Monthly Archives: November 2013

Pagans And Pigs

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PAGANS AND PIGS!

“Those tending the pigs, scared to death bolted and told their story in town and country.  People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man, from whom the demons had been sent, sitting there at Jesus’ feet, wearing decent clothes and making sense. It was a holy moment, and for a short time they were more reverent than curious. Then those who had seen it happen told how the demoniac had been saved.” Luke 8:34-36 (The Message).

What a holy moment!

These were Gentiles, people who lived in a region of ten Greek towns on the east side of the lake of Galilee; pagan people who dabbled with demons and who were probably used to seeing demon-possessed people. But this man had been particularly bad, so tormented and demented that he could not live among them. He had taken up residence among dead people who could not possibly be affected by his crazed behaviour.

They had seen the effects of demons entering people but they had never seen the outcome of demons leaving! No doubt they rushed to the edge of the cliff to see what had happened to the pigs. There they were, bloated and floating in the lake, all three thousands of them, exactly as the townspeople had reported!  Some of them must have been owners of the pigs. There was their livelihood, floating in the lake! They could not have been too pleased.

Others were dumbstruck by the man who was so transformed that they hardly recognised him. He was clothed and sane, sitting with Jesus, adoring Him and deep in conversation with Him. They could only stand and stare, and wonder that this man was who had authority over the evil spirits they both worshipped and feared.

“Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together and asked Jesus to leave — too much change, too fast, and they were scared. So Jesus got back in the boat and set off. The man whom He had delivered from the demons asked to go with Him, but He sent him back, saying, ‘Go home and tell everything God did in you.’ So he went back home and preached all over town everything Jesus had done in him.” Luke 8:37-39 (The Message).

It did not take long for the word to spread throughout the whole region. People came running from far and near and congregated to discuss this shocking and frightening event. If this man could do this, what else could He do, and what else would He do? Many of them had already suffered huge financial loss. Had He come to destroy them? They did not understand what this was all about.

 

No doubt the loss of the pigs overshadowed the man’s release from the tormented life he had lived for so long. Perhaps they were even hostile towards him because they blamed him for their financial catastrophe. Could he have wanted to follow Jesus to escape their hostility as well as because of his gratitude to Jesus? We don’t know.

In Jewish territory, Jesus instructed people who had been healed not to broadcast it because He did not want to be swamped by popularity with people who were out to get something from Him. Here, however, there was no danger of that. These Gentile people needed to be confronted with the truth about the one true God who had power over the demons who were all too real to them.

Jesus gave this man a commission — to tell his story wherever he went, and that was easy for him to do. He was a living witness to the truth of what he was telling. On a later occasion, when Jesus returned to the region, He was well received because the ex-demon-possessed man had done his job and the people not only recognised Him, they also brought a blind man to Him.

The news was out. Jesus cared about Gentiles too.

He cares for you!

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Three

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DAY THREE

 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu,

and the seventy elders of Israel went up

and saw the God of Israel. 

Under His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. 

But God did not raise a hand against these leaders of the Israelites;

they saw God and they ate and drank.

The Lord said to Moses,

 “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here,

and I will give you the tablets of stone,

with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction…”

When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud covered it,

and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. 

For six days the cloud covered the mountain,

and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses

from within the cloud.

  To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like

a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 

Then Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain.  And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. 

Exodus 24:9-12; 15-18

 As we move through these descriptive Scriptures, keep two things in mind, that these descriptions come from human understanding and that we are being exposed to the awesome majesty of God which is beyond human description.  Allow yourself to be caught up in the atmosphere of the presence of God and of those around the throne who were overwhelmed and overawed by the glory of God.  We are learning to pray to the God who is revealed in Scripture so that we can develop a realistic appreciation of who He is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Mob Dispersed

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A MOB DISPERSED

“Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’

‘Mob. My name is Mob,’ he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them into the bottomless pit.

A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over the cliff into the lake and drowned.” Luke 8:30-33 (The Message).

For anyone reading this for the first time, this is a strange story. It sounds a bit like science fiction, doesn’t it?

But for anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in demonic involvement, and for those looking on, this was a very real and frightening situation. This man was inhabited by spirit beings who had completely taken over his life, using his body to host them and controlling his mind and his behaviour. They were representatives of the realm of absolute evil, controlled by the devil who had rejected and rebelled against God.

Their presence had turned this man into a raving lunatic who had no control over his thoughts and behaviour. He was on a path to destroy himself and everyone and everything around him. There was no physical power strong enough to bind or muzzle him.

It was only the presence of Jesus, whom the demons acknowledged to be the Son of the High God, and to whose authority they had to bow, that calmed the situation down enough for Him to speak to the man and get a sane reply.

Why did Jesus ask him his name? Was it out of curiosity or was it for a deeper reason than that? The first step towards this man’s healing was for him to acknowledge who he was. In Hebrew thought, a name was a prophetic utterance of character. Who he was expressed in his name.

