Matthew 12:24, commentary and pictures

After Jesus freed a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak so that he both spoke and saw, while the amazed people asked if He was the Son of David, the Pharisees answered that He drives out demons only by Beelzebub the prince of demons. Beelzebub is a name for Satan himself, the fallen adversary also called the prince of darkness, the deceiver, the prince of the powers of the air, and the god of this world. Unable to deny the healing, explain it naturally, or refute His teaching, they gave Satan the glory that belonged to Christ and denied that God had worked through Him. To call the holy power of God manifested in His works the work of satanic agencies is to commit the sin against the Holy Spirit, which, when wilfully persisted in against received light, cuts off the channel by which God works on the heart and will not be forgiven in this world or the world to come. His miracles were wrought by God and not by nature or by Satan, testifying that He is the Son of God come to break Satan's power in cooperation with His Father.

Immediate Setting and Wording

The saying was spoken by the Pharisees after Jesus healed a man possessed by a demon who made him blind and unable to speak, so that after the healing he both spoke and saw. The people were amazed at the healing and asked whether He was the Son of David, recognizing the work as evidence that He might be the Messiah. Unable to deny the healing or explain it as natural, the Pharisees answered it with the charge that He cast out demons through Beelzebub.

Beelzebub means the prince or ruler of the demons or devils. The name belongs to Satan, the adversary who opposes Christ. He is the fallen angel who rebelled against the laws of heaven, also called the Prince of Darkness, the old serpent, the Devil, deceiver and liar, prince of the powers of the air, and god of this world.

The charge claimed He cast out demons only by that satanic power, a hostile claim that His work was powered by evil. By saying this the accusers gave to Satan the glory that belonged to Christ and denied that God had worked through Him. His miracles were in fact wrought by God and not by nature.

The same charge was repeated before Herod when He was commanded to work a miracle. There the priests and rulers cried out vehemently that He worked miracles by power from Beelzebub, the prince of devils. They did so because they dreaded any display of His divine power as a deathblow to their plans that might cost them their lives, though they knew He was no impostor after seeing too many evidences of His power, including the grave opening at His command and the dead walking forth alive again.

The charge had also been made not long before the raising of Lazarus, together with the charge of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God, when they took up stones to cast at Him. It was made again during the angry dispute that followed His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, after the officers refused to arrest Him and turned on the priests and rulers as the cause of the confusion. Then the Pharisees denounced Him loudly because He reproved their hypocrisies and iniquities and turned the people from their influence, and since they could not deny or reason away His mighty miracles they claimed He performed them by Beelzebub, while the majority of the common people defended Him by declaring that no man could do the works He had done, and the priesthood itself was divided, with Annas calling Him an impostor and Caiaphas acknowledging Him as a prophet whose death was necessary to fulfill prophecy.

The charge created tumult over His words and works. It brought keen reproach upon His family through their relation to Him and troubled His brothers. Alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, His brothers decided He must be persuaded or constrained to cease this manner of labor. They induced Mary to unite with them, thinking that through His love for her they might prevail upon Him to be more prudent.

Motives Behind the Charge

The accusers could not deny the healing of the blind and mute man, explain it as natural, refute His teaching, or prove any true charge against Him, so unable to disprove His works of mercy and light they resorted to the false explanation that He cast out demons by Beelzebub. No miracle could convince those determined not to believe, and bigotry and hatred drove them to accusations that had no truth in them. Their words arose from stubborn prejudice and determined unbelief and bitter opposition to His work of mercy, with stubborn, sullen and ironhearted resistance that closed their eyes to all evidence. They refused to cooperate with Him despite the people's amazement, refused to repent and yield to God's power, and rejected miracles that were God's arrangement to testify to the authority of His work and mission and to inspire faith.

Their hearts had become unresponsive to God because the evidence of miracles wrought by God and not by nature, testifying to His divinity, exposed their transgression of God's law. They rejected the evidence of heaven rather than admit their sin and abandon their purposes, though He had given them no reason to attribute His healing works to the devil. The charge arose from envy because the people listened attentively to His clear teaching, and from resistance and national pride that rejected His light to the Gentiles and feared losing influence over the people. They insulted Him and hindered others who were convinced He was the Christ, instead of recognizing and receiving Him as they should have done.

