February 17: Mark 5:1-13: Jesus Casts Out More Demons

The purpose of a demons possession of a human being is ultimately to destroy something that God has created, specifically to destroy something that bears the image of God. Remember demons were cast from heaven when they follow Satan, who thought he could be better than God, instead of listening to God. Demons purpose is to destroy the work of God, and to battle God and his angels, thankfully in the end they have no chance of victory. The man's demonic possession cause three results: 1. He was superhumanly strong, 2. He was isolated from other people and 3. He was causing self harm. Man was not created by God to live in isolation, so that is one way in which the demon was harming the man, who bore the image of God. But notice, that this demon has absolutely no power in the presence of Jesus. His name indicates that there were many demons, a legion was large division of soldiers in the Roman military. Interestingly enough the man who is possessed by a demon has no choice but to kneel before Jesus, and the demons are cast out of him by the power of Jesus. We have no reason to fear demons, for the we are indwelt by God, who has more power than demons could ever dream of having.