SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2021 11:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Power
of Christ”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 8:32
Message of the verse: “32 And He said to
them, "Go!" And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole
herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.”
Let
us begin with a couple of verses that shows more about what happened when the
disciples of Jesus were commissioned to cast out demons. “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21 KJV).
“And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but
prayer’” (Mark 9:29 NASB95). Now as we
look at our verse today and what it took for Jesus to cast out a legion of
demons we see that He did with one word “Go!”
This is what this word in the Greek is “hupago” and this is what it
means “to lead under, bring under.” I
think that the meaning of this word in the Greek helps us to understand what
these demons obeyed our Lord in a very rapid way. MacArthur writes “He gave permission to the
demons (see Luke 8:32) in the form of a command that they were powerless to
disobey, and immediately ‘they came out, and went into the swine.’” “Now there was a herd of many swine feeding
there on the mountain; and the demons implored Him to permit them to
enter the swine. And He gave them permission” (Luke 8:32).
Why did the swine run down the cliff and drown themselves? Was it just the present of the demons that caused them to be so frightened that they did this? I live in a development and have for close to 44 years and the other day a large bird was hanging around, the kind of bird that usually is around a pond of other body of water. I was wondering why it was around my house until my neighbor told me that this bird came down and ate a couple of his fish that he has in a big wooden container that he has water plants and fish in. He told me that he had to cover it up for the night because he could see that the fish were extremely nervous. I never heard of nervous fish, but I suppose if a big bird was after them then that could make them nervous. Now the other reason as to why these swine went into the lake and drowned was because that is what Satan likes to do, he likes to kill people, and if it was not for the grace of God and for the plan of God then Satan would be involved in the killing of more people. He is a murder and a lire as we learn from John 8:44 “44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
We can learn from the following verses that
demons are very powerful, and I have heard of a couple of stories that show how
powerful they can be. “Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went
out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in
the morning, behold, all of them were dead” (2 Kings 19:35). This was a good angel here that we are
speaking of, and the “bad demons” are nothing but fallen “good” angels who also
have great power. “Bless the LORD, you
His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His
word!” (Ps. 103:20). “whereas angels who
are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them
before the Lord” (2 Pet. 2:11). There is
a story in the 10th chapter of Daniel that also shows the power of
these evil angels “"But the prince of the kingdom of Persia
was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief
princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia”
(Daniel 10:13). MacArthur adds “It is
therefore hardly surprising that Paul warns us that even as God’s own children
we cannot withstand the attacks of demons apart from the Lord’s armor,
especially the shield of faith (Eph. 6:16).”
I
think that the question that I asked in our last SD can be answered as to why
the demons went into the pigs is that this shows all that the demons came out
of the two men and one could also see that the men were in their right mind
after that, but going into and killing the pigs shows us where the demons went
and the result of what happened when they entered the pigs.
Some
“animal people” think that it was wrong for Jesus to allow these pigs to
drown. MacArthur writes “But animals
were created for man’s use and consumption, and those pigs were destined for
slaughter anyway. Their being drowned
brought considerable financial loss, but if the owners were Jews—as they may
well have been—they had no business raising pigs in the first place. But the souls of the two possessed men were
of infinitely greater value than the two thousand animals, and Jesus did not
hesitate to permit such a relatively small sacrifice to be made on the men’s
behalf.”
MacArthur
gives the primary lesson of this passage, but it does not have to do with the
right to raise or eat pigs or with the relative value of pigs and human beings. “The Lord’s supreme purpose in casting out
the demons and Matthew’s purpose in reporting it were to demonstrate Jesus’
authority and power over Satan and his forces.
The fact that the demons ‘went into the swine’ and the swine reacted in
the frenzy they did was dramatic and convincing evidence that they had left the
two men. Their fierceness and violence
was transferred to the pigs and there could be no doubt in the minds of
observers as to what had happened.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things that I am learning from
stories like this is that I can better understand them as I better understand the
main focus that the Author (The Holy Spirit) and (Matthew) had in mind in
writing this gospel book.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Do the things that I can do, and then leave
the results to the Lord.
4/28/2021 12:04 PM
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