The Unclean Spirit
By Jonathan Mitchell

In Matthew Chapter Twelve we find the following three verses. The question is: “Was Jesus making an ontological statement about the nature and activity of “spirits,” or was He making another veiled prophecy about the Jewish leadership of that time, and about what would later happen to His “house?”

Verse 43. "Now whenever the unclean spirit (or: unpruned attitude; unpurged breath-effect; foul wind) should come forth (or: go out) away from the person (or: human), it normally passes through waterless places, continuously seeking a resting place (or: rest; a ceasing from activity) – and it continues finding none. 44. "At that point, it proceeds to say, 'I will turn back into my house from where I came (or: moved) out.' And, upon coming, it is then finding [it] continuing being unoccupied (being unemployed, and thus, at leisure) and having been swept clean with a broom – even having been put in orderly arrangement and decorated! 45. "At that time it continues journeying on its way, and then proceeds taking along with itself seven different spirits (breath-effects; winds) more good-for-nothing and useless (base, wicked, knavish, grievously oppressive and evil) than itself, and, upon entering, it settles down and continues dwelling there in the house. So the last [circumstances] of that person becomes progressively worse than the first ones. Thus in this way will it also be with (or: for; in; to) this good-for-nothing and wicked generation."

These verses have caused me to ponder for years. Just prior to Jesus saying this enigmatic statement, He had called the scribes and Pharisees a worthless and wicked generation (vs. 38-39).

Then verses 40-42 speak of the judgment of that generation, and He ends vs. 45 saying that vss. 43-45a applies to this generation. But to what were these verses referring? What was the "unclean spirit," or "the unpruned attitude," or "the unpurged breath-effect," or "the foul wind?”

I think that the metaphor describes the somewhat circular movement of wind that passes from place to place, picking up smoke, chemicals, smells, etc., as it goes along. When it comes again to the place where it started out, with all the added materials that it picked up, it pollutes even a clean house.

Jesus came to clean the house of Israel, and His Father’s house. The coming of His kingdom caused a movement of the spirit of the area, some changes of attitudes. He was a "breath" of fresh air that displaced the foulness that had been there. But despite His work of cleansing, with their not filling their house with His Spirit, the old eventually came back, along with other crud.

On a personal level, we know that a person can be delivered from some addiction, but can later allow that spirit of addiction to return and the person can end up worse than before. But He seemed to be addressing this not on a personal level, but on a generational level that speaks to the Jews of His day, and of a time that will follow.

I shared these thoughts with a friend, Dan Kaplan, and what follows here is primarily from his input. I trust that I faithfully represent the revelation which he brought to me, through a phone call, and is here developed from my sketchy notes as we spoke. His thoughts will be mingled with mine – for your reading pleasure.

Note first of all that vs. 43 speaks of the spirit coming out of a person, then vs. 44 refers to this person as a “house.” So at the outset we see that Jesus is speaking of something that emanates from people, but He quickly makes the subject of this metaphor a house and has this spirit refer to it as “my house.” So we immediately see an association between “the unclean spirit” and its house.

Dan pointed out that the house represents the whole house of Israel, specifically represented in Jesus’ time by the scribes (scholars and theologians), the Pharisees, and the priests. But this is just a picture of humanity (the “person”: the race of the first man, Adam). From out of this house (or: the “person” of Israel) had issued forth an unclean spirit, or an unpruned attitude.

In John 15 Jesus used the metaphor of a vine to speak of His relationship to. His disciples. In vs. 2-3 we see: “Every tender branch (shoot or twig which can easily be broken) within Me not habitually bearing (bringing forth; = producing) fruit He regularly lifts up and takes it away. And everyone consistently bearing the fruit He habitually clears (or: cleanses) by pruning, to the end that it can continue bearing more (a greater amount of) fruit.

“You folks, yourselves, are already cleared (cleansed) and pruned ones through and because of the word (Logos; message; thought; idea) which I have spoken to you (in you; for you).” Notice that, when speaking of a vine, or a tree, the Greek word “kathairo” means to clean up a vine or tree by pruning it. But it is the negative form of this word that is rendered “unclean” in this passage, thus the optional rendering “unpruned attitude.” This spirit, or attitude, had grown without the work of the Vine dresser cleaning it up to produce good fruit. What was issuing forth from this house was something that was worthless, and at times “foul.”

But Dan brought up another significant point which referred to Israel’s purity laws. One of the most common things for making a person ceremonially unclean was contact with a dead body, a dead animal, or a grave. In Matt. 23:27, addressing the Pharisees, Jesus said, “because you continue closely resembling whitewashed (i.e., smeared or plastered with lime) tombs (sepulchers; grave sites), which indeed, from outside, continue being made to appear in the prime of beauty, for a time – yet inside they contain a full load of bones of dead folks, as well as every uncleanness.” This was the condition of the Jewish leadership: unclean on the inside, even if the outside of their cups were clean (vs. 25).

