And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come — the logical conclusion of the divided-kingdom argument: if the Beelzebul accusation were true, Satan's end would have come. But Jesus does not mean Satan's end has come through self-division; he means something more dramatic: Satan's end has come because the strong man has arrived and is binding him. The end that has come is not the result of Satanic self-destruction but of the kingdom's arrival in the person of Jesus. The exorcisms are not Satan fighting Satan; they are the stronger one systematically defeating Satan — which is exactly what the next verse explains.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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