Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Luke 8:22-39 comments: a man possessed

Luke 8:22 ¶  Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. 23  But as they sailed he fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. 24  And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25  And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him. 26  And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. 27  And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. 28  When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. 29  (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) 30  And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. 31  And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. 32  And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. 33  Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. 34  When they that fed them saw what was done,
they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country. 35  Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 36  They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. 37  Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again. 38  Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39  Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.

God, being the author of all weather events, is not unaware of the storm through which He, in human form, is sleeping. As Psalm 107 says;

Psalm 107: 23 ¶  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; 24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. 25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. 26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

The disciples call for Christ to save them. The first part of Psalm 44:23 says;

23a  Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise...


As Psalm 107 continues;

Psalm 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. 29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. 31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 32  Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of
the elders.

Gadarenes from the Greek is said by commentators to be the same location as Gergesenes, a word of Hebrew origin, used in Matthew. As I am not studying to make a harmonization of the gospels of which there are many good ones we won’t discuss why Matthew mentions two men. Certainly only the one the Holy Spirit is concerned about is the focus of this story.

This devil-possessed man lived naked among the tombs. The characteristics of devil-possession or oppression was part of God’s arguments against the Israelities during the time of Isaiah as they had let themselves become enraptured with the religions of devils.

Isaiah 65:3  A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; 4  Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

When Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to leave the man the devil acknowledged who Christ was, that He had the authority to destroy the unclean spirit. Here we see in the context that devil and unclean spirit are synonymous. Compare verse 27 with 29. Go back to chapter 4, verse 33.

Luke 4:33  And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

I’ve mentioned previously about connecting the word spirit to the word mind. It bears repeating here.

For contexts where the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be synonymous with mind please see the following;

Romans 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

1Corinthians 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Ephesians 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Philippians 1:27  Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

2Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
These devils have one unclean spirit. They call themselves Legion because they are many. Modern man has a great difficulty with wrapping their mind around the idea of spiritual entities influencing behavior. Of course, this has been used too often in history blaming unseen forces for crimes. Horror movies and stories have also foolishly suggested in their modern humanism that some kind of arcane ritual performed by a man can remove a devil. Of course, this is nonsense even if it is fun entertainment.

When is blind ambition or lust impacted by spiritual entities? It is doubtful that you would know. We do know that;

Matthew 18:7  Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

So, be careful with this information. It is best left up to God to deal with. We can usually only deal physically with what we see. Notice that this person under these devils’ influence is very, very strong, strong enough to break chains. Here is another example.

Acts 19:14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

We should only ask that God rebuke. Jude warned of men who come into the church of God and challenge the unseen world with ungracious and carnal speech, claiming power they do not have personally.

Jude 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6  And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7  Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

    8 ¶  Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10  But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

So, beware of preachers who shout from the pulpit, “I bind Satan with the power of the Holy Ghost,” or some such thing, as they may be issuing a challenge their congregation would not appreciate the consequences of.

The question in verse 31 is what is the deep? Is the deep the lake? Or is it something else? It seems odd that they would plead not to be sent into the lake when that is where they went when they entered the swine, an unclean animal that the Jews were not permitted to eat. There is plenty here for several sermons on that.

At least one commentator I read insisted that the deep was outer space, the habitation of those unseen powers.

Ephesians 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Ephesians 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

But, keep in mind the immediate  context, and while I am not a Greekophile or think it is necessary in most cases to examine the Greek word, the word for the deep (the abyss) is translated as the bottomless pit elsewhere, another term for Hell, being at the center of the earth, a pit that has no bottoms, only sides, a circle. Here is the word for abyss again from the Greek.

Revelation 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Here are references from the Hebrew tongue in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 14:15  Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

As the devils drove the man into the wilderness, into the tombs, so they drove the swine to die in the lake. Perhaps, this gives us a key to some self-destructive behavior we see in people around us that makes no sense. Their primary problem is a spiritual, not a physical one, not one of disease or mental illness primarily but of other forces that should be dealt with first. If they are not dealt with the person’s future estate may be worse than their former.

Matthew 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. d45  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

The Gadarenes, herding swines for the Gentiles, something that those Jews were forbidden to eat but willing to provide to non-Jews, wanted Jesus to leave, out of fear the text says, perhaps a little bit regarding their livelihood. Many swine was a lot of money to lose as well as being a frightful scene.

Jesus sends the man He has delivered to be a witness to his city. How willing are we to spread the news of what great things He has done for us? It is a shame how close-mouthed some of us can be. You don’t have to be obnoxious or a public nuisance. But, letting others know what Christ has done for you is very important as far as your tasks on earth are concerned. 

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