OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS REJECTED BUT BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE

Having told the religious leaders who were asking for a sign be shown to them that they were out of step with the calendar of God's plan, the Lord Jesus informed them that they would thus be condemned by people out of history who had grappled with far less knowledge than they in search of God's mercy and wisdom.

Then Jesus, in an unusual fashion, used a parable based on a demonic spiritual reality to elucidate the condition of the generation that was not prepared to receive the Messiah who had been sent to them.

Matthew chapter 12 verse 43 - 45 tells of the journey of an evicted demon that returns to its original home and finding it cleaned and prepared for habitation, recruits other spirits and together, they invade the man and his condition is worse than before.  

43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

In the parable, the nation of Israel is the man and the demon is the religious and political status quo that had established itself in the society.

The plan of God was to bring salvation to Israel and then to the whole world and so preparation was made where the people were taught about the coming kingdom of God and the house is Israel was cleaned up to be ready for the Holy Spirit to inhabit. 

However, the kingdom of God was resisted by Israel and the  Messiah was killed leaving Israel available to be inhabited by their original usurping spirit alongside additional pathological conditions and this left Israel in worse shape that it was before.

As the scripture says; 

"So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

The wicked generation that rejected the promised Messiah was going to suffer condemnation from history and be saddled with worse political and spiritual oppression than they were exposed to before.

Lord have mercy on us.

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