Most of us are uncomfortable with this phrase in the Bible. In the Old Testament, it’s the Israelites driving all the people out of their lands. In the New Testament, it’s driving out demons. Why is this such a prominent theme?

I found it in almost all of the Old Testament books:

• Genesis 15:18 – To your descendants I give this land… the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.
• Exodus 23:31 – I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you
• Leviticus 20:24 – You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance
• Numbers 33:53 – Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess.
• Deuteronomy 7:1-2 – When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
• Joshua 1:2-3 – get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot
• Judges 11:23 – the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel
• Ruth –
• 1 Samuel 15:18 – And the LORD sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’
• 2 Samuel 5:19 – The LORD answered him, ‘Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands.’
• 1 Kings 14:24 – the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
• 2 Kings 17:8 – followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them
• 1 Chronicles 22:18 – For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land is subject to the LORD and to his people.
• Chronicles 20:7 – Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
• Ezra 9:11 – The land you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the corruption of its peoples.
• Nehemiah 9:24 – Their children went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you gave the Canaanites into their hands, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased.
• Esther 9:2 –
• Job –
• Psalms 44:2 – With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish.
• Proverbs –
• Ecclesiastes –
• The Song of Solomon –
• Isaiah 54:3 – For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
• Jeremiah 7:7 – Then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors forever and ever.
• Lamentations 5:2 – Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
• Ezekiel 36:24 – For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.
• Daniel 7:27 – Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.
• Hosea 2:22 – I will plant her for myself in the land
• Joel 3:17– Then you will know that I, the LORD your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.
• Amos 9:15 – I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them
• Obadiah 1:17 – Jacob will possess his inheritance.
• Jonah –
• Micah 4:7 –
• Nahum –
• Habakkuk 3:12-13 – In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations. You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot.
• Zephaniah 2:5 – the word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines. He says, ‘I will destroy you, and none will be left.’
• Haggai 2:21 – I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms.
• Zechariah –
• Malachi –

And here it is in gospels and Acts:

• Matthew 10:8 – Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.
• Mark 3:14-15 – He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. 
• Luke 9:1 – When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases.
• John 12:31 – Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
• Acts 8:7 – For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

The Hebrew word is yarash and the matching Greek word used when they first translated the Old Testament is ekballo.

Yarash has a double-meaning: “to take possession of, inherit, dispossess”. Like you drive-out/dispossess (yarash, used negatively ~54 times) nations so you can possess/inherit (yarash, used positively ~159 times) the land.

Ekballo has the same double-meaning: “I throw (cast, put) out; I banish; I bring forth, produce”. Like you drive out (ekballo) demons so you can bring forth or produce something else.

Ekballo is only used in the positive once in the New Testament: “When he has brought out (ekballo) all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” – John 10:4

But it got me thinking, does driving out demons imply filling people with the Holy Spirit? I know it makes sense, but is that inherently what it means to drive out demons? I wonder if it was more obvious to the Jews since they were so familiar with the Old Testament pattern of taking land from their enemies.

Jesus seems to say a life doesn’t stay unoccupied long: “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.” – Matthew 12:43-45

The people of Israel drove out the evil nations to establish their kingdom. We drive out demons to establish God’s kingdom? As in, that’s the way God’s kingdom is established? Seems like this is what Jesus was saying:

“If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.” – Luke 11:20-22

This would explain why driving out nations/demons is such a prominent theme in the Bible. It is the actual, literal, practical switching of kingdoms in each person’s life.