12. Or if your child asks you for an egg, would you give him a scorpion?
13. Even though you’re evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. So how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
14. Jesus was forcing a demon out of a man. The demon had made the man unable to talk. When the demon had gone out, the man began to talk.The people were amazed.
15. But some of them said, “He can force demons out of people only with the help of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.”
16. Others wanted to test Jesus and demanded that he show them some miraculous sign from heaven.
17. Since Jesus knew what they were thinking, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is ruined. A house divided against itself falls.
18. Now, if Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? I say this because you say Beelzebul helps me force demons out of people.
19. If I force demons out with the help of Beelzebul, who helps your followers force them out? That’s why they will be your judges.
20. But if I force out demons with the help of God’s power, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
21. “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own mansion, his property is safe.
22. But a stronger man than he may attack him and defeat him. Then the stronger man will take away all the weapons in which the strong man trusted and will divide the loot.
23. “Whoever isn’t with me is against me. Whoever doesn’t gather with me scatters.
24. “When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it goes through dry places looking for a place to rest. But it doesn’t find any. Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to the home I left.’
25. When it comes, it finds the house swept clean and in order.
26. Then the spirit goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself. They enter and take up permanent residence there. In the end the condition of that person is worse than it was before.”
27. While Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd shouted, “How blessed is the mother who gave birth to you and the breasts that nursed you.”
28. Jesus replied, “Rather, how blessed are those who hear and obey God’s word.”
29. As the people were gathering around him, Jesus said, “The people living today are evil. They look for a miraculous sign. But the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah.
30. Just as Jonah became a miraculous sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a miraculous sign to the people living today.
31. The queen from the south will stand up at the time of judgment with the men who live today. She will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon’s wisdom. But look, someone greater than Solomon is here!