(10) And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. (11) Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. (12) And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. (13) And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand), and were choked in the sea. (14) 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.
Much hath been said by infidels, on those verses, by way of cavil but it hath only terminated to their own confusion and the LORD's glory. Many very blessed truths are taught the Church by it, and these if they were all, are sufficient to account for the LORD's per mission of the devils entering into the herd of swine. As first what a blessed evidence it afforded of CHRIST's GODHEAD. He who had power to dispossess devils from one part of his creation, had power no less to permit the possession of devils in another. Reader! think of this, and turn to those scriptures. Jeremiah 5:22; Luke 12:4-5. Moreover, hereby the LORD confirmed the holiness of his law. The swine was unclean by the law; and by this permission, JESUS gave testimony to it. Leviticus 11:7. No method, according to our view of things, could be more decisive to teach this, and enforce it also. And as the Jews were very lax in their obedience to the law, in our LORD's days, in the keeping those animals for others, if they partook not of their flesh themselves; by this act of JESUS the law was strikingly revived, to shew uncleanness; and perhaps yet more with an eye to himself, who came to fulfil the law, and do away the whole shadow of it by the substance, in the sacrifice of himself.
In relation to the devils being permitted to possess the swine, this was not to gratify them; but to answer CHRIST's purpose, Satan obtained leave to tempt Job. But we know the sequel. The trial ended to Job's joy, the LORD's glory, and Satan's confusion. See Job 1:8-12. And who shall say, what blessed consequences followed, in the after circumstances of the Church, from this transaction both on Jew and Gentile, when CHRIST had finished redemption-work and was returned to glory; and GOD the HOLY GHOST came down? Reader! let you and I, learn not to be wise above what is written, but in all questionable cases; I mean, such as you and I cannot fully explain, or such as sceptics make so; let us resolve all into that soul-satisfying scripture, which forms at once both question and answer: Shall not the judge of ail the earth do right? Genesis 18:25.