WWUTT 2357 Legion in a Heard of Pigs (Luke 8:31-33)

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Jesus cast a legion of demons out of a man, but that doesn't mean that the demon was free to go off and do whatever they wanted to do.

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They were still under the judgment of God. And so let us draw near to Christ when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When We Understand the Text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

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Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel according to Luke, we've been in chapter 8, in that portion where Jesus casts demons named

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Legion out of a man and into a herd of pigs. That's the portion of the story we're picking up on today.

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I'll start once again in verse 29, and we'll go through verse 33. Hear the word of the Lord. Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

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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.

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Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion. For many demons had entered him.

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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.

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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 were drowned.

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And we'll finish the rest of the narrative tomorrow with the man now sound of mind and clothed, and the people seeing that and becoming very afraid of Jesus.

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That's verses 34 to 39, which we'll read then, finishing up this narrative. I don't know if you've seen

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The Chosen. I still get a lot of questions asked about The Chosen, especially because this month, what is it, season five is going to be coming out.

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They're first debuting it in theaters before it's going to be on the streaming app or on any of the streaming services.

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But they have this occasion or this encounter with this demon -possessed man in the first season,

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I believe it is. And it's when a man who is demon -possessed comes upon the women.

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There's the camp of women who have been with Jesus and the disciples. The women are kind of tending to things while Jesus has been off talking with John the

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Baptist and the disciples have been doing other things. So one of these demons, or at least this demon -possessed man calls himself legion, is coming upon Mary Magdalene.

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Jesus then suddenly arrives there and shouts, leave him, and then the demon just leaves the man.

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And John the Baptist right there observing this whole thing happening cheers. And I've seen that clip float on social media because people will share that clip and be like,

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I was so John the Baptist in this scene cheering for Jesus as he cast out the demon. It's not anything like any of the three accounts that we have in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

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I'm sure because at the time, they think the story's really cool and they want to be able to film it, but they're not going to come up with a herd of 2 ,000 pigs, let alone get those pigs to run down a hillside and drown them in the lake.

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So instead, they just have this very dumbed -down version of it. But it doesn't look anything like what we have in scripture.

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In fact, Jesus doesn't even really encounter the demon at all. He just says, leave him, and the man goes.

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There's no conversation here. Matthew and Mark, as I mentioned, also capture this particular scene.

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With Luke's narrative, it's kind of interesting because we bounce back and forth between the demon being referred to in a singular sense and the demon being referred to in the plural.

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Obviously, the man is possessed by many demons. The first mention of this is in verse 27.

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Jesus had stepped out on land, and there met a man from the city who had demons.

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So it's plural there, but later on, it mentions an unclean spirit in the singular sense.

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Verse 29, where I started today, he had commanded the unclean spirit, just one, as if it's speaking of just one, to come out of the man.

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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, singular, into the desert.

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The rest of the occasions surrounding that particular reference there in verse 29, the mention is plural, but there it's singular.

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I'm not really sure why, because Luke is the only one that does that. So it seems like the very presence of legion within this man, even though it's a collective of demons—collective, it's like the

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Borg— the Borg of demons that are possessing this man, even though it's a collective of demons, it's still thought of as being one unclean spirit, perhaps because legion is inseparable to a certain degree.

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It's not like legion is multiple demons that can then go about as other places. And that's interesting to consider whenever you're studying demonology or whatever.

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People will present all different kinds of theories about angels and demons because the scripture doesn't really give us a lot of detail.

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But seldom—in fact, I can say almost never— have I seen anything said about a group of demons that are plural but inseparable, because that seems to be the case with legion.

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Legion doesn't want to be sent scattered around anywhere. It doesn't even seem to say that legion would be scattered out of the man and then all those demons would just kind of go to different places.

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The way that it addresses Jesus, wherever legion goes, they're all going to be together. So legion says, don't cast us out of the region, don't toss us into the abyss.

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Let us go into these pigs instead. And so that's what Jesus gives them permission to do. So it's interesting to consider, are there collectives of demons like this, where it's not a bunch of spirits that have come together, but perhaps they've always been together?

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What would that represent? Where else would we see that in scripture? Again, as I mentioned on Monday, that Mary Magdalene had been possessed by seven demons.

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Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out. That was in verse two. That number seven, by the way, is a number of completion.

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So seven demons. Was it really seven demons or was it just talking about the totality of possession that she had?

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She was totally possessed. So therefore referring to seven demons may not have been seven individual demons, but a collective such as legion.

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And we don't even know how many legion is. We do have a mention in Mark of there being two thousand pigs that legion will be sent into.

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Mark is the one that that actually records the number of the pigs that were in this herd.

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That doesn't mean there's two thousand demons that are living in this particular man. We also don't know anything else about the man other than what

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Luke said here in verse twenty seven about how he had previously lived in the city.

