of Satan" (Rev 2:9, 3:9). Remember the 6,000 demons ("Legion," prophetic of the 6,000th year) that possessed the Gerasene demoniac who said in Mark 5:

10 And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Satan and the demons, fallen angels, have always opposed God's work with the Jews. You can guess that it was they who tried to kill all the Hebrew babies at the time of Moses' birth. You can know from Rev 12:4 and elsewhere in the book (I think words and phrases repeat over and over the 40 century story of Israel thru the book) that they tried the same kind of thing at the time of Jesus' birth and Herod and at the time of the Holocaust, when 1/3 of the Jews, "the stars of heaven," were killed. (They actually wore stars of David. Elsewhere in the book, 1/3 of the Jews killed are "earth," "trees," "ships" and "mankind.") Satan also tempts Jesus, the second Adam, 3 times, perhaps speaking of trying Him at the end of the 4th millennium, at the start of 5th and the end of 6th.

I think "the seven other spirits more wicked than itself" refers to Satan himself. The "seven Spirits" and "seven Spirits of God" of Revelation refer to the Holy Spirit and the Church, the 7 mostly Gentile churches that the Holy Spirit fills. By the way, Noah, in his 600th year (prophetic of the 6000th) in the "Jewish" ship upon the "Gentile" seas, after 40 days of rain on the land (40 centuries from Adam to Christ, also 40 centuries of Gentile "rain" upon the "land," Israel, ending in 2030/31), with 7 others (true Israel/true Church) and the animals (7 of the clean, true Israel/true Church, many killed by Noah for food, and 2 of the unclean, false Israel/false Church of 2 millennia), arriving on the land (Israel) again and Noah building an altar (4th Jewish temple?) and sacrificing more clean animals is a powerful figure of Christ's work in 6 millennia.

Satan actually did enter, possess, Judas:

Luke 22:3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

3 (A)And (B)Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, [a]belonging to the number of the twelve.

John 13:27 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

27 After the morsel, (A)Satan then (B)entered into him. Therefore Jesus *said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”

I know of 2 other times that Satan has actually entered, possessed, a creature. The first is inferred: it was the serpent (dinosaur of some type?) in the Garden of Eden of Genesis, like the dragon in Israel of Revelation, each in a 7-year period. The second is yet to come, also inferred, the Antichrist, perhaps a Jewish military man out of the 10-nation Commonwealth of Independent States (includes Russia and is Daniel's and Revelation's 10-horned beast out of the Gentile sea), daughter of the 15-nation USSR, who will enter into a "firm covenant" with Israel (Daniel 9) and it seems from Revelation 13 will even be raised from the dead!

The last state of Judas became worse than the first and the last state of the generation of the Jews who did not receive Him as their Messiah, Savior and Lord became worse than the first. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, exactly 40 (there it is again!) years after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Christ in 30 AD.

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