Mark 9:25

‘And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, “You dumb and deaf spirit, I (emphatic) command you, come out of him and do not enter him any more”.'

The man's loud cry seemingly stimulated the crowd who had been hanging back, and they sensed that something was about to happen, so they hurried over to where the small group were talking around the boy. This made Jesus act quickly. He commanded the spirit to leave the boy and to leave him alone for ever. Note the emphatic ‘I'. It had been able to resist His disciples but it had no choice with Him.

‘You dumb and deaf spirit.' The spirit was dumb and had previously refused to hear when the disciples had spoken to it in the name of Jesus. It had deliberately made itself deaf as a safeguard against being affected. But Jesus recognised it for what it was and His authority broke through its subterfuge. It could not be deaf to Him. It was no longer just facing the power of the Name, it was facing the One behind the power of the Name Who would brook no refusal.

‘ I  command you.” The ‘I' is emphatic. This was no mere exorcist that the spirit was pitting its wits against, it was the One Who was Lord over all. It was the Lord of glory Who had been revealed in the mountain. Its deafness was of no use against the authority and voice of the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. These others had commanded and it had not heeded them, protected by its wall of deafness. But now a voice spoke through its deafness that it had to obey.

‘Come out of him and enter into him no more.' This was the first time that we know of that Jesus had to command a spirit not to return (but compare Matthew 12:45; Luke 11:26). It suggested a spirit of great power. And yet it had no alternative but to obey now that it faced the Master of the world.