Jesus wanted him to acknowledge who he was. The name, Mob, was not the name his parents had given him. It was the name he had acquired through the process of bad choices and the eventual invasion of demons who controlled what he had become.

Why did the demons beg to be sent into the pigs? Why could they not have just been told to go somewhere else? They knew that the time was coming when they would be judged along with their master, the devil, and all his other henchmen, but that time was not yet. In the meantime their territory was earth and their victims, people. They needed to inhabit human bodies but to enter humans needed their cooperation through deception and that took time. In their desperation not to be left bodyless, the pigs were their next option. Perhaps Jesus gave His permission because pigs were regarded as unclean animals and unfit for human consumption according to the Torah. They were fitting hosts for unclean spirits.

We have to remember that Jesus, as a rabbi, was always exposing His disciples to learning experiences. What would their impression have been? In the midst of this chaotic environment, one person stood out as being in charge — Jesus! He was not fazed by the hullabaloo this man was causing. He was not afraid of his violence. His presence calmed him down, allowing him to give Him a sane answer and His authority was unmistakeable, over the demons and over the man.

Jesus had taken charge of a violent storm and restored calm. He had taken charge of a violent man and restored peace. They were slowly building confidence in Him as the one He claimed to be — the promised Messiah. With their own eyes they were witnessing what the kingdom of God was all about.

This is the Jesus we have been invited to trust. Have you trusted Him?

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Two

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DAY TWO

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain,

and a very loud trumpet blast.

Everyone in the camp trembled.

Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke,

because the Lord descended on it in fire.

The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace,

the whole mountain trembled violently,

and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder.

Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

Exodus 19:16-19

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched

and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; …..but you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.

Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably

with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:18, 22a, 28, 29

As you read through these Scriptures aloud, remember that you have been made acceptable to God through the blood of Jesus.  We worship an awesome God, who is a consuming fire, but we worship the One who has made us holy through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and we no longer have to approach Him with terror and dread as the Israelites did.  We can worship Him with confidence because we are holy in His sight.

 

 

Free To Be Ensalved

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FREE TO BE ENSLAVED

“They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As He stepped out onto land, a madman from town met Him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn’t worn clothes for a long time nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery.

When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before Him and bellowed, ‘What business do you have messing with me? You’re Jesus, Son of the High God, but don’t give me a hard time!’ (The man said this because Jesus was ordering the unclean spirit out of him). Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles but, crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds.” Luke 8:26-29 (The Message).

However familiar this story is, one cannot read it without feeling pity for this tormented man. He was a victim of demons, according to Luke.

A victim of demons? How did they get in there in the first place? Demons don’t just walk in and take over wherever they feel like it. They can only gain access to a life when their lies are believed enough to let them in. It all begins when the unsuspecting person gives in to temptation, begins to do ungodly things that become a habit and then adopts ways of dulling the conscience because he cannot live with his guilt.

A young girl may run away from home, get involved in prostitution to make a living, and then turn to drugs and alcohol to dull the pain of her guilt and shame. It will not be long before she is so enslaved by this way of life that she is a candidate for demon possession. What she believed would be a way of escaping authority at home becomes a nightmare of the kind of control she was not bargaining for.

This man, who once made choices of his own, was now a victim of demonic control. What had led him into a lifestyle of sin so terrible that the demons took over? We don’t know but, once they were in, they were there to stay. He had made his choices to sin, time and again until the lies he had believed so often had opened the door for the demons to come in and take over. Once they were in, they showed their true colours and the real torment began.

How did Jesus know about him? Perhaps He didn’t but He went where the Spirit led Him. He went across the lake at His leading, and when He stepped off the boat, He knew why He had come. Although the man was inhabited by His arch-enemies, he was drawn to Jesus, both falling at His feet and screaming his antagonism. The human in him worshipped; the demons in him resisted.

Strange, isn’t it, that while humans refused to acknowledge who Jesus was, the demons were quick to identify Him as the Son of God. They knew who He was and they knew that their judgment was coming. This man was schizophrenic; there were two voices coming out of his mouth, the voice of a tormented man pleading for help and the voices of both terrified and defiant demons, knowing that their rule was temporary and their doom sure.

This story confronts us with the ugly truth of what happens to people when they venture into the realm of demonic deception, lured on by the promises of pleasure and “freedom”, only to be trapped by the consequences of their choices into a life of slavery far worse than the slavery they were trying to escape.

Jesus came to set us free, free to choose a life that leads us to peace and wholeness. The only source of peace is Jesus. His peace come to us when we choose to believe what He says and follow His way — the way of unselfishness, generosity and love.

“To the Jews who believed in Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” John 8:31, 32 (NIV).

Freedom is not doing whatever you please. Freedom is taking responsibility for yourself and choosing to live God’s way.

Do you know this kind of freedom?