These pastors have, Look at the prophets; they also prove Scripture doesnt change. The district of the Gerasenes probably included that of the Gadarenes; so that the demoniac of Gergesa belonged to the country of the Gadarenes and also to that of the Gerasenes, as the same person may, with equal truth, be said to live in the city or the state, or in the United States. The vision stumped the poor apostle; clearly, Peter forgot about the amazing four Greek words of Mark 7:19b. The Messiah has the same nature and character was the Father, as discussed in the Fourth Fact above. All of us may be so concerned with our own livelihoods that we fail to serve other people and help those in desperat Reading the Word of God is wonderful. Is there a connection? The miracles that are recorded here, just like the one that we saw last week, are seen by that small circle of disciples that is following Jesus around. Mr. Hippo read Mark 5 and convinced himself that Jesus did not care about swine, or any other animals, and therefore, spread a church doctrine that Christians have no genuine duty to animals. The demons, who in this man have terrified the whole countryside to the point that they had tried to retrain this man with chains they were so frightened of Him, those demons are now afraid of Jesus because they know who Jesus is and they know where Jesus can cast them. Nothing we have belongs to us. They, like the demons, are afraid of Him and they beg Him to leave and He does. Then again, who needs to imagine anything? WebWhy were there pigs in gerasenes? And did the Gospels writers believe the explanation was so obvious they didn't need to write one? But the sad thing I want you to see at the end is the reaction of the majority of his countrymen, because unlike him, they do not beg to be with Jesus. Logically we understand that no person on Earth could say something in strong terms over and over, and then just one day say, Oops, can I retract that? So could or would God Almighty flip flop? You know, a month ago, a month ago, if you had said to anyone, You know, Tiger Woods is in slavery. They would have looked at you and said, You've got to be out of your mind. But when the pigs need to be explained, he immediately seems lost and turns to heartless comedy. And while its not true God pairs animals with people every where in Scripture, He does in this statement. He had a new name and he had a new nature to go along with it. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. The best text in Matthew reads Gadarenes, in Mark and Luke it reads Gerasenes, whereas some MSS preserve Gergesenes and Gergustenes (cf. And her addition to Gods commandment led to her disobedience and to Adams, and then God added some amazing plagues to mankind, just as John says (Revelation 22:18) will happen to those who add to His Word (and not just the book of Revelation). Derek Thomas was reminding me this morning that Ridderbos, in his famous book, The Coming of the Kingdom, records seventeen different interpretations that he had found of this particular parable. We pray that he would find liberation in Jesus Christ and see his life and family restored, but my friends, any one of us, any one of us, can be in the same thralldom today. And Jews are forbidden by God and His eternal commands to own pigs. Such a statement is irresponsible because the Law was not written for a single person. On the other hand, the Masters usually thick-headed students, the Tedious Twelve, didnt question him about this! 2023. being the holy Messiah of Israel, Jesus wants the swine out of The Land as much as he wants unclean spirits out of The People, and. The pastors attempts to laugh off the haunting question about the meek and lowly Son of Man killing all the pigs is pathetic. WebBlog Uncategorized were the gerasenes gentiles Uncategorized were the gerasenes gentiles Perhaps that is his point. Jesus though he was The Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15-18 and John 1:21) had to play by the same laws. Besides this Biblical evidence that Jesus and the woman were within Israels inheritance, there is also a prophesy that God will settle His People in the future in Gilead (a sizeable part of todays Kingdom of Jordan) and in Lebanon too (Zechariah 10:9-10). So did the demons surprise him? So why did the meek n merciful Son of Man cast countless defiling demons into two thousand piglets, sows and boars? In the Book of Acts, Chapter Nineteen, we read about Demetrius, a Greek silver-statue maker, who was connecting a few dots of his own and had reasoned that a certain big-mouthed Jew was bad for business. (Question: If God cares about the mother-child relationship in animals, how does He consider that relationship for people? Last week we said the focus was on the power and the person of Jesus Christ. Demons, Jesus, and the Pigs The Outlaw Bible Student, http://www.linearconcepts.com/archives/2011. Christ's primary focus was on "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. Just like in the Garden, when God judged Adam, he didn't strike him directly, but the ground soil instead. And so the fact that youre in a country with a herd of pigs lets you know that youre in Gentile territory and that's part of the point of the story. In actual fact, when you stop to think about it, If our faithful, unchanging Heavenly Father God made a straightforward decisive yet divisive decision and repeated it, Fourth Fact: Gods Enduring, Unchangeable Word, As was just so elegantly discussed, the destruction of the herd, Your word, O LORD, is everlasting; it is firmly fixed in the heavens. The jokes are a smoke screen. Its one thing to understand that He personally never changes. Besides, it was Christmas! 