Heb. 9:12-13 compares the purifying (or: pruning) of the flesh by means of the sacrificial system to the work of Christ, Whose blood will “… cleanse (or: prune) your conscience from works of death (or: dead procedures and activities; deeds of dead folks) into [the situation] to be continuously rendering sacred service, as well as the business and duties of life, for (or: in; by; to) the living and true (or: real) God.” (vs. 14) I suggest that the dead procedures which are referred to are the works of the sacrificial system that was done away in Christ. The Jews needed to be pruned and cleansed from the old.

The self-righteousness of the Pharisees issued forth a “foul wind” from their filthy rags; an unpurged breath-effect from the uncleanness within. Dan referred me to Haggia 2:13-14, in reference to contact with a dead body making a person “unclean,” Haggai, speaking for Yahweh, says, “So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, averring is Yahweh. And so is every work of their hands, and what they are bringing near there; it is unclean!” This was also the condition of Israel in Jesus’ day.

The situation in Mark 7, where the scribes and Pharisees criticized Jesus about His disciples eating without first ritually washing their hands, ends with the reply by Jesus in vs. 20-22,

20. Further, He continued saying, "The thing normally issuing forth from out of midst of the person (man; human): that thing habitually contaminates the person (makes the person ritually unclean and common), 21. "for, from inside of the person (man; human) – from out of the midst of the heart – the worthless reasonings (base conversations; dialogues of poor quality; evil thoughts; bad ideas and designs) constantly issue forth: [for example], prostitutions, acts of sexual immorality or involvements in fornication; thefts; murders; 22. "adulteries; situations of wanting more than one's share (thoughts of greed; feelings of coveting), bad conditions which bring pain, misery, anguish or hard labor (or: acts of wickedness; malicious deeds; evil doings); bait to catch someone with deceit, treachery, guile or fraud; loose conduct (indecency); an evil eye (= a focus toward malice or mischief); slander, harmful and abusive speech, or blasphemy; pride, arrogance and haughtiness; acting without thinking (or: imprudence; unreasonableness; inconsiderateness; lack of purpose; folly). 23. "All these bad situations and misery-causing things are habitually issuing forth from within, and repeatedly contaminates the person (continuously makes the human common and ritually unclean)." All these things come from the unclean spirit, or condition, of the heart, and proceed out to affect others – sometimes just in thoughts, other times in actions.

Some of the uncleanness was from the conditions of their hearts, but I suggest that some of it was also from their contact with the unclean spirits (attitudes, mind-sets) of the dead teaching of paganism. The importation of wrong and death-giving concepts from foreign religions corrupted what they taught. Prov. 4:23 advises, “More than any guarding, preserve your heart, for from it spring the outflowing (or: issuings) of life.” If the core of one’s being is full of death, then the spirit that flows forth from that heart will both smell of, and be, death.

Moving on in this saying of Jesus, we see that this spirit passes through waterless places. This speaks of folks who do not have the “water of Life.”

Dan here brought to mind 2 Peter Two:

17. These people are (or: exist being) springs without water and clouds (or: mists; fogs) being constantly driven by (or: under) a storm (or: a squall), for whom the gloom of the darkness has been kept for an indefinite period of time… (19.) they themselves continuously subsist inherently being slaves of the corruption (the ruin; the decay)... And also Jude 12, “…[They are] clouds without water, being swept along by winds; wasted autumnal trees, unfruitful, twice-died, uprooted.”

Once again, we can see the idea of an unclean wind, or spirit, being associated metaphorically with the condition of people. The mind-sets of the scribes, the priests and the Pharisees were unclean spirits. As Dan said, “Israel, like Saul/Paul as its chief representative, was the chiefest of sinners.”

Now consider the part of this parable where this spirit finds its house unoccupied, cleaned and put in order. How did it come to be this way? Jesus does not say, but I suggest that this was His cleansing via the work of the cross and the shedding of His blood. They had made His Father’s house a den of robbers and a place of merchandise. His blood cleansed this and set His Father’s house (both His temple/body, and the Israel of the heart – Rom. 2:28; 9:8) in the new order, under the new covenant. But what happened after a time? That same unclean spirit goes its way for a while and then brings back seven others more good-for-nothing and worthless than itself. Here I see Jesus prophesying about what would happen in the centuries to follow: the church, called-out community which is the house of God, was to end up being in a worse condition than it was under the old covenant with Israel. It has once again “becomes (became; comes to be; is birthed) an abode (dwelling) of demons (or: animistic influences) and a confine (ward, prison, a place of keeping watch over) of every impure (unclean) spirit and a preserve (a keep; a cage; a guard house) of every unclean and hated bird,” (Rev. 18:2). And thus do we see institutional Christianity today. The bearer of light was cast down in AD 70, but her daughters (the denominations and fringe groups) have also become partakers of the same spirit, over the centuries. More deaths have been caused through the domination system of Christianity than all the blood shed by Israel of old. And the Voice of God again says, “Come out of her, My people…” (vs. 4).

This saying of Jesus applied first to that generation. Their condition became worse following His cleansing of His house, and the tearing down of the physical temple. But I see in this a type: it happened to them as an example for us. Have we learned? Many in Christianity are seeking signs, but the sign of Jonah (Matt. 12:39) has already been given: Christ crucified, and raised again. May He continue cleansing us from this unpruned thinking and unclean mind-set which was exhibited for us through the scribes and Pharisees.

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