Mark 5:1-20, part two, comments, focus on verses 6 to 10, Legion

 

5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

It would appear that modern Bible translators don’t even need to defer to corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts to attempt to downplay the deity of Christ. In this verse, most of the apostate, counterfeit versions remove “worshipped” from the verse in favor of the weaker “fell on his knees” or “bowed down” which hardly carries with it the same power as the word translated 60 times in the KJV as worship or a form of that word. One more reason that if you think of an NIV or an NASV as the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) you are actually holding a butter knife.

Devils know who Jesus is. This devil(s) runs to worship Christ. So, what good does merely acknowledging and worshipping Christ do? It didn’t do much for this devil(s).

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Now, think, Christian. The one who wants you to relish in your personal suffering and to even seek and be proud of how much you can torture yourself for Christ and make yourself uncomfortable is Satan. You have a devil if you are proud of the hour you spend on your knees praying and hurting. Just because you worship Christ acknowledging Him and His mastery over you means nothing if it is a source of pride. Judas even calls Him “master” over and over. But, devils never call Him “Lord”.

Mark only focuses on one man but in a similar account in Matthew there are two although there are some differences in the context. Either Matthew is speaking about a different event or Mark has simply narrowed the focus down to this one individual rather than the two. Whether Mark is merely focusing on one of two individuals or not historical accounts often vary in their focus. A book on the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War that focuses on the heroic actions of the 20th Maine on the slope of Little Round Top does not mean that there wasn’t a Wheatfield or a Peach Orchard or a Pickett’s Charge as well.

Matthew 8:28 ¶ And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Gergesenes is another name for Gadarenes.

5:7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

The devils acknowledge who Jesus is and they know what time they have. The devils will go crazy on the world when it’s their time. You would go insane if you could see what is around you in the spiritual world.

5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

Notice the singular again, “thou unclean spirit.”

5:9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

There are many devils in this man that are also called an, singular, unclean spirit that calls itself by a singular pronoun, he. Many devils can make up one devil. One possibility can be that the Devil can manifest himself into many devils as the Holy Spirit can exist completely in millions of believers and yet still be one Holy Spirit.

5:10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

Luke gets specific about this and says the following;

Luke 8:31 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.

Some say that “the deep” is not the lake because they chose themselves to go into the lake and the devils were afraid to be sent far away. What is “the deep”? By that interpretation it is not the water. Perhaps there are some hints in these verses.

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.

Job 38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? 33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?

Reading the first few verses of Genesis carefully might imply to you that “the deep” is outer space.

Genesis 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 ¶ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 ¶ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.