Luke 8:26
"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," Luke 8:28. Last time we looked at the mad man of Gadara, and how the Lord interrupted his life and made him a new creation. He is not who he used to be because of the mercy, grace, and love of Jesus Christ. We learned that this was a divine appointment (Luke 8:22). Not a hurricane, nor any other power could stop Jesus Christ from saving this man. "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed," Acts 13:48. Jesus Chrit interrupted the lives of others to save one man. Let us look at the demons.
"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," Luke 8:27. The word "devil" in this verse is the Greek word "daimonion" and means a daemonic being, a devil. An evil spirit inferior to God, but superior to men. Evil spirits are messengers and ministers of the devil. We learned that the people of Gadara could not tame this man; hence, they could not tame the devils in him. "Had devils" is in the imperfect tense and means once the devils entered this man, they never left. We do not know how long the devils had been living in this man, but it was long enough for this man's life to be a total wreck, and for the people to be used to him being like he was. Where do devils come from? Let us start by looking at their leader, the devil, satan, Lucifer. Turn to Ezekiel 28:11-17; Isaiah 14:12-15; Revelation 12:3-9. The devils are fallen angels. They are not redeemable, and they live in rebellion against God in all things and in every way. They use whatever means they can to destroy, delude, and divert from the true Gospel. They are the epitome of everything that is against God, especially false religion. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works," II Corinthians 11:14-15. The devil's also believe there is only One God. "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
Devils are powerful, wise, manipulators, evil, and lying spirits. Our Lord gives a description of their head, and all who are like their head, when he described the pharisees in John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it." Their power, and everything else about them, is limited by God. They are a tool of God. Turn to I Kings 22:1-28. "And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so," I Kings 22:22. Like their leader, they are limited (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6).
We looked at a lot of Scripture, and I hope those Scriptures help us get a better understanding of what is going on between Jesus Christ and the devils here in Luke 8. The devils know Scripture, they know they will not be redeemed, they know their time is limited, and they know that they will be cast into hell to suffer under the wrath of God for eternity; but they don't know when these things will take place. It is also obvious they know it will be Jesus Christ Who will cast them into hell. "And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep," Luke 8:31. "Deep" in this verse is the Greek word "abussos" and means depthless, i.e. (special) (infernal) "abyss":- deep, (bottomless) pit. They were pleading with Christ not to command them to go into the infernal bottomless pit. "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Matthew 25:41. They know their time is limited, and they know where they are going, and as long as they are able they want to destroy all that they can. They also know they are speaking to the One Who has all authority. "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," Luke 8:28. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the Most High God. Most High means the Supreme God. "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David," Luke 1:32.
From our view, we ask the question, why would Jesus even have a conversation with these devils? We don't want anything to do with demons, and to think about having a conversation with them causes our hair to stand up. We respond like this because we are threatened. Jesus Christ, Who is Omnipotent, is not threatened by anyone, or anything. This biblical fact should be very comforting for us. If the devil and his demons could overpower Jesus Christ and take us away from Him, they would. We are so thankful for the promises in Scripture. Turn to Romans 8:31-39. God saves us by His power, and God keeps us saved by His power. Not even a legion of demons could stop Christ from saving the man they possessed. When Christ saves, the demons must leave. These demons left as commanded, and entered into the pigs by the permission of Christ alone. "They chose to be any where, rather than depart the country; and especially than to be sent into the deep, the abyss, or bottomless pit; and they chose to be sent into the swine, as being impure creatures like themselves; and no doubt with a view to destroy them, that they might satisfy themselves as much as they could with doing mischief; though not to that degree they would, nor to those persons they were desirous of; and so bring as much odium and reproach upon Christ as they could, who gave them leave. The devils are unwearied in doing mischief, they cannot rest unless they are about it; and they choose to be concerned in doing it in a lesser way, if they are not allowed to do it as largely as they would; if they are not suffered to touch the lives of men, or ruin their souls, it, is some satisfaction to them to be suffered to hurt their bodies; and if that is no longer permitted, rather than be doing nothing, they are desirous of doing injury to irrational creatures, the property of men; all which show the malice and wickedness of these evil spirits," John Gill.
If there had been a herd of cows there, or a flock of geese, or a pack of dogs, etc. instead of a herd of swine, the demons would have requested the same thing. There is so much going on in this passage of Scripture that if we aren't careful we can become distracted from the main thing. We must keep the main thing the main thing. The disciples asked a question in verse 25, "What manner of man is this!" As they continue to follow Jesus they continue learning answers to their question. If you and I continue on to know Him, we too will continue to learn more about Him who loved us so much that He would leave heaven, take upon flesh, live a sinless life in this sinful world, willingly go to the cross, take upon Himself the sins of all who have and will be saved, gave up His life, died on the cross, was buried, and on the third day rose again. Our Saviour is wonderful. Why would anyone hate Him, or be fearful of Him to the point they would ask Him to depart from them? Lord willing, we will learn about this next time. Please send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com. Soli Deo Gloria.
