Mark 5:1–43

July 24, 2012

Jesus sends the evil spirits out of the man who lived in the caves. A couple of things standout to me in this story.

1. "No one was strong enough to control him." There is evil in this world and we cannot by our human power control it. Only God has the power over ALL things. We are to be faithful, but God is the one who will deal with our situations.
2. The Legion of evil spirits KNEW who Jesus was. "Son of the Most-High God." How ironic that they knew, yet the very people who should have known who He was refused to believe in Him.
3. Jesus sends the evil spirits into the pigs and the pigs go down the hill, over the cliff to their destruction. Written in Jane's (Her Name Was Jane) Bible: DOWN to destruction. Satan always leads on a downward path.
4. Instead of being grateful to Jesus for releasing the man from the evil spirits, the local people wanted Jesus to leave. They saw money going over the cliff, so now it affected THEM. They didn't care about the man, they were only interested in themselves.
5. The freed man begged to go with Jesus. Jesus told him no. "Go home to your family and tell them how much the LORD has done for you and how he has had mercy on you." (Mark 5:19) We are not all called to go out and spread the Gospel in far away lands. Sometimes Jesus wants to use us right where we are, telling those within our sphere of influence about who Jesus is; what He has done; and how He has blessed us.

Next Entry: Mark 5:1–43 (Continued)