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But now being possessed by these demons, he didn't wear clothes anymore and he did not live in a house, but he would live among the tombs, an unclean place, a place that's inhabited by the dead.

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And that's where these demons would prefer to reside. When Jesus cast them out, they want to be able to stay in that region.

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Now, a legion is a lot. It's thousands and sometimes even tens of thousands.

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But I know that a Roman legion. So you have a legion of Roman soldiers.

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That was forty two hundred, I believe. And that may be the number that Matthew had in mind in Matthew.

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Twenty six. When Jesus says to Peter, do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

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That's over fifty thousand angels. So that's a lot, especially when you consider that. Where was it in Second Kings 19 where you had an angel?

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It was the angel of the Lord. So most likely it's the pre -incarnate son of God. But the angel of the

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Lord strikes down one hundred and eighty five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. So fifty thousand angels.

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What army of men is there that could even fight against one angel, let alone twelve legions of angels?

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Right. So a legion is a lot. The point that I'm making here. But just because the demon calls himself legion, that doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be thousands of demons.

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Unless it's like thousands of little demons. Maybe they're like gremlins. Instead of I don't know what else to compare it to.

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I'm just kind of I'm very much theorizing here in my demonology concerning who legion is and how many of these demons that we're talking about that are possessing this man.

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Since it is said at the beginning of the chapter that Mary Magdalene had seven demons, most likely this is many, many more.

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And they don't have quite the potency as most of the of the demons that would possess certain people.

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Of course, this man has great strength and people are afraid of him and he can't even be bound. So I'm not saying he isn't strong, but each individual demon, whatever that would be, that's possessing him doesn't have the potency of of some of these other demonic encounters that we've seen where Jesus is casting out evil spirits.

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So, again, you have unclean spirit in the singular to describe legion, even though legion is made up of many demons.

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And and so the demons or legion rather verse 31 begs him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

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Now, what is that in reference to? Well, as I mentioned yesterday, the demons did not want to be judged before the appointed time.

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That's what you have in Mark. Are you here to torment us before the appointed time? But that is that is a set time when

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God is going to judge all the demons and he's going to cast them into the pit or into the abyss.

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We have it mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 that the devil and Satan, the dragon that represents him, is going to be seized and thrown into a pit.

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Revelation 20, verse three, and it's going to be shut and sealed over him so that he may not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

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And after that time, he must be released for a little while. So you have a reference to a pit or to an abyss where Satan and his demons are going to be sent.

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And in this reference here in Revelation 20, it says that Satan is going to be cast into that pit for a time.

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It's not a permanent it's not a permanent place of holding because he's eventually going to be released for a little while, as said at the end of Revelation 20.

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So is that what these demons are referring to of being cast into a pit where for a limited period, along with Satan, they're going to be bound.

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But then they're going to be released and have a time on the earth again. Are we in that time now?

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Hmm. Kind of interesting to consider. I know that among the dispensationalists and premills, they would say that time hasn't arrived yet because that's going to happen during the thousand year reign of Christ.

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As this is referring to that thousand years, the millennial reign in Revelation chapter 20. Anyway, different views on that.

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Maybe that's what Legion is referring to here. Don't judge us before that time. So is there somewhere else that you can send us?

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They begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. But there's a herd of pigs, verse 32, feeding there on the hillside.

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And they begged him to let them enter these. Now, I had a question on the broadcast on our

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Q &A on Friday, just a few weeks ago about this particular account. Why is it that Jesus sent the demons into the pigs and then the pigs all jump in the lake and are drowned?

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Why would Jesus do that? Well, as I had mentioned, this man, the life of this man is even more important to Jesus than a herd of 2 ,000 pigs.

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Even though you're talking about those pigs belonging to somebody, they were pigs that were being tended to by the people who lived in that region in the garrisons.

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But it's more important to Jesus that this man live and that these demons come out of him.

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They asked to go into the pigs. Jesus lets them go into the pigs. But interestingly enough, it's not like the pigs go running off and frolicking in the field now possessed by demons.

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They run down the embankment into the lake and are drowned. Now, was that a judgment by Jesus? None of the accounts tell us that.

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In Matthew, Mark, or Luke, it doesn't say that Jesus is the one who sends the pigs into the lake and they are drowned.

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Apparently, Legion doesn't have to occupy anything. I mean, was it in Legion to want to kill these pigs?

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We don't know. But symbolically, that demonstrates that even though for a time, demons may inhabit the land, may even possess pigs, apparently.

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Ultimately, they're going to be judged into the lake of fire. So just as the pigs rushed down the embankment into the lake and were drowned, that Legion had gone into.

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So it's going to be with the devil and all of these other unclean spirits and demons. They, too, are going to be thrown into the lake of fire and destroyed.

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So this, in that sense, is very prophetic. Here's eventually what's going to come of all of this.

