Good Sunday afternoon, dear people.
It’s been a good day—I got in a good old man jog in the rain, went to a good church, had a good lunch with my good sweetheart, and got in a good old man nap. How good is that?!
May you have a good evening. Blessings. Ray.
To be sure, this is a wild episode in the life and ministry of Jesus. With such a bizarre demonstration of demon activity, I’m thinking that a sound Biblical theology needs to include a sound Biblical demonology. This passage definitely contributes to both at the same time.
Along with insights into the dark realm of demons, this passage seems to afflict me with about as many questions as it answers. For example, how big is a demon? If thousands of demons resided inside this madman who hung out in the grave yard, they can’t be very big—maybe microscopic?—or more likely, the fact that they are spirit beings, they consume no physical space at all? Another question arises: Why in the world did the demons request permission from Jesus to enter the pigs if they knew their entering them would cause them to go so crazy as to run straight to their death? Or did they know? And—hmmm—if there were a couple thousand demons, and a couple thousand pigs, that makes for about one demon per pig. One could say it caused a case of “swine flew”—once invaded by the demons, the pigs flew down the hillside and were drowned in the lake. In any case, it was a short ride! But what then? Where did the demons go after that? My hunch is that there were plenty of willing human subjects to occupy in that area. After all, based on clear Biblical revelation that there are only TWO spiritual kingdoms in the universe, if those people were going to be so blatantly rejecting of Jesus and this obvious demonstration of His authority over demons, were they not thereby closing the door to the Kingdom of God and leaving the door to the kingdom of Satan wide open at the same time?
I used the word “bizarre” above to describe this demon encounter. But nothing is more “bizarre” than to try to understand the attitudes of these people who preferred a demonized madman along with their swine over Jesus. Not good!
One thing for sure, life in this fallen world is not safe. Besides physical dangers, there are spiritual dangers. My general conclusion is that I cannot imagine a safer, wiser, and more secure course of action than to live as close as possible to the One Who has ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH (Matthew 28:18).