Mark 3 verse 20, today’s gospel, leads to some quite interesting ruminations. Demons and their evil consequence have been accepted for ages and ages and it is only in recent times that they are not recognised.

The scribes have come all the way down from Jerusalem, which is a week’s journey away, presumably to cast doubt upon the ministry of Jesus. They say he is possessed by Beelzebub and by the prince of demons, Satan. 

This is blasphemy against the holy spirit because it gives Satan the glory for doing what God is actually doing. This blinds people from the need for forgiveness and love which can only come from God.

One outstanding case is where the Jews make the golden calf giving the idol the glory that belongs to God.

God is a jealous God and likes to get the glory for what He is doing, Why?  because it does us good to give glory and praise and thanks to God.

Another case is found in 2 Kings ch1 involving Elijah. 

• Beelzebub: Derived from Baal-Zebul (“Lord of the High Place”), it was corrupted into Baal-Zebub (“Lord of the Flies”) and eventually became a synonym for Satan or a high-ranking prince of Hell.

Ahaziah, 8th king of Israel (853 bc), was encouraging baal worship throughout the land. However he fell from an upper floor and lay sick. So he sent messages enquiring of Baalzebub if he will recover. But the angel of the Lord told Elijah to intercept the message and to say instead “you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die”.

Ahaziah, the king, became very angry and sent a Captain of Fifty  to Elijah, who was sitting at the top of a hill.

“oh man of God, the king says come down”

Elijah replied, “if I am a man of God let Fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50.”

The fire came and consumed them all.

This happened three times before eventually Elijah visited a Ahazia and told him because there is no God in Israel you will die.

And he died the next day.

The link below will provide some insights on present day idol worship

https://churchandfamilylife.com/resources/60ca74f123fa965169a3c944