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Though there is a limited period of time in which Jesus may cleanse unclean spirits or cast out demons, eventually a day is going to come when a permanent judgment will come upon them, and they will be cast into the lake of fire and destroyed.

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Now, hauntingly enough, that lake of fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels will also be that place that the unrighteous will be sent.

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When Jesus talks about the great white throne of judgment in Matthew 25, the nations being gathered before him, and he will separate them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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The sheep go on his right, the goats go on his left. Those that are on his left, who are the unrighteous, who did the works of the devil instead of the work of our

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Father who is in heaven, they will go away into that place of eternal punishment that had been prepared for the devil and his angels,

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Jesus said. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.

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So even though the lake of fire is a place that has been prepared for the judgment of Satan and his angels, those that followed in the ways of Satan, which would be anybody who was not in Christ Jesus, those who followed in the ways of Satan will also perish in that place where they will be cast.

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So it's not just something we look at in Scripture and think, oh, wow, what a terrible place for Satan and his demons to go.

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Those who were not in Christ Jesus, who had not been saved by faith in him, and what he did on the cross for us as an atoning sacrifice, his resurrection from the dead, those that do not believe in him will go to that same place where the devil and his angels will be sent because they will have revealed themselves to be in legion with him, pun intended.

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So this large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside rush down the hill into the steep bank and are drowned, and the man is left there himself after these demons have been cast out of him.

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And we're going to pick that up again tomorrow, verses 34 to 39, reading about the state of this man now and the people's reaction to what it is that has happened.

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That's the other thing about that account in the chosen of this particular narrative.

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It's not witnessed by anybody else. Nobody else sees it happen. It's just Jesus and his disciples and John the

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Baptist. They're the only ones that ever are witnesses to this of the public. But you have, again, these demons that refer to themselves in the collective, and even

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Luke calls them they and demons. Oh, and by the way, you have demons and unclean spirit.

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Both of those statements are used in connection with legion.

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There are some out there in their demonology who will say that there is a difference between demons and an unclean spirit.

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But right here, it clearly demonstrates there's not. The unclean spirit and the demons are the same.

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So some people just get kind of wonky with their demonology. Got to be careful with all of that.

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Reading about angels and demons according to what Scripture says. But don't get too into it. Don't make it too much of a hobby horse.

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We can get too curious about these things and enter into our minds and our spirits, enter into realms where we were not intended to go.

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We are meant to draw near to God, and we are meant to cling to Jesus Christ. There are things about how angels and demons work that we're not going to get to know this side of heaven, except that we need to stay far away from these evil spirits and those things that pertain to them.

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These spirits, when they were there before Jesus, refer to themselves in the collective way.

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The, they, them, right? There are those who in our culture today want to be identified by these collective pronouns.

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Not he and hers, but they and them. And they reveal themselves to be under the influence of these demonic spirits that gather in the collective, that will even possess people.

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Many spirits that will possess people at once. We're coming up on a chapter a little bit later on.

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I think it's Luke chapter 12 where we read about the unclean spirits.

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Chapter 11, not chapter 12. So it's Luke 11 verse 24. When the unclean spirit has come out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest and finding none.

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It says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.

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So it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself.

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And they enter and dwell there. So just like this man who is possessed by Legion or like Mary Magdalene, who had seven spirits.

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So a person can be possessed or tormented, even oppressed by multiple spirits at once.

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How all of this works, we don't know for sure. But we know the cure for this is to draw near to God.

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As said in James chapter four, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Do not fear all of these evil things in these principalities that exist in these spiritual places.

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They are real. This is not make believe. It's not part of some fantasy story or a horror movie.

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As first Peter chapter five says, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

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But usually the way that the devil acts in these things is is attempting to tempt us to try to draw us away from Christ, from that which is holy, from the way that is pleasing to God.

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And instead going after the passions of our flesh, the ways of this world. Those are the ways that the devil is most likely to deceive us.

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But we cannot be possessed by him if we are possessed by Christ.

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Different use of the word, of course, but I couldn't help but use it. The Holy Spirit lives within the lives within the

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Christian, the one who follows Jesus. Every follower of Christ has been sealed by his

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Holy Spirit. So once again, go toward those things that are of God. Seek after Christ, as he said in Matthew chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

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And all the things that we need from the Lord will be added to us as well. Drawing near to God, the devil will flee from us.

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Don't just simply resist Satan, but draw near to Christ. And Satan will have no way with us at all.

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We'll come back to this study again tomorrow here in Luke chapter eight. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read.

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And I pray that our trust is in you and that our desire is for your way, your word, your work.

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We're not going after those things of the flesh. We venture away from Christ and into the world or after those things that our flesh desires.

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And that's where Satan gets a hold of us. But instead, Lord, we draw near to Christ and may the devil flee far away.

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Fleeing from sexual immorality, fleeing from pride and all the other passions and works of our flesh.

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And instead desiring the passion and work of Christ. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.