Luke 11:17-20

Jesus at least knew the thoughts of his critics by their request for a greater sign (Luke 11:16) if not by prophetic insight. He argued first that the head of an army would hardly work with his enemy against his own troops. Second, if Satan was behind Jesus’ exorcisms, it was logical to assume that he was behind the exorcisms that some recognized Jewish exorcists performed (cf. Acts 19:13-14). Jesus’ antagonists would have been unwilling to concede that. They wanted to maintain a double standard believing that their approved exorcists operated with God’s power, but Jesus used Satan’s. God gave the Jewish exorcists their power too. Jesus believed in a real devil who heads a kingdom that is strong and united (cf. Ephesians 2:1-3; Ephesians 6:10-18).

Jesus’ allusion to the finger of God (Luke 11:20) goes back to Moses’ miracles in Pharaoh’s court (Exodus 8:19). There the Egyptians confessed that the finger (i.e., action) of God was at work when they could no longer reproduce Moses’ miracles. Jesus claimed the same divine source of power for His miracles. His miracles indicated the coming of the Messiah and the approach of His kingdom. This was Jesus’ third argument.