Lesson From A Bunch of Demons

                                              

    Yesterday we had a guest missionary at church preach a sermon on Mark 5.  It was an inspiring talk on how we all have a choice to make in life, whether or not to follow Christ.  Something else in the verses caught my attention.
    The passage was about a man that was posessed by several demons.   He lived in a graveyard, and came out to meet Jesus and the disciples as they arrived in the country of the Gerasenes.
   ⁶Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;
   ⁷and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "^(D)What business do we have with each other, Jesus, ^(E)Son of ^(F)the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!"
   ⁸For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"
   ⁹And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many."
   ¹⁰And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.
    ¹¹Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.
   ¹²The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them."
   ¹³Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.
     I've heard this Bible story many times, but for some reason on this occasion I noticed that Jesus not only felt sorry for the man, He seemed to have felt something for the demons.  Was it sympathy?  Empathy?  Compassion?  They begged Him to basically "have mercy" on them, and not to send them out of the country.  No one can know why they asked this...but Jesus gave them permission to enter the pigs and they were drowned.  They knew that Jesus had power over them and could do as He wished.  Did they want to be put out of their misery?  Perhaps.  We do know that the demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God, and the first thing they did was defer to Him.  As they controlled the body of the Gerasene man, they bowed down before Him. 
     The demons bowed down before Jesus.  They, who were "running the show" knew that when it came to the Christ, they didn't have a chance.  They didn't even put up a fight.
     How often do I put up a fight?  How often do I want to "run the show" and control my life and what happens to me?   Do I immediately defer to God and silently let His Will be done...or do I want to stand firmly and debate Him on what is best for me?  Are a bunch of demons smarter than me?  Apparently so.  Can I learn a lesson from them?  Yes...if I allow myself to.
   Lord Jesus, thank you for Your mercy and grace.  Please remind me to bow down to You each and every day.  Help me to let You be LORD over my life.  I give it all to You.