Oh my Friends, it’s going to be a lovely, sunny day, with Jesus out and about in our hearts, doing the town with us. What a beautiful experience! Now let’s recognize and acknowledge Him like the demons that possessed those two naked, lost souls, living in caves and tombs, who accosted Jesus after He sailed across the Sea of Galilee and was walking through the Gergesenes (Gadarenes) countryside. On first reading it might seem strange that demons would recognize Jesus, when His friends, followers and family couldn’t. But on further consideration, if these demons were a part of the spirit world, Lucifer’s minions, then they would surely recognize the Saviour. As they asked, ‘what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?’ Plus, knowing Jesus’ awesome powers, they sure weren’t thrilled by Him coming into their territory. And I like how they specifically identified Him: ‘Jesus, thou Son of God.’ Note, there was no doubt or hesitation in their recognition. I was wondering if His companions heard the discourse between Jesus and the evil spirits, but they must have, else they could not have reported it as clearly as they did. Why then did they still have such a hard time believing that He was indeed the Messiah? If I’m with someone who claims to be something, and a totally unknown entity refers to Him the same way, that would surely cement my belief, especially with all the other stuff He did. But who can fathom the mind of man? Only God; its designer and creator! According to the scholars, their question, ‘Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?’ indicates that the evil spirits knew exactly why Jesus had donned a human form and come to earth; to cleanse the sinful souls of men, to drive out evil spirits like them, from our weak, frail bodies. In light of that, they must have known that Jesus would cast them out of the possessed men, so they took in front before in front took them. ‘So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. (Mat.8: 31)swine.’ Some distance away, a herd of pigs were feeding. Oh my people, Jesus’ goodness knows no bounds! He even grants the wish of the demons. We would probably have gotten angry, abused them, and wanted to destroy them right away. But Jesus was smarter and cooler than that. His concern was centred on the unfortunate men. And all it took was one word; ‘Go.’ That further demonstrated His incredible power over both the physical and spiritual realms. ‘And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.’ (Mat.8: 32) Yuh see Friends, instead of carrying on like we might have done, Jesus employed a far better strategy; granting the demons wish to be transferred to the swine, then letting the whole herd run down the hill and drown in the sea. Matter finished! No more demons and negative emotions. Only on Jesus’ part though, for ‘they that kept them, (the swine) fled, and went their way into the city, and told everything, and what was befallen to them possessed of the devils.’ (Mat.8:33) I suppose that’s a natural reaction for us to run from things we don’t understand. And the scholars bring up an interesting point concerning the herd of swine. They believe that the swine was being illegally kept by Jews living in the Gentile region, and since pigs were considered unclean under Mosaic law, we can say Jesus killed two birds with one stone; getting rid of the both the devils and the illegal swine in one fell swoop. Now Mark (5:1-20) and Luke (8:26-40) have slightly different versions of the story. Per the scholars, they only talk about one man, the more predominant convert, who claimed his name was ‘Legion: for we are many.’ (Mark 5:9) Both disciples relate that when the city heard what had happened, they came out to the tombs, ‘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.’ (Luke 8:37) But when they heard how the man was healed, ‘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.’ (Luke 8:37) But the good thing Friends, is that the man who sincerely appreciated Jesus’ healing wanted to follow Him, but was told instead; ‘Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published through- out the whole city how great things Jesus had done onto him.’ (Luke 8:39) Oh Friends, I wish we had such a strong testimony, or we declared it far and wide as that man. But the moral of the story is when we disobey God deliberately, we lose the heavenly providence, deprive ourselves of divine protection, placing ourselves at the very mercy of the forces of evil, of Lucifer and his wicked minions. Now that’s not a very wise or sensible thing to do. It’s hard enough when we’re under divine protection; imagine what it’s like without it. That’s why those two men were running around naked, living like wild animals, even chains couldn’t hold them, cause the evil forces within them were so strong. Please Friends, I beg us, don’t let Beelzebub get his hooks into us. Let’s try our very best to give him no place in our lives, especially our souls, for all he’ll do is wreak havoc and drive us crazy. Much LOVE!…resist the devil at all costs…fight him valiantly with the WORD…
SCRIP-BITS 