They feared a display of His divine power would undo their plans and put their own lives at risk, and they repeated the charge vehemently before Herod when He was commanded to work a miracle. They knew the charge was false and that He was no impostor, for they had seen too many evidences of His power, including the grave opening at His command and the dead walking forth clothed again with life and restored to life. The accusation was made not to gain clearer views of truth but to divert hearers' minds from the clearest evidences of truth already presented in convincing arguments, to persuade others to reject Him, and to turn minds away when other means failed. It was used to hinder those convinced He was the Christ and to turn the people away from His influence, because He reproved their hypocrisies and iniquities.

This was seen in the angry dispute after the triumphal entry, when Roman officers refused to arrest Him and turned on the priests and rulers as the cause of confusion, the majority of the common people defended Him by declaring no man could do the works He had done, and the priesthood itself was divided with Annas calling Him an impostor and Caiaphas acknowledging Him as a prophet whose death was necessary to fulfill prophecy. They read Scripture through unbelief and their own opinions and human traditions rather than examining it for themselves, calling the messenger of peace a deceiver. The people were misled when they accepted their leaders' judgments as God's voice.

Sin Against the Spirit

To call the holy power shown in healing the work of satanic agencies is to take what belongs to God and what the Holy Ghost has done and give it to Satan, and to turn the gift of speech into abuse of the world's Redeemer, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit. The healing stood before all eyes as a visible working of God's power, so plain that the people wondered if the Healer was the Messiah, and since it could neither be denied nor explained as natural, the charge was made maliciously and against the evidence from stubborn prejudice. Works of healing were done before them that no man had done or could do, yet in sullen and ironhearted unbelief they closed their eyes to all evidence and spoke of the Son of God as a mere man in league with hell, and deliberate rejection and misrepresentation of this kind has no forgiveness in this world or the world to come.

Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character can still be forgiven, because through the Holy Spirit the sinner can be brought to see the error and repent. Whatever sin is repented of and believed is washed away in His blood, but wilfully to declare the Spirit's work to be from Satan is to reject the Spirit and put the soul where repentance and faith cannot reach it. Such an act cuts the soul off from the fountain of blessing and cuts off the channel by which God works upon the heart and communicates with men, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is nothing more that God can do for the soul.

The charge was made by men already convinced that divine power attended Him and feeling the Holy Spirit urge them to own Him as Messiah, yet they attributed the Spirit's work to Satan in order to resist the truth. They had seen the dead restored to life, the grave opened at His command and the dead walking forth alive again, and they knew He was no impostor, but they feared a display of His divine power would undo their plans and put their own lives at risk. Rejecting the light they had received led them into greater spiritual blindness until they were controlled by Satan, and to reject the Spirit's work in this way leaves the soul in continued doubt and resistance to divine light.

Their words were written by the recording angel in the books of heaven. Those who take the same course and ascribe to the devil what God by His Spirit has done bring upon themselves a foggy terrible fear in which they cannot tell where they are, with anguish of spirit, and death.

Christ's Power Vindicated

His miracles were wrought by God, not by nature, and testified to His divinity as the Son of God who came to break Satan's power, which men failed to understand when they denounced Him as Beelzebub. The healing of the blind and mute man was a visible work of God's power, a manifestation no man had done or could do, and the people recognized it as evidence that He might be the Messiah. The Pharisees could neither deny the healing nor explain it as natural, so with stubborn prejudice and sullen, ironhearted resistance they closed their eyes to all evidence before them and maliciously attributed God's holy power to satanic agencies. They resisted because the evidence exposed their transgression of God's law and their hearts had become unresponsive to God, speaking of the Son of God in unbelief as a mere human being in league with hell and using speech to abuse the world's Redeemer. Their words were written by the recording angel in the books of heaven, and in so speaking against the evidence they committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin.

That charge of performing miracles by Satan's power was made not long before the raising of Lazarus, together with blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God when stones were taken up against Him. At the tomb of Lazarus He met the charge by openly claiming God as His Father and declaring with perfect confidence that He is the Son of God. He prayed aloud to the Father so that bystanders would believe God had sent Him, showing He did not work independently or by Satan but always cooperated with His Father and worked miracles by faith and prayer. His words and work there give convincing evidence that His claim to be the Son of God is not deception.

Though He healed the sick, raised the dead, and lived in spotless purity, He bore the charge of casting out demons by the prince of demons with meekness and patience. His blameless character stood in contrast to those who deceived and ruled the people, yet He faced intense hatred and reproach for testifying to His divine Sonship with a loving and merciful message. That testimony was misrepresented and His supernatural birth treated as a stain when He was insulted as empowered by the prince of demons. This insult did not cause the intense agony He later suffered in Gethsemane, where He bore the penalty of sin for the guilty world.

