What Demon?

Luke 8:26-39

I am curious why the New Testament dwells so much on “demons” because the Old Testament doesn’t. In fact, demons are mentioned only two times in the entire Old Testament:

Deuteronomy 32:17 - “They [Israel] sacrificed to demons,

which are not God…gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.”

And again in Psalm 106:36,37 - “They [Israel] worshiped idols which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and

 their daughters to demons.” And it seems to me that “demons” in this instance are the idols and the worship of them.

However, in the New Testament demons run rampant. And

they appear to be used as a literary device to show the authority of Jesus…that is if Jesus can cast out “demons”, He must be the Son of God. John tries very hard to write so that we understand that Jesus has the authority from God to do the things that He does…that Jesus really is the Son of God.

There is no better way to demonstrate authority than to drive

 out “Legions” of demons from the young man. We can assume that Jesus was driving evil from him.

But it seems strange to me that the “demons” or whatever they were should ask to be put into a herd of swine which

subsequently charged headlong over a cliff. The owners of the swine were then left without their means of income.

To say that I do not really understand this section is probably

an understatement of great magnitude. I do not understand this particular Scripture. And I don’t know how demons became so active in the New Testament when they are hardly mentioned in the Old Testament. I know that a number of years passed between the end of the OT and the beginning of the New Testament. Perhaps people began believing in demons during the interim.

One thing we can be certain of…Jesus can rid us of evil in whatever form it takes…if we let Him.

Carol

Bible Breath: Tell what God / Has done for you