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OPEN SEPULCHRES: ADDICTED BY EVIL MEMORIES OF UNFORGIVEN SINS

11-06-11

(Mark 5:1,2)  And they [Jesus and His disciples] came over [eastward] unto the other side of the sea [of Galilee], into the country of the Gadarenes [i.e., the wilderness as contrasted to The Promised Land]. And when he was come out of the ship [the gospel ship], immediately there met him out of the tombs [an unclean place: Lev 11:32] a man with an unclean spirit,

1.      tombs = Gk: a remembrance, i.e. cenotaph (place of interment):--grave, sepulchre, tomb /// memory: remembrance /// to remind, i.e. (mid.) to recall to mind:--be mindful, remember.

2.      unclean = Gk: impure (mor. [lewd] or spec. [demonic]):--foul, unclean.

3.      Commentary: “an unclean spirit” = a mingled impure spirit, as in the fruit of Lucifer/Satan’s (good/evil) tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:9,17). Unclean spirits are fallen angels, which, since their fall, are now also identified as demons or devils (indicating a change of character). These spirits are evil thoughts, the messengers/messages from/of Satan. Fallen angels used to be messengers/messages from/of God. By definition, evil thoughts are entirely and utterly destructive.

a.      evil = Heb: bad or evil (nat. or mor.):--adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), mischief, (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, + not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong.

b.      evil = Gk: hurtful, i.e. evil (prop. in effect or influence); fig. calamitous; also ill, i.e. diseased; but espec. (mor.) culpable, i.e. derelict, vicious; mischief, malice, or guilt; the devil, or sinners:--bad, evil, grievous, harm, lewd, malicious, wicked (-ness).

c.      (John 10:9,10)  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief [Satan] cometh not, but for to steal [your soul], and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

4.      (Mat 8:28)  And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two [“a man” and “an unclean spirit” Mark 5:2] possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

a.      fierce = Gk: through the idea of reducing the [man’s] strength; difficult, i.e. dangerous, or (by impl.) furious:--fierce, perilous. [X “exceeding”]

5.      (Luke 8:26,27) And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against [Gk: antiperan, antiperan: on the opposite side] Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils [demons, fallen angels, unclean spirits] long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs [i.e., a wild man].

a.      Commentary: “over against” = is antiperan antiperan in the Greek. Within Greek writing conventions, the same word repeated twice indicates emphasis, and herein symbolizes the contrasting relationship between The Promised Land (good) and the wilderness (evil).

b.      Commentary: “in the tombs” = generally we do not remember “thoughts” but we do remember “deeds,” which are the manifestations of those thoughts. This man was repeatedly being strongly supernaturally bound (syn: compelled) by the evil addictive controlling thoughts within him (unclean spirits, fallen angels, demons, devils – accusers all) to revisit and thus relive the memories of his past evil deeds, i.e., his sins against God that were buried but not covered (open sepulchres, not forgiven) in the graveyard of his mind.

(Mark 5:3-6)  Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him [physically, but supernatural fallen angels could bind him spiritually], no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters [Gk: a shackle for the feet] and chains [Gk: a manacle (Dict: a shackle for the hands)], and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day [verbal emphasis upon “always”], he was in the mountains [often used in the negative as a biblical symbol of pride], and in the tombs, crying [exceedingly unhappy, miserable, and depressed], and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw [Gk: perceived, understood] Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

1.      bind = Dictionary: 1. to make fast with a band or bond. 2. to fasten around; fix in place by girding.

2.      tame = Dictionary: 1. changed from the wild or savage state; domesticated. 2. gentle, fearless, or without shyness, as if domesticated, as an animal [i.e., dog, cat]. 3. tractable, docile or submissive, as a person, the disposition, etc.

3.      Commentary: “and cutting himself with stones” = The Ten Commandments of the Law were written in stone on two tablets, in that sense indicating their hard unyielding unforgiving character. Offenders of the Old Testament Law were often stoned, i.e., symbolically punished by the Law. This man was born under the Law, and had a convicting knowledge of the Law, else he would not have ‘recognized’ Jesus from afar, and then “ran and worshipped him.”

a.      worship = Gk: (mean. to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (lit. or fig.) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):--worship.

(Mark 5:7,8)  And cried with a loud voice [“He shouted at the top of his voice” NIV], and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee [“I implore you” NKJV] by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit [precipitating this man’s eternal forgiveness and salvation].

1.      (Mat 8:29)  And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

2.      (Luke 8:28,29)  When he saw [Gk: understood] Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice [“they”] said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes [rather than “always” indicating the limitation of frequent but irregular intermittent demonic control] it had caught him [Gk: seized him]: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters [in “the city”(Luke 8:27) by his well-meaning relatives and countrymen]; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil [control, possession] into the wilderness.)

a.      wilderness = Gk: lonesome, i.e. (by impl.) waste: desert, desolate, solitary, wilderness.

(Mark 5:9,10)  And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion [a Roman legion consisted of 6,000 men]: for we are many. And he [Legion] besought [pleaded with] him much that he would not send them away out of the country [Gk: coast, county, fields, grounds, land, region].

1.      (Luke 8:30,31)  And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them [illustrating for us His complete authority over the devils] to go out into the deep [Gk: depthless, i.e. (spec.) (infernal) "abyss":--deep, (bottomless) pit].

2.      (Mark 4:19)  And the cares of this world [evil thoughts, demons], and the deceitfulness of riches [evil thoughts, devils], and the lusts of other things [evil thoughts, fallen angels] entering in, choke [Gk: to strangle completely, i.e. to drown] the word, and it becometh unfruitful [Gk: barren, without fruit].

(Mark 5:11-13)  Now there was there nigh unto the mountains [a frequent biblical symbol of ‘pride’] a great herd of swine feeding [pigs, unclean animals: Lev 11:7]. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave [Gk: allowed, permitted]. And the unclean spirits went out [from the, at that moment, clean saved man], and entered into the [unclean] swine: and the herd ran violently [Gk: to start, spur or urge on] down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) [possibly a judgmental prophetic allusion to years, from then until now] and were choked in the sea.

1.      Commentary: “ran violently” = the herd of unclean swine ran violently because they were greatly spurred (sharp goads worn on the feet of the rider) and urged on by fallen angels [evil thoughts] who seek only destruction and death for all living creatures. The pigs, not being created in the image of God, therefore not having even a vestige of His Essence, were much easier to control and kill than the man. However, demonic possession (addictions) can never be complete in humans, for God has provided with the temptation or testing “a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13).

(Mark 5:14-17)  And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind [“tame”]: and they were afraid [all demonically possessed to lesser degrees]. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray [Gk: implore] him to depart out of their coasts.

1.     Conclusion: According to the Bible, the only solution to addiction is salvation, and thereafter, “bringing into captivity every thought [fallen angel] to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).