SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2021 10:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Request
of the Demons”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
8:30-31
Message of the verses: “30 Now there was a
herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. 31 The demons began
to entreat Him, saying, "If You are going to cast us out, send us
into the herd of swine.’”
It
seems that the demons were desperate and as they looked around they saw a herd
of pigs, and figured that this would be a good way of escape. The pigs were spotted feeding in a
pasture. Mark tells us that it was a
large heard of pigs, some 2000 animals feeding on the hill overlooking the
water. Next we here from the demons “If
You are going to cast us out” and this is not a statement of uncertainty or was
it mere possibility for they knew that Jesus was going to cast them out of
these two pour souls. How do you think
that they knew this? For one reason
Jesus was compassionate, and therefore would do the right thing. Let us look at 1 John 3:8 to see another
reason “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned
from the beginning. The
Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” Notice the highlighted portion of this verse
and you will see another reason that Jesus would cast these demons out of these
men, and keep in mind that there were probably 2000 demons inside these
men.
This
request from these demons seems bizarre, and we are not told why they asked to
be sent “into the heard of swine.”
MacArthur writes “Perhaps they thought the Lord had changed His
timetable for judgment and would otherwise immediately throw them into the great
abyss.” Now let me comment on this
observation and that is as we studied the book of Revelation we learned that
there were certain very evil demons that were put into a place where they could
not get out until the time when they would be cast into hell, and some would be
allowed to come out for a short time during the tribulation period. Perhaps they thought that Jesus would put
them there out of the way until the tribulation period. At any rate Jesus would allow them to go into
the pigs and this would be better for the demons than going into the great
abyss. I remember while listening to the
sermon from John MacArthur on this subject that he was saying that there were
some “animal lovers” who would say that what Jesus was doing was to cruel, “as
they were eating a ham sandwich.” We
know that the demons knew that before the incarnation, before Jesus became the
God/Man that there was no way that He could ever sin, but perhaps these demons
thought that because that He was now the God/Man perhaps they could get Him to
sin, but I have to say that that was impossible for Jesus to sin. Tempted, yes, but sin, never!!
Why
do you suppose that Jesus would allow the demons to go into the heard of
swine? Well think about that and we will
try to answer that question in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Sometimes, and perhaps many times, while
reading and studying the Word of God I don’t really understand everything about
it. What do I do? Well first I keep looking and studying and if
no answer is found I go to Deuteronomy 29:29 “"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but
the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe
all the words of this law.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord to teach me more
about revival, and to bring more people into our prayer meeting as we continue
to pray about revival.
4/27/2021 10:28 AM
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