Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Luke 23-24
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 5:7-9
Jesus: Come out of that man, you wicked spirit!
Unclean Spirit (shouting): What’s this all about, Jesus, Son of the Most High? In the name of God, I beg You—don’t torture me!
Jesus: What is your name?
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
As with several of the parallel incidents in the gospels, the writers give us just a little different account of the happenings around a particular event. It’s not unlike any eye-witness account you might hear in a court of law if you sit as a juror in a trial. If every witness told the same story about an event in exactly the same way with exactly the same words, the opposing attorney would scream that the witnesses had been rehearsed. No one sees an event exactly the same way another person sees it.
Because of our individual backgrounds, we always see events through our lens. We subconsciously pick out the things that are most important to us. Consequently, we each see every event just a little different than the person sitting right next to us who observes the same event. So we should not be surprised that the gospels shed a little different light on each of these encounters.
Back to the story and two things I’d like us to see from Mark’s observation of Jesus’ command to the man possessed by many demons.
Jesus commands the demon to come out of the man. And the demon replies, “…In the name of God, I beg you…” Did you notice that? The demons serve Satan. They devote their lives to the powers of darkness. That give their all to the enemy of God. They do everything they can to thwart the plans God has for His kingdom and our salvation. They want to capture our soul and turn us to wickedness and away from God and His holiness. These demons want to lead us on the world’s path toward eternal destruction and join them in Satan’s hell.
Yet, when Jesus confronts these demons with the command to leave this tortured man, the demons cry out, “In the name of God…” They know where the real power lies. They understand their boss, Satan has no real authority. He has no real power. He cannot defeat the creator of the universe. His strength cannot match that of the Almighty’s. He knows it and he is very afraid when Jesus comes near.
The demon expects great pain, severe punishment because of who he is and what he’s done when Jesus comes near. The demon is now in the presence of God and expects judgment when he encounters His Son in the flesh. He assumes his eternal punishment will begin right then since Jesus has come from heaven and touched His feet to this planet. The demon assumes time has ended for him. “I beg you – don’t torture me.”
The demon’s response when Jesus came near tells me that when Jesus lives in us, we do not need to fear the evil of this world. Evil cowers in the presence of Christ. If we live by the Spirit as Paul describes it, and let God’s spirit consume us, teach us how to live, and guide our steps each day, we do not need to fear what Satan may put in our path. He will flee in the presence of God. He can not stand in the power and presence of God.
The second thing about this encounter is what we learn about the importance of names. The demon called out God’s name when it saw Jesus. The demon understood that even the mention of His name meant power over him. Then Jesus asked the demon its name. That probably seems strange to us. Why would Jesus ask the demon its name? What’s so important about knowing the demon’s name?
Throughout the Old and New Testaments and on through much of history until just a few years ago in our country, names were important. They meant something. People chose a child’s name carefully because subconsciously a child grew into the meaning of their name as they came to understand what it meant. Think of some of those characters of the Old Testament and see how they lived up to their names: Abraham – father of many; Jacob – deceiver; David – beloved; Elijah – my God is YAHWEH; Job – persecuted. Names are important.
I sorrowed when my school teacher daughter told me about the names of the children in her first class as a teacher – Chaos, Clinique, Shithead, Abcde. Names with horrible or no meaning strapped to children whose parents helped them live up to those standards because they held them to no standards as six and seven year old kids. It makes me wonder sometimes what parents are thinking when they label their children or what God thinks when He pens their name in the books that He will open on judgment day. How much do we live up to the name we are given by our parents?
Legion bowed at the name of Jesus. We will too. If Jesus lives in you, we should live up to His name. It meant something then and it means just as much in the evil times in which we live.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.