30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. 32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. ~ Luke 8:30-33
As we mentioned in the last two days blogs, in the second half of Luke 8, Luke records four miracles. Through these four miracles the power of the Lord Jesus is seen over nature, demons, sickness and death. Today, we continue with the second of these four, the power of the Lord Jesus over demons in Luke 8:26-33.
When the Lord Jesus asked the man his name in v.30, he said, 'Legion,' because many demons had gone into him." Legion is not a name, it describes a group of six thousand Roman soldiers. This poor and frightened man literally was the home of thousands of demons. In fact, in Mark 5:13 we discover the herd of pigs into which the demons went numbered two thousand. And these demons had held this one man in bondage for so long.
In v.31 we read, "And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss." These fallen angels ask the Lord Jesus to not send them into the bottomless pit. They didn't have a choice in the matter. On the other hand, they are not like human beings, they're not confined to the limitations of the human brain. They have far superior intelligence. They have superior might. In 2 Kings 19, we learn one angel killed 185 thousand Assyrians. And, yet, they didn't have a choice. Their will was subservient to the Lord Jesus.
Once created, demons never die, and they never grow old. They are not confined by space and time. They are not omnipresent but they're fast and they move the way spirit beings move. They make up a large and powerful group.
The Lord Jesus demonstrates clearly that He is God as He demonstrates His power over these demons. These demons were tormenting this guy and they don't want to be tormented. Oh, the irony. Those who torment do so because they have been tormented and they arrived not upon God's purpose of the said torment. The purpose, of course, is that we are led to faith in the God of the Bible. We pity those who are treated badly and we should. But, they are in a blessed position because when we are most down trodden, we tend to look up to Him when we have bottomed out.
The alternative is a victim's mentality which I find most pathetic. Power, real power is accessed through weakness. This is the way of God. All other power leads us to bondage of some kind, most often the bondage of pride and arrogance.
According to v.32, "A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission." This is the first mention of deviled ham in the Bible. Remember, this is Gentile area. And, these Gentiles raised pigs which have cloven feet and were therefore unclean animals and not to be eaten. And so, in this is Gentile area, they were raising pigs. And the demons entreated Him to permit them to enter them.
I wonder how this man became demon-possessed. Since he lived among the Gentiles, did he open himself up to the habitation of demons through totally ignoring God's definition of all things? Was he practicing black magic or was it an experiment with a ouija board or a pendulum board? For one to be possessed, there has to be a conscious way that one opens oneself up to the possibility. We are not told how it happened to this man in our text.
In v.33 we read, "When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned." So they didn't go into the abyss, that incarcerated place, but they ran into the abyss of the Sea of Galilee. The pigs drowned but the demons didn't. No created being ever really dies, including evil spirits.
These demons recognized something that many people do not. They recognized and believed in the existence of God. They also recognized the authority of the Lord Jesus. In the end, two thousand pigs went careening down a hill, drowning. All of these events happened to show that the demon-possessed man had been delivered, and the Lord Jesus is sovereign over all.
