DESTROYING THE DEMONS

LUKE 8:26–39

When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!”

(Luke 8:28).

Jesus and His disciples came to the region of the Gerasenes, and there encountered a demon-possessed man living among the tombs. This man, or rather the demons within him, cried out to Jesus and begged Him not to torment them. The fallen angels had no difficulty recognizing who Jesus was, and they knew that their time was short.

Matthew’s account adds to what Luke presents here, telling us that there were actually two men, and that the demons added these words: “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” (Matthew 8:29). The word for time here implies “crisis-time,” a moment of special significance. The demonic world knows that at some future point their doom will come. On this basis, the demons argued with Jesus that the time had not yet come for this judgment.

They “begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss” (v. 31). Jesus seems to have harkened to their request, because He sends them into a herd of swine instead. Jesus surely had the power to send them wherever He wanted to, but there is a sense in which Jesus did not yet have the authority to send these demons to hell. That day, that point in redemptive history, has been appointed by the Father, and the Son of God respects that appointed time. That Jesus did not send these demons into the Abyss underscores His determination to obey His Father’s will.

It is comforting to realize that the God whom we worship is not at the mercy of history. He has a plan, and He will sovereignly bring it to pass. He knows the end from the beginning, and whatever He decrees will surely come to pass. For this reason it is impossible for a Christian to be, in any ultimate sense, a pessimist. Though the world is in a sea of trouble, and we encounter pain and anguish every day, we are not to despair because we know that our destiny is in the hands of the Sovereign Lord of history.

CORAM DEO

1 Kings 21–22

John 3:1–21

God has His reasons for not dealing as swiftly and as thoroughly with evil as we might wish He would. We know that eventually He will settle all accounts. Spend a few minutes and consider what some of God’s reasons might be for holding back the Day of Judgment. (See pp. 34–35 for an extended treatment of this Gerasene account.)

For further study: Romans 16:20; Jude 20–25

friday

may