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30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. ~ Matthew 8:30-32
Today, we continue our study of Matthew 8 where the Lord Jesus has previously calmed a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee and He has just encountered two demon-possessed men after going ashore at a tomb site on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. Where before we saw in vivid display Christ's authority over nature, that He commanded the winds and waves to cease and they did, in today's passage He demanded those in the supernatural realm to obey Him and they did.
In v.30 of today's passage we read, "Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding."
Even though most are not aware of it, there is an unseen spiritual world filled with beings who try to neutralize the work of God in this world. And, since God has chosen to advance His kingdom in this world through His followers, those unseen evil forces are out to thwart God's work in and through us. This why we must be ardent at battling the schemes of the devil who is set on distracting us from the important things, particularly the salvation of those in this world who are yet to be made born again to God.
As this verse suggests, demons desire not to be homeless. Throughout the Bible demons seem to actively search for a human or some object to inhabit. In Matthew 12:43-45 the Lord Jesus said, "When an unclean spirit leaves a man and goes to the dry places and he finds no rests, even though he seeks it, he says, 'I will return and go back to the house from which I have come.' And when he goes back and he finds it empty and clean and all swept, he says, 'He brings with him seven other spirits worse than himself to inhabit that person.'" Even though these demonic beings cannot inhabit a born again believer, they can possess unbelievers. One must be wise to not invite the demons to come in or else the results could be damning.
In v.31 of today's passage we read, "So the demons begged Him, saying, 'If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.'"
These evil beings asked permission from the Lord Jesus to enter into a large herd of pigs that were nearby. Demons only operate by permission. They cannot decide to overtake someone or something, they must operate according to God's will. In the book of Job, Satan had to get permission from God to oppress Job. God allowed Satan to wreak havoc in Job's life but only up to a point. And since Satan and his cohorts know that the Lord Jesus is God and that in the future He will judge them, they are ardent at doing as much damage now as they can.
The request of these demons to inhabit the pigs was predicated upon the words, "If you cast us out." The demons couldn't just go into the pigs, the Lord Jesus had to give them permission. It is the deity of Christ that sets Him apart from all others who have ever claimed to be our coming Messiah. One of the major factors in proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is, in fact, the Messiah to come is that He has power over the unseen forces of the supernatural world. He came to this world in order to reverse the curse brought to man by Lucifer. At His cross the Lord Jesus rendered the devil powerless. These demons who said, "If you cast us out," proved the Lord Jesus has such power.
In v.32 of today's passage we read, "And He said to them, 'Go.' So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water."
Notice, unlike the demons who shouted, the Lord Jesus calmly spoke similar to when He calmed the winds and the waves. The demons requested that the Lord Jesus allow them to go into the nearby pigs. The gospel of Mark tells us there were about two thousand pigs in that nearby herd, and so revealed here was the great power the Lord Jesus, a power that only God possesses. This true story is a prelude of what is yet to come when at the end of time the Lord Jesus will vanquish all evil from existence.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth to remove the power of Satan by paying for fallen man's sin. He did this when at the cross He crushed the serpent’s head and He ransomed His people from the bonds of evil. We read in Colossians 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
When the Lord Jesus comes back at the end of the Tribulation, He will bring His kingdom in its fullness and at that time Satan’s power will be completely destroyed. We read about Satan’s final judgment in Revelation 20:10 which reads, "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
