Untitled Sermon (16)

Your Eearly! (Managibg False Expectations)

The demons are well aware of their coming destiny (καιρός meaning their appointed “time”). The Son of God has arrived before the appointed hour of their destruction, and they want him to leave them alone. The arrival of the kingdom is unexpected, and they do not understand the in augurated aspect of it; like the Jewish people, they apparently think that when the Messiah came, he would immediately initiate the final battle.

Grant R. Osborne, Matthew, vol. 1, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 320.

This last word may be used in a variety of ways, but there is little doubt that here it signifies the end time, the time of judgment with its punishment of wickedness (NIV, “the appointed time”), when the devil and his helpers will be cast into hell (25:41). The demons recognized that their ultimate fate would be unpleasant, but they did not want it to come any more quickly than was necessary.

Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 210.