2. They ask Him if they can enter some nearby pigs, and He lets them. The heart set free from sin by Jesus. Israel doesnt [need] a savior who can fight off a legion of Roman soldiers. Are you seeing this? Were in the same story, my friends. The first two are in the Authorized Version. I want you to see a person in the thrall of sin. Who were the gerasenes in the bible? May God grant us the liberation through Jesus Christ to become what that nameless man became. As to the second question, there is no doubt of the illegality, from a ritual point of view, of Jews keeping swine (B. Also, Johns emphasis do not take away from the words is stronger than Mosess original statement. When people start putting a value on animal life equal to or higher than the value they put on human life, something is seriously wrong with the culture. Clearly, Luke is telling you this because he wants you to show the amazing power of Jesus Christ, even over demons. So why were these pig owners on the east side of the lake afraid? Originally published in Tabletalk, our daily Bible study magazine. The textual evidence shows that the MSS preserve three variant spellings of the name in each gospel. Its all a matter of being logical. --ED.). The miracle referred to took place, without doubt, near the town of Gergesa, the modern Kersa , close by the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and hence in the country of Gergesenes. When Jesus and his disciples landed on the other side, it was in a region known as the Gerasenes, Gentile territory. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. Yet being part of the Godhead means Messiah cannot not flip-flop his opinions. A may also be a combination of two or more genres. In a similar way, we see that Scripture is the same; it doesnt change. Diana (Artemis) of Ephesuslovely without a nose! Facts are piling up. Remember, Jesus took direct, extensive action against a significant group of Gentile pig farmers he didnt just say something bad against the pigs. Luckily, they didnt find Paul anywhere, but they did haul a number of Pauls colleagues down to city hall. Theyre written as factual history. WebHealing of a Demoniac. = Jesus came to teach a better way of life that you could have abundantly! What is the significance of Decapolis in the Bible? 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, Isaiah 44:9; Isaiah 44:19 Pigs were the required sacrifice on the altar in the temples of Zeus Olympus (Greek) or Jupiter Capitolinus (Roman), the same supreme god of all Hellenic theology known as the "king of The tricky bit is finding the correct reason why gentle Jesus dumped hundreds of murderous, unclean spirits on so many swine. Echoes of Exodus in the Land of the Gerasenes | Mitchell Lewis This city was better known than Gadara or Gergesa; indeed in the Roman age no city of Palestine was Echoes of Exodus in the Land of theGerasenes, Wesleys Eschatological Optimism Explains itAll, The Prophet in the Hometown A Pilgrim in Augsburg, The Methodist Million Dollar Appeal in World WarII. Pliny described it as a city of the Decapolis founded after the Rom. That is why And then you see in this passage the change of a heart set free. Also, any every person who wants to please God is forbidden the heartless act of boiling a calf in its mothers milk (Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Deuteronomy 14:21), as well as the abominable practice of cutting and eating the leg of a live animal, only to leave the poor creature hobbling around with its three remaining legs (Deuteronomy 12:23; explanation). This, Also, this study shows that Jesuss actions in Mark 5 were on the surface contrary to the deep-rooted Jewish respect for domestic and/or wild animals. We come to understand that the God of the Universe is willing to wait and to stall our own behaviour so as to give mother cows and mother sheep more time together with their babies. xviii. They cannot cast a spell on Him. By Your Holy Spirit, show us our need of grace. War II. What was the country of the Gerasenes (or Gadarenes) and why The Greek clause literally says, End of law is Christ but why bother finishing the sentence? His sermon should have given us some point, some excuse, or some logical explanation for it all. The conversation showed that the illness had a will, a coherent sense of past, present and future, knowledge of the supremacy and authority of Jesus Christ, and a compulsion to worship Jesus. An inscr. We know that two thousand pigs go over the cliff. It's entitled, Why I Am Not A Christian. Thats why there was a herd of two thousand People of the same race and same religion but they still wanted to do him some serious pain. (, Therefore you should understand that the LORD your God, Because God is so steady, and