Mar 5:13-17 | KingComments | STEP | Then the great Deliverer appears on the scene. Without it appearing that the man has seen the Lord Jesus before, he recognizes Him from afar and runs to Him. The man does not know Him, but the demons who dwell in him know Him. They acknowledge Him as their Superior and honor Him through the man. The man is identified with the unclean spirit. He doesn’t say ‘do not torment us’, but “do not torment me”. Thus in the believer the Holy Spirit identifies Himself with the believer in the most intimate way. Here too the demons acknowledge through the mouth of the man that there is no connection whatsoever between them and the Lord Jesus ( ). They can rightly say “what business do we have with each other?” when it comes to any connection with Him. In another way they indeed do have to do with Him. For He is their Judge and will condemn them and cast them into hell. They speak to Him as “Jesus” – demons never speak to Him as “Lord”! – while they acknowledge Him as “Son of the Most High God”. To these statements the unclean spirit comes after Christ’s command to leave the man. The Lord Jesus explicitly calls him “unclean spirit”. The man will have become very filthy spiritually with all kinds of ideas, so that he will not be able to think soundly. It is therefore a great grace of Christ that He comes to the man without him calling for help. The man could not do that. This is how Christ came to us when we were in the power of the devil. The Lord wants the unclean spirit to fully speak out and expose himself. There must be nothing left behind in this man. Now it becomes clear that there are many demons in him: a legion. A Roman legion consisted of 6,000 men. Once the devil has entered someone’s life, he will take possession of that person more and more by letting as many demons as possible dwell in him. After the Lord has asked for his name, the unclean spirit urgently implores Him not to send him and his fellow demons outside of the country. In doing so, they acknowledge His power. There appears to be a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The possession of swine indicates disobedience on the side of God’s people, for they are unclean beasts. He who owns a herd of them does not heed God’s precepts. The demons implore Him to send them into the swine. They want to exchange the man in the tombs for a new home in the swine. The Lord allows the demons to go into the swine. Unclean spirits go into unclean beasts. By the demons going into the swine it is clearly shown that the dwelling of demons in humans is as certain and real as it is terrible. Their urge for destruction also becomes clear here. If the demons are capable of killing two thousand swine, how terrible the man must have been. How fortunate that the Lord Jesus appears in his life and sets him free! The swine keepers haven’t been able to protect the herd from this outbreak. Powerless and anxious, they will have watched the behavior and demise of the swine. Instead of bowing down to the power of Christ, they flee to the city to tell there, and also in the fields, what happened. The people who hear it want to see it for themselves. They come to see what has happened.

‏ Mark 5:13-17

A Demon Possessed Set Free

Then the great Deliverer appears on the scene. Without it appearing that the man has seen the Lord Jesus before, he recognizes Him from afar and runs to Him. The man does not know Him, but the demons who dwell in him know Him. They acknowledge Him as their Superior and honor Him through the man.

The man is identified with the unclean spirit. He doesn’t say ‘do not torment us’, but “do not torment me”. Thus in the believer the Holy Spirit identifies Himself with the believer in the most intimate way. Here too the demons acknowledge through the mouth of the man that there is no connection whatsoever between them and the Lord Jesus (Mk 1:24). They can rightly say “what business do we have with each other?” when it comes to any connection with Him. In another way they indeed do have to do with Him. For He is their Judge and will condemn them and cast them into hell. They speak to Him as “Jesus” – demons never speak to Him as “Lord”! – while they acknowledge Him as “Son of the Most High God”.

To these statements the unclean spirit comes after Christ’s command to leave the man. The Lord Jesus explicitly calls him “unclean spirit”. The man will have become very filthy spiritually with all kinds of ideas, so that he will not be able to think soundly. It is therefore a great grace of Christ that He comes to the man without him calling for help. The man could not do that. This is how Christ came to us when we were in the power of the devil.

The Lord wants the unclean spirit to fully speak out and expose himself. There must be nothing left behind in this man. Now it becomes clear that there are many demons in him: a legion. A Roman legion consisted of 6,000 men. Once the devil has entered someone’s life, he will take possession of that person more and more by letting as many demons as possible dwell in him.

After the Lord has asked for his name, the unclean spirit urgently implores Him not to send him and his fellow demons outside of the country. In doing so, they acknowledge His power. There appears to be a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The possession of swine indicates disobedience on the side of God’s people, for they are unclean beasts. He who owns a herd of them does not heed God’s precepts. The demons implore Him to send them into the swine. They want to exchange the man in the tombs for a new home in the swine.

The Lord allows the demons to go into the swine. Unclean spirits go into unclean beasts. By the demons going into the swine it is clearly shown that the dwelling of demons in humans is as certain and real as it is terrible. Their urge for destruction also becomes clear here. If the demons are capable of killing two thousand swine, how terrible the man must have been. How fortunate that the Lord Jesus appears in his life and sets him free!

The swine keepers haven’t been able to protect the herd from this outbreak. Powerless and anxious, they will have watched the behavior and demise of the swine. Instead of bowing down to the power of Christ, they flee to the city to tell there, and also in the fields, what happened. The people who hear it want to see it for themselves. They come to see what has happened.

Set Free and Sent Out

When we read of the people of that region that “they came to Jesus,” it seems a wonderful deed. Unfortunately, they did not come to honor Him. When they come to Him, they see the man they have so often wanted to shackle and subdue, sitting with Him in complete peace. He is no longer naked and frightening, but clothed and in his right mind. He has changed both outwardly and inwardly. He is as it were clothed with “the garments of salvation” (Isa 61:10) and he knows the Son of God with his understanding (1Jn 5:20). This is the man who has had the legion of demons.

Instead of praising the grace of the Lord for this deliverance, the people of that area become afraid. They fear Him Who is able to destroy the captivity of the devil (1Jn 3:8). They fear Christ and His grace more than the devil and his works!

When they have seen that, they are going to testify again about what they have seen. Again they will tell their story about this wonderful deliverance. They also tell about the swine. The effect of the story of the witnesses is not that people acknowledge Christ as Savior. He is for them someone who has destroyed their livelihood. Such a person they are better off without. Alas, they consider the demons and the swine to be more pleasant company than the Son of God. This is a new work of satan in the hearts of men. The Lord is goes away. He does not force Himself on anyone.

The healed man does not only feel at ease with the Lord Jesus (Mk 5:18), but all his love goes out to Him. He longs to follow Him wherever He goes. However understandable and good the man’s desire may be, the Lord does not allow him to accompany Him. That is because He has another commission for him. He wants the man to go to his family to testify of his deliverance, allowing him to function normally again.

The Lord Jesus also wants the man to tell of the beneficence that He has shown His mercy on him. He does not only perform acts of power, but also shows His mercy. He performs acts of power from a heart full of compassion. He wants that where men know us well, we should testify of what He has done to us.

The man obeys immediately. It takes no effort for him to fulfill the commission. It is wonderful to read that he preaches “all that Jesus had done to him”, even though the Lord had told him to report what “the Lord” had done to him. For the man, ‘the Lord’, that is ‘Yahweh’, is the Same as ‘Jesus’. So it is. It may be easier for us to speak about God than about the humiliated Jesus, but God is concerned with the glory of the Lord Jesus and that should be our concern as well.