Verse 29 reveals that before the Lord cast out the demon, He firstly fought against Satan. This verse says, “Or how can anyone enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his vessels unless he first bind the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” The “house” here signifies the kingdom of Satan, and “the strong man” is Satan, the evil one. The Greek word translated “vessels” also means instruments, apparatus; hence, goods, stuff. The fallen people under Satan are his vessels, his instruments for his use. They are his goods kept in his house, his kingdom. The word about binding the strong man indicates that when the Lord cast out demons, He first bound Satan. The people saw only the casting out of the demon. They did not see the binding of Satan, the strong man. Thus, the Lord used the opportunity afforded Him by the accusation of the Pharisees to reveal the secret of spiritual fighting. Apparently, the Lord was only casting out the demon; actually, He was fighting, binding the strong man. This shows us that if we would build the kingdom today, we must first bind the strong man.
The way to bind the strong man is to pray. When we come to chapter seventeen, we shall see that the disciples came to the Lord and asked Him why He could cast out the demon and they could not. In 17:21 the Lord told His disciples, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” If you do not pray and fast, you simply cannot cast out this kind of demon. The Lord’s word to His disciples indicates that before He cast out a demon, He surely fasted and prayed. In order to bind the strong man, we must fast and pray. The Lord fasted and prayed secretly. The disciples did not see this. We must learn of the Lord to fast in secret and to pray in secret. I believe that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He often fasted and prayed to fight the battle and to bind the strong man. We all must be in the same spirit today. Every day our spirit must be a fasting spirit and a praying spirit so that we may daily bind the strong man, who is Satan, the king of the kingdom of darkness.
Satan has a kingdom of darkness on earth, and the whole earth is under his usurpation. It is difficult to take one out of Satan’s hand. Every fallen person is a vessel in Satan’s house. Satan’s house is his kingdom, and in his house are many vessels, the many fallen persons. In order to take a fallen person out of Satan’s house, we must bind the strong man by prayer and fasting. This is the fighting of the spiritual battle for the establishment of the kingdom of the heavens.
Chapter twelve of Matthew occupies a special place in the New Testament because it reveals that Satan has a kingdom, that Satan is the strong man usurping all the God-created people, and that in order to take people out of his usurping hand, there is the need to bind him. The way to bind the strong man is by fasting and praying. The battle unveiled in chapter twelve is not seen in the foregoing eleven chapters. In those chapters we see the rest and the breaking of the regulations for the Head and for the members of the Body. But we do not see the kingdom of darkness. There are two kingdoms on earth: one is the kingdom of darkness, and the other is the kingdom of the heavens in the light. These two kingdoms are now confronting each other on earth. Therefore, there is the need to fight the battle. We all must fast and pray to bind the strong man. Then we shall be able to plunder his house.
This is a real revelation. Not many Christians have read Matthew twelve in this way because they do not see the kingdom. To them, the kingdom is either simply a doctrinal term or something suspended for a future time. But we realize that all that the Lord is doing with us today is for the establishment of the heavenly kingdom. We are the kingdom people. Today a battle is raging between two kingdoms. The continuation of the Lord’s ministry produced the opportunity for this further revelation.
In verse 30 the Lord says, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who is not gathering with Me is scattering.” At that time the Pharisees were not one with the heavenly King, so they were against Him. They were not gathering with Him, but were scattering away from Him. Hence, they were absolutely separated from Him and joined to His enemy, Satan.