"So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts."
Matthew 8:31-34
This is an interesting story where Christ meets two people possessed with devils, and the devils know who he is and that he is the son of God, and say so. Then these verses describe him allowing them to go into a herd of swine instead of the people he was kicking them out of.
It's interesting that Christ allowed it... did he have compassion on the devils who would be without bodies? Did the herd of swine suicide, or were they pushed to it by the devils? The thing that I find even more interesting is that the city asked Christ to leave. Does that mean they thought he was crazy or evil, or did they hear the reports and actually understand that he had a power that no other had? ... Also, what happened to the people that the devils had been cast out of? Were they okay? Were they from the nearby city?
The lesson that I get out of this is that when God does something that we don't understand, we should not just ask him to leave. That's like throwing out a treasure because it is too shiny and it is blinding us. Instead, we should approach it a different way. When we don't understand God, it never means that he is wrong. It means that we have a knowledge gap, and we need to learn something. First steps might be to learn to respect God's power, and then ask him to teach us his reasoning. If it keeps bugging us, instead of rejecting it, we should learn more about Christ's life and choices, his other encounters with devils, the premortal existence, the nature of devils, and everything else that we can think of, and then when we've studied it out in our own minds, we should ask God about it, and see if we're close to understanding. If not, God will help us learn over time.
Today, let's go to God with the things that we don't understand and ask him to help us understand. His disciples did this frequently, and that's part of what made them wise. Let's ask questions and learn rather than rejecting things that we can't yet understand.
And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts."
Matthew 8:31-34
This is an interesting story where Christ meets two people possessed with devils, and the devils know who he is and that he is the son of God, and say so. Then these verses describe him allowing them to go into a herd of swine instead of the people he was kicking them out of.
It's interesting that Christ allowed it... did he have compassion on the devils who would be without bodies? Did the herd of swine suicide, or were they pushed to it by the devils? The thing that I find even more interesting is that the city asked Christ to leave. Does that mean they thought he was crazy or evil, or did they hear the reports and actually understand that he had a power that no other had? ... Also, what happened to the people that the devils had been cast out of? Were they okay? Were they from the nearby city?
The lesson that I get out of this is that when God does something that we don't understand, we should not just ask him to leave. That's like throwing out a treasure because it is too shiny and it is blinding us. Instead, we should approach it a different way. When we don't understand God, it never means that he is wrong. It means that we have a knowledge gap, and we need to learn something. First steps might be to learn to respect God's power, and then ask him to teach us his reasoning. If it keeps bugging us, instead of rejecting it, we should learn more about Christ's life and choices, his other encounters with devils, the premortal existence, the nature of devils, and everything else that we can think of, and then when we've studied it out in our own minds, we should ask God about it, and see if we're close to understanding. If not, God will help us learn over time.
Today, let's go to God with the things that we don't understand and ask him to help us understand. His disciples did this frequently, and that's part of what made them wise. Let's ask questions and learn rather than rejecting things that we can't yet understand.
Business problem chase Christ away 😄
ReplyDeleteIt's good to be poor in Christ☺
True, but apparently they didn't think so. :)
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