Though the Majesty of heaven was spoken against, mocked, and charged with having a devil, the accusation was a reproach against the Prince of life and an example of Christ being spoken against. The chief priests and elders, though professedly pious, assigned His mighty works to demonic power, attributing works of divine power to a demon even as He healed the sick and raised the dead. He did not cast off those who wronged Him but loved them, labored for them, and saved the erring. Their opposition could not stop His work or undo the evidence of His divine power.

Pattern Repeated Against Others

The same charge leveled in the verse was later turned against Paul and the apostles. Unable to disprove their preaching, their opponents denied that God had worked through them. They claimed instead that their wonderful works and miracles were done through demons they served, that their power to cast out evil and to heal came from the prince of demons rather than from heaven. The false explanation shows how envy and falsehood turn people against God's messengers and misrepresent their work.

The same kind of accusation falls on Christ's followers and on those who speak God's truth and deliver His reproof. Calling them the devil or workers for the devil, calling them devils and wolves in sheep's clothing, and saying they have the spirit of the evil one echoes the charge made against their Master. Where the Lord works the enemy stirs up his forces to divert minds from truth of heavenly origin, and this spirit appears in violent language against those presenting the truth. Such hostility toward God's work should not stop His servants from warning, reproving, comforting, and encouraging, even though the innocent like Jesus are falsely charged with evil and persecuted for it.

Refusing to recognize the light God sends in His messages and in men raised up to proclaim truth repeats the action of the Jews in the verse. Enshrouding that light in unbelief, looking for imperfections and hanging doubts on a word or little item and judging by that instead of seeing what God is doing with them and acknowledging the Spirit of God revealed in them, lifts the hand against Christ recognized in His messengers and brings danger of sinning against the Holy Spirit. He was hated and persecuted because He obeyed God's commandments instead of human traditions and requirements. His followers too are accused and misrepresented for their faithfulness, as Satan seeks to lead them into sin and bring dishonor on God.

In opposition to Christ, Beelzebub's work stands contrasted with God's work. Satan may imitate truth and righteousness, but his counterfeit cannot equal God's work, and when its fruit ripens its bitter outcome makes the difference plain. For claiming His power to cast out devils came from the chief of devils, the Jews failed to fulfill God's purpose and were cut off from the True Vine. Yet they could be grafted into the parent stock again and bear fruit to God's glory if they stood humbly on the right platform.

Warnings for Later Believers

The charge stands as decided opposition set against confessing Him, proving there is no middle ground in His service. God's elect must ever show their colors for Him, as a peculiar people separate from sin who depart from all iniquity. His words of instruction are life eternal and are to be strictly heeded without losing sight of one word. Believers are to be meek and lowly and tenderhearted yet firm as a rock to His teachings, because truth abides forever and trusting any lie or pretense originating with the father of lies is done at loss of eternal life. Straight paths are to be made for the feet lest the lame be turned out of safe paths, with accountability resting on those who mislead them.

Blindness under Satan can lead those professing to serve God to condemn Christ, even while He performs works of mercy and brings light to a sin-stricken world with teaching they cannot refute. Those who begin in criticism and judgment of others may be led to terrible extremes and grave error. When a heart separates from God and is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit, it reveals Satan's attributes in beginning to oppress fellow men with an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. That same spirit is indulged when men entrusted with weighty responsibilities have no living connection with God and do despite to the Spirit, seen in harsh relations of workers to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others, as did Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Warnings from God against this course are given again and again, but casting them aside and venturing on leaves the oppressor under Satan's control.

Where the Lord works the enemy stirs up his forces to divert minds from consideration of truth of heavenly origin. This same spirit is manifested where truth is presented, in violent language against those presenting it, calling them devils and wolves in sheep's clothing. The priests and Pharisees charged the wonderful miracles wrought by Jesus to Beelzebub the prince of devils, and the priests and rulers tried by claiming He healed the sick through the power of the enemy to prevent the suffering from coming to Him. People still reject God's work in the same way by closing ears and hearts to divine reproof and dismissing it as demonic. Ascribing to Satan what belongs to God, what the Holy Ghost has done, is the sin against the Holy Ghost, as when those who said the shut door was of the devil brought on themselves foggy terrible fear in which they cannot tell where they are, anguish of spirit, and death. The remedy is to look at the Pattern and follow Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, shutting the eyes to everything but present saving truth.