doesnt reverse or repeal, He can be trusted to do what He promises; good or, If the Eternal One, blessed be He, had said just, But the Almighty said it so many times. Scripture makes it clear that Ashers tribal land-boundary ended around the coastal city of Tyre (Joshua 19:29). Such a contradiction in character! Webwere the gerasenes gentiles. This Priceless People Interpretation comes from another sunny California pastor, John Piper. He stabbed in the day of his wrath the kings. Why? He was completely in the thrall of sin. At best, Malachi 4:4 should read as, Remember the Law of Moses, but mine's better. The two Johns see more than a hint of what I am talking about in the destruction of the swine and it frightens them so they avoid a serious discussion. They could, at least, admit to the possibility of what has been discussed here and about the other facts. Now, if a Jew can be treated so badly by fellow Jews, lets put on our thinking caps and imagine what happens to a Jew walking straight into a big group of Gentiles. (we dont invent stories to let people know Jesus has power over the Tooth Fairy, do we?). But here's the second thing. Lord God, even as we sing this hymn, cause those who do not know Him to love Him and cause those who love Him to love Him more than anything else in this world. Secondly, the text is written to show Jesus dunnit. II. The most plausible reason Jesus chose the pigs was because he regarded people as precious and priceless, But are these good pastors on the right track? Many year later, Messiah went to Israel as a prophet to get the people of Israel back to his Law. He specifically banned pig in Leviticus 11:6 but to make sure we heard God repeats the command (Deuteronomy 14:8), adds that eating it makes a person unclean (Leviticus 11:43), adds that touching their carcasses defiles a person (Leviticus 11:28), adds that righteous people must not become defiled (Leviticus 20:25), and then sends His prophet a prophesy like, no one uncircumcised or anything unclean (/tameh) will anymore enter Zion or Jerusalem (Isaiah 52:1), and then openly judges pork-eaters as wicked (Isaiah 65:2-5), and then hotly repeats that identical point (Isaiah 66:15-17), and once more (Ezekiel 44:23-27) and once again, but now in the New Testament (Revelation 21:27), so where is that pastor who dares suppose the Almighty can change His mind about pigs? His poetry includes Bees in Amber: a little book of thoughtful verse (1913) which became a bestseller. Both Johns could conveniently connect the dots between the Law of God which outlaws the swine and the destructive action which Jesus took against the herd, but it would be too inconvenient for their religious views. God never said dont touch. She added that bit. Connect the dots. This city was better known than Gadara or Gergesa; indeed in the Roman age no city of Palestine was better known. SO Jesu said later in the NT, that meats going in the mouth does not defile because we excrete it out in the draught, solid and liquids, so physically our body cleans itself if there were toxins, and It is whatever comes out of the mind, is what taints a person, whatever he or she thinks. What is going to happen, we are told by John the book of Revelation, is that God Himself is going to cast Satan and his demons into the lake of fire. I could have come up with better arguments against Christianity than Bertrand Russell, but in the course of this book in one of the chapters, he says it is this story that led him to the conclusion that Jesus was neither the best nor the most virtuous of men. They need to face the cracks in their theologies. Delivered to your inbox! Before the war it was a Gentile settlement. God designated the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, as His chosen people. Therefore, were those cool-headed pig-farmers really Gentiles? Origen says this is a good example of how Biblical writers simply were not concerned to precisely identify certain sites. Yet the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke actually report that the towns people many would have been the owners or friends of the pig owners or people who were connected to the trade in the swine were frightened of the Jewish rabbi. WebHe calls the inhabitants Syrians, when, at the beginning of the Jewish revolt, the district round Gerasa was laid waste. I wonder why?). WebThey came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. For these reasons, the writers of the gospels gave no explanation and the Twelve asked no question about why Jesus destroyed all the swine. WebThe Gerasenes were the people of the district of which Gerasa was the capital. