I don’t know if anyone here has felt they were being dangled over the pits of hell, but I feel that over the past year or so, God has had me there numerous times. It is not something I wish to or may ever be able to talk about.
Yesterday, I was reading about how Jesus restored the demon-possessed man in Luke 8.26-38. When I read the passage, I felt that God was allowing me to look at this from a very different and unique perspective. This man was being possessed by a legion of demons. Just imagine if you were one of these demons, who for millennia have been living with the idea that their past mistakes have condemned them to an eternity in hell. Every day having little more than to hope for just a little bit longer.
When I look at the way the demons spoke to Jesus, I see an air of respect and terror. “What do you want from me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” It is as if they were falling down at his feet. They weren’t just begging for mercy, but also honoring him as best they knew how.
When the man came out, he was wearing no clothes. He was stripped bare and living in a tomb. He had nothing and felt he was nothing.
When Jesus asked them “What is your name?” I get the sense that he saw the heart behind the flesh. That he saw the pain and torment, not only in the man, but also in those possessing the man.
When they pleaded with Jesus to not send them into the abyss, he was showing them mercy, by allowing them to go into the pigs.
The thing that God keeps laying on my heart is that he has a plan for all of his children. This plan isn’t what we tend to grasp onto as we look at the picture being displayed in the book of Revelation, but instead one where each and every one of his children will be returned to his loving embrace.
