THIS
WILD MAN SAW JESUS, AFAR OFF…
04-02-23
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Mar
5:1 And they [Jesus
and His disciples]
came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes
[east
of the river Jordan, in the wilderness]. Mar
5:2 And when he [Jesus]
was come out of the
[fishing] ship
[a type
and shadow of the church],
immediately there met him out of the
tombs
[Gk:
rememberances: graves] [memories,
generally buried in stone caves] a man with [“under
the
power of” Amplified Bible]
an
unclean [Gk:
impure: foul]
spirit
[devils,
i.e., unclean thoughts,
demons], Mar
5:3 Who had his
dwelling [Gk:
residence (home)]
among the tombs; and no man could bind
him
[control him, i.e., civilize him, tame him],
no, not with chains [hard
restraints (laws)]: Mar
5:4 Because that
he had been often bound with fetters and chains [bound
with civilized rules and regulations], and the
chains had been plucked asunder [Gk:
pulled in pieces] [i.e., rationalized away] by
him, and
the fetters [rules,
laws] broken
in
pieces:
neither could any man tame him [he was
a wild
man]. Mar
5:5 And always, night
and day, he was in the mountains [high],
and in the tombs [low]
[i.e. perhaps hyperbole
suggesting the concept of bi-polar], crying
[sobbing and shrieking with tears], and cutting
himself with stones
[continually re-living the evil
thoughts and actions displayed in his memories in a painful but
vain
attempt to somehow both condemn himself and purge (cleanse) himself
from those
memories – but he could not do it]. [1]
1.
(1 Cor
10:13) There hath no temptation
[Gk: testing] taken
[Gk:
gotten hold of, caught] you
but
such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not
suffer
you [Gk: permit (allow you)] to be tempted [Gk:
tested] above that [more than] ye are able
[to
resist]; but will with the temptation
[Gk:
testing] also make
a way to escape [i.e., Jesus Christ], that ye may be
able to
bear it [Gk: to endure] [to endure
the
temptation because all our ungodly thoughts and deeds
can be
forgiven, except the unforgivable sin of not
receiving Jesus
Christ as your Lord and Savior [i.e., the “way to escape”].
AND
LOVE WAS “AFAR OFF”
Mar
5:6 But when he [the
wild man] saw
[Gk:
beheld: understood]
Jesus [(the
Son of Love), who was physically and spiritually] afar
off [Gk:
at a distance /// distant],
he ran
and worshipped
him [Gk: to
prostrate oneself in homage
(do reverence to, adore] [Why?] [1], Mar
5:7 And [immediately
thereafter, the
unclean spirit, the fallen angel dwelling within him]
cried [Gk:
“croaked” (as a raven) or
screamed: shrieked] with
a loud voice, and
said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus,
thou Son of
the most high God? I adjure [Gk:
charge]
thee by God, that thou torment me not [before
the appointed time of my judgment]. Mar
5:8 For he [Jesus]
said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. Mar
5:9 And
he [Jesus]
asked him [the
unclean spirit],
What is thy name?
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion [Gk:
fig. a Roman regiment] [of approximately 6,000 soldiers]:
for we are many. Mar
5:10 And he [Legion]
besought
[pleaded with] him
[Jesus]
much that he would not send them away out of the country
[and
they fall into the abyss].
1.
Commentary:
Why? Because the man “saw the light”
(a,b) of Jesus Christ, he saw
a desperately longed-for way to escape
from his present miserable
unhappy life-style.
a.
(Gen
1:3,4) And God said, Let there be light:
and
there was light [Heb: illumination (in every
sense, including
happiness): sun]. And God saw
the light,
that it was good: and God divided
[Heb: separated] the light from the darkness [Heb:
fig. misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness].
b.
(John
8:12) Then spake Jesus again unto
them, saying, I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall
have the light of [eternal] life.
OUR
WORLD IN MICROCOSM
Mar
5:11 Now there was there nigh unto the
mountains [of
pride]
a great herd of swine [Gk:
hogs: pigs]
feeding
[representing
all unsaved (unclean) people feeding on the filth of this world]
[1]. Mar
5:12 And all the devils [unclean
thoughts]
besought [begged]
him, saying, Send us into the swine [other
unclean animals], that
we may enter into
them. Mar 5:13 And forthwith Jesus gave
them
leave [Gk:
allowed: permitted, suffered
(them)]. And the unclean
spirits [the
fallen angels (God’s fallen impure
thoughts)] went
out [of
the man], and
entered into the swine: and [in
a “driven” reaction] the
herd ran
violently [mindlessly,
i.e., having no
self-control (having no “temperance”)] down
a steep place [Gk: an
overhanging: a precipice]
into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) [(an
excellent bunny trail): Hos 6:1-3] and were choked [Gk:
throttled or strangled (drowned): taken by the throat] [stilled, unable
to
speak, unable to control] in the sea [by the
water of
the Holy Spirit]. [2]
1.
unclean
=
Heb: foul in a religious sense: defiled, polluted.
[yep,
that’s us]
2.
Commentary:
and the fallen angels (fallen
unclean spirits, i.e., evil
thoughts), having accomplished their ultimate mission of
death,
but now left without a living host, by default,
continued to
descend downward (farther and farther away from God, away from Love)
into the deep “darkness” (misery,
destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness)
of the abyss.
Mar
5:14 And they [the
swine-herders, those in charge, those who govern] that fed
the swine fled
[and
who feeds you? What kind of food are you eating? The pigs ate the
dry
husks and slop of the world], and
told it in
the city, and in the country. And they [the
citizens] went
out to see what it was that
was done. Mar 5:15 And they come to Jesus, and see him [the
wild man] that
was possessed [Gk: exercised
by a demon]
with the devil,
and had the legion,
sitting, and clothed, and
in his right
mind [Gk:
to be of sound mind, sane:
sober minded] [versus being “insane”] [1,2]:
and they were afraid [of
the change,
ironically, from what they had (misery and death) into
what they could
have (happiness and eternal glory)].
1.
(2 Tim
1:7) For God hath not
given us the spirit of fear; but [the
spirit] of power, and [the
spirit] of love, and [the
spirit] of a sound mind.
2.
(Luke
15:15-17) And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country [to
become “conformed to this world” Rom 12:2]; and he [the
governing
citizen] sent him into his fields to
feed
swine. Luk 15:16 And he would fain [Gk:
longed to: desired to, lusted to] have filled his belly with the husks [empty seed pods] that the swine did eat [i.e.,
“wine, women, and
song”]: and no man gave unto him. Luk 15:17 And when he came to himself
[i.e., he
regained his sanity], he said, How many hired servants of my
father's
have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Mar
5:16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him
that was possessed [Gk: exercised
by a demon] with
the devil,
and also concerning the swine. Mar 5:17 And they
began to
pray him to depart out of their
coasts. Mar
5:18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed
[Gk:
exercised by a demon]
with
the devil [Gk: exercised
by a demon]
prayed
him that he might be with him [with
Jesus]. Mar
5:19 Howbeit Jesus suffered [allowed]
him not, but saith unto him [first
go do
your job (your duty, your service)], Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for
thee
[i.e., go evangelize], and hath
had compassion [Gk:
pity: mercy] [forgiveness] on
thee. Mar
5:20 And he [the
saved, redeemed, changed man] departed,
and began to publish [Gk:
herald:
preach, proclaim] in
Decapolis [a
grouping of ten cities] how
great things Jesus had done for him:
and
all men did marvel [at
the complete
transformation of the formerly (Satanic) wild man into a
(Godly) tame
man].
Amen