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 drowned swine were 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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