Luke 4:34

“Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Are you come to destroy us? I know you who you are, the Holy One of God.”

It wanted Jesus to know that it had recognised Him. ‘What have we in common?' it cried? (Literally, ‘what is there to us and to you?'). In LXX this phrase is used to translate ‘what are you to do with me' (Joshua 22:24) and ‘why are you interfering with me?' (Judges 11:12). See also 2 Samuel 16:10; 2Sa 19:22 1 Kings 17:18; 2 Kings 3:13). The ‘we' possibly meant the evil spirit and the man together. Or it may have been that the man was possessed by more than one spirit, or that it is speaking on behalf of all evil spirits. But it did not want to have anything to do with Jesus and wanted to be left alone. It knew that one day it would be destroyed because of its rebellion against God, and it was afraid that that was what Jesus had come for. ‘Are you come to destroy us?' it asked. ‘Is that why you are here? Has the time come?' Then it let Him know that He could not escape being identified. Being itself in a position where it tried to keep itself hidden it assumed that Jesus would want to do so too so that He could exert His power unobserved. So it exposed Him. It probably felt that this would thwart what He was trying to do. Let Him not think that He had deceived it. It knew Him for what He was ‘The Holy One of God.' And it would expose Him. Perhaps it hoped that this identification would cause Jesus to retreat.

Others see in it a vain attempt to manipulate Him and gain power over Him by use of His name. It was believed by many that a man's name made him vulnerable, and that it could be used to work harm against him. An alternative possibility may also be that it is simply the result of shocked horror at the unexpected, and reaction to His holiness. The evil spirits had in many cases been in untroubled possession for years. The last thing that they had expected was to face up to One Who was to prove their Master, and when they did their equilibrium was temporarily disturbed because of the power and holiness that flowed from Him of which they were aware. It was their last hopeless attempt at defence.

‘The Holy One of God' meant the One Who has been especially set apart by God by His unique reception of the Holy Spirit, the ‘Son of God' (Luke 1:35). As such He was here to do God's will and carry out His purposes. It carried with it a suggestion of the divine, for in Isaiah God was constantly described as ‘the Holy One of Israel'. But the Greater David was also describable as ‘His Holy One' (Psalms 16:10). The evil spirit may not have understood fully and precisely Who He was, but it knew what power Jesus had as God's Holy One, and that it could not compete with Him, and was subject to His word.