Luke 8:26-39 A Herd of Pigs
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 6, 2018 Luke 8:26-39
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
(Understanding the Text) Recently, I heard a TableTalk discussion where they used this as an example of how the fallen angels believe that God is capable of cruelty. “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me” Why did the demon say this? Was it to make trouble and act like Jesus had a bad character, or did they truly believe that Jesus would torment them? I think that they have fallen so low that they cannot believe that God would do anything different. They tormented when they had the chance. They tormented the demoniac and had surely done the same to many, many humans before that. They tormented Jesus on the cross. They have fallen so low from the loving creatures that they were originally that they cannot believe anyone else has higher motives. They believe everyone including Jesus is as false and selfish as they are. Since they are in rebellion, they can only believe that the ruler that they are rebelling against wants to punish them.
“they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss” Some people have interpreted this to mean that there is some other plane of existence that demons wander when they are not in humans. The original Greek word is /abussos/ which means bottomless pit. I wonder if this refers to the utter destruction of death. There is no reason to think it means another dimension. It may be a lie that they believe, or it may be a way of thinking about death as a place of the unknown to them.
(Note: I have since had other thoughts on the ideas of the previous paragraph, so don’t take this as if I am trying to convince you that I was right. I was just trying to understand with the limited knowledge that I had at this point in time. It is okay to speculate as long as you remember that your ideas are limited and may be either totally wrong or unimportant in the larger scheme of things. In other words, don’t take your ideas too seriously when there is no Biblical support to back them up.)
This poor wretched man had somehow become the dwelling place of many demons. We don’t know how or why, but whatever the original situation, he had been punished many times over. I wonder if he dwelt in the tombs by his own choice for fear that he would hurt others when possessed. He was totally naked and dirty and likely had dried blood streaked here and there. There would have been many scars and gashes seeping blood across his body from living in the wild with no protective clothing and from breaking the chains that had been placed upon him many times and from self-inflicted wounds. He must have terrorized the locals numerous times. In fact, I believe that this was the purpose of his possession–to keep the people of the area living in fear.
When the local people realized that someone more powerful than the demons was in the area, their reaction was fear. This shows how conditioned they were to feeling terror. They could not imagine a power that did not terrorize. Jesus understood their fear and that He could not reach them with His love, so He did as they asked, but left a token of His love behind–the now sane man.
The man must have been fearful that the demons would return. He wanted to stay with his Protector, but instead Jesus sent him out on a mission. This must have been what the man needed. Jesus told the man to tell everyone his testimony of how God had blessed him. The man did as he was told and when Jesus returned later, the people were ready to receive His love. The SDA commentary says that this was probably in early fall of A.D. 29 and that when Jesus returned to the area of Decapolis 9 or 10 months later, many many people came to see and hear Him. The story had spread so that the people no longer feared Jesus.
(Revelation of God) I’ve wondered why demons so often approached Jesus rather than fleeing in the opposite direction, but their purpose may have been of harassment. Jesus had been extremely tired and had chosen to go across the lake in order to find rest for himself and his disciples. During the journey across the lake, the terrible storm had come upon them, and Jesus had been so tired that the noise and commotion did not wake Him up. He probably did not get much rest after that. They landed on the shore hoping for some peace and quiet and almost immediately the demoniac was rushing towards them trying to terrorize them as he had so many others. Jesus had to deal with the demons and when the demons were cast into the pigs as they had asked, they proceeded to make trouble for Jesus, which meant that Jesus and the disciples were not able to rest much here either. The SDA commentary says that the lake is about 6 or 7 miles across here from where they had started, but the journey had taken longer than that because of the storm. They must have been exhausted.
(Understanding the Text) One of the differences between the different accounts of this incident is that Matthew speaks of two men who were demon possessed. The SDA commentary says “Apparently, however, one was outstandingly fierce. Similarly, Matthew speaks of two blind men at Jericho (ch. 20:30), where Mark (ch. 10:46) and Luke (ch. 18:35) speak of but one, probably for the same reason. It is worthy of note that Matthew, no doubt an eyewitness to both events, mentions two men in each instance.” This might explain why there were multiple demons since there were two men. It would have been easier for the demons to terrorize the people if there were two men. Why do Luke and Mark only mention one man? As the commentary says, one may have been more dominant and fierce. Also, he may have been a prominent Christian in later years and been the source of the story. He may not have even noticed the other man or thought about him. The other man may not have begged to go with Jesus or stuck around after he was healed. He may have run away before anyone could speak with him further. Two were healed of demon possession, but maybe only one stayed and spoke with them and was seen by the townspeople and went home and told his testimony. Or maybe the other man just stayed quiet and in the first man’s shadow so that he was not noticed much.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that my beliefs about God’s character will influence who I am. In return, who I am will influence my beliefs about God’s character. I need to strive to see God as clearly as I can without the interference of past experience, present character, or my cultural ideas. This is not something I can do myself, so I pray that the Spirit will help me to clearly see Jesus. I claim this promise from the Bible.