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him to let them enter these. Does he really believe Mark 5 is Biblical material just for laughs? Yet they tried to throw one of their own off a cliff (, Now, if a Jew can be treated so badly by fellow Jews, lets put on our thinking caps and imagine what happens to a Jew walking straight into a big group of Gentiles. In, David was a good example of what Jesus meant by , Sadly, our two good pastors seem oblivious to the fact that under the Law of Moses, animals have benefits too, and this fact should have bearing on any interpretation of Mark 5. (Only an amateur Hebraist would claim the latter, frankly.). But there are many reasons why Im not keen on the idea of the Gospels as non-historical. One day the prophet Samuel angrily told his king that God would not go back on His decision. This page from an Orthodox website partially shows how Judaism views their responsibility. Without a doubt, both men know God never came up with the line, Put pork on your fork. And as Palmer approached him at the fireside, the man identified Palmer before he got there. This town is not to be confused with either Gerasa or Gadara. were badly damaged in major I remember my boyhood pastor, Gordon Reed, preaching through a sermon series on the gospel on Mark coming to a passage about demon possession saying, I don't know much about demon possession, but I've read a lot of books about people on demon possession and they don't know much about demon possession either. Well, before you give counsel to Jesus about what He has done in this passage you may want to take stock about how much you know about demon possession. WebAll three Synoptic Gospels ( Mark 5:120; Luke 8:2639; Matthew 8:2834) mention the swine miracle, although with variations. And lastly, because the herd was within the Land of Israel and owned by Jews (the joke about Gentiles owning them is cleared up below), the unclean swine had to go and the unclean demons did the work. Incredible. Remember the story of Jesus casting demons out of the crazy man in Luke 8? By using our website, you accept our use of cookies. Here is a prophesy that Christians love to quote: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110.4) because it connects to Messiah Jesus. This means that these miracles are especially meant to teach believers something. [Israels] real enemy isnt Rome, which barely figures into the gospel story. The main reason God limits righteous people to a select group of clean/pure animals is for the purpose of holiness. I asked him how could it be that Jesus carried on an intelligent, protracted, two-way conversation with an illness after the illness was excised out of the man. WebThey land in the country of the Gadarenes which is on the North-east shore of the Sea of Galilee about 6 miles southeast across the sea from Capernaum. Would you not agree that theres a certain permanent feeling about a law like that? But this I do know, when people say that because those pigs died it shows that Jesus was not a good and virtuous man theyre forgetting three things. Its kinda like the difference between a Disney movie, a TV documentary and/or an infomercial; normally each is dissimilar from the other. It was like, And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent for He is not a man that He should relent. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met Him a man from the city who had demons. And Christ went sadly.He had wrought for them a signOf Love, and Hope, and Tenderness divine;They wantedswine.Christ stands without _your_ door and gently knocks;But if your gold, or swine, the entrance blocks,He forces no man's holdhe will depart,And leave you to the treasures of your heart. Its all so reminiscent of John MacArthur joking and John Piper giving pat answers because n body wants to be honest with the Word of God and face facts and Jesus killing pigs is one of those uncomfortable contradictions.). When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. He seen himself demon possessed people that had extrodinary powers. But Jesus still ministered to them: crowds from Tyre and Sidon came to see and listen to Him ( Mark 3:78 ). Well this is a taste of the profound arguments that you will find in that book. They know that Jesus can cast them into the abyss, into the lake of fire, into the bowels of hell, and theyre frightened. Knowing the correct genre of what you are studying is a major step toward getting a correct message or interpretation. And so they begin crying out, Don't cast us into the abyss.. Learn how your comment data is processed. Theres got to be a a good one about. Compared to the accounts of the same event in Matthew and Luke also written in simple narrative prose some details vary. This one verse alone, without all the extra proof from Jesuss joke, should convince us that his commandments are the 613 commandments of the Law of Moses. In Luke 4 and 5, great multitudes are following Jesus Christ when He does His miracles. Therefore, by associating the two commandments together, and you catch some of the character of our Heavenly Father. Thats right, adding or subtracting from Scripture, according to Scripture, is illegal. For you Tolkien fans it reminds me of a character in the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. Unsurprisingly in such a place, Jesus finds a man possessed by unclean spirits. three The Greeks were believers in the spirit David did the same to a bear that took a sheep. One was, His Name Was Legion, Not Ligon. I have been confused with Legion all my life and it worries me that it's not just the sound of the name, but I want to make it clear that Legion is not in any way related to Ligon. Woodlands Country Club Maine Membership Cost, How To Display Google Maps On Car Screen, Adams Family Gangsters Funeral, Articles W