‘And crying out with a loud voice, he says, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God. I adjure you by God do not torment me”, for he was saying to him, “come forth, you unclean spirit out of the man”.'
The order of the words illustrates Mark's emphasis. This man had almost certainly never had any contact with Jesus, and there was no way by which he could know Him, and yet he recognised Him for what He was. This was not just a deeply disturbed, mentally ill man. There was that within him which recognised, and acknowledged with fear, ‘Jesus, the Son of the Most High God'. The words, however, were forced out of him by Jesus' constant demand (imperfect) saying repeatedly, ‘come forth you unclean spirit'.
Note the attempt to bind Jesus by an oath while at the same time recognising His complete mastery. They are using desperate measures, for they recognise that His holiness is contrary to all that they are. The tormenting seemingly consists in His demand that they leave the man. They are only too well aware of what the consequences for them might be if they are left with no body to possess. They may be ‘tormented before the time' (Matthew 8:29). They were therefore desperate to retain control of some kind of physical body.
There was no immediate release, for Jesus had yet to learn how greatly the man was possessed. His initial seeming ‘failure' arose from the fact that He was not yet aware of how many spirits possessed the man (some were no doubt deliberately keeping quiet and trying to evade recognition) and was therefore not addressing the whole group of evil spirits. They were thus able to evade His words for a while, not being themselves addressed, and the result was that there had to be a continuing exorcising. (Similar situations, although not quite as serious, have been testified to by genuine exorcisers in these present days).
The title ‘the Most High God' appears to be a Gentile designation for the God of the Jews. Compare Daniel 3:26; Daniel 4:2. It was also used in Jewish-Hellenistic syncretistic religion. This tends to confirm that the man was a Gentile. We can contrast here Mark 1:24 where a similar admission was made of Jesus, but as ‘the Holy One of God' (a typically Jewish description), and a similar fear of a destructive end was expressed, although there described as ‘are you come to destroy us'. But there the unclean spirit left at once, for it appears that there was only one.
Matthew 8:29 might appear at first sight to expand ‘do not torment me' to ‘have you come here to torment us before the time?' while Luke 8:28 is similar to Mark, although later adding their plea not to be sent into the abyss (Mark 5:31). But this is probably because Matthew is actually recording a further statement made in a more protracted interview, an interview which Mark mentions (Mark 5:10), while Mark has briefly summarised, for we should note that what Matthew records is spoken in the plural. Until they were forced to reveal themselves the man spoke in the singular, but once they were exposed they argued in the plural. This attempt to conceal that they were there is typical of multiple exorcisms, as is the indulging in declaration and argument. When the godly minister and experienced exorciser who exorcised the twentieth century witch Doreen Irvine pleaded the power of the cross against the spirits possessing her, a terrible voice cried out, “Do not speak to me about Calvary. I was there!” And another claimed to have known Mary Magdalene. But in the end they had to yield to the power of the Name of Jesus Christ. (I heard this on a tape from his own lips, and he was no fanatic). However, her release from multiple evil spirits took some time, for some kept themselves hidden and were not immediately apparent.
But the idea of the comment is the same. They were aware of the torment and anguish that awaited them if they left this human body in which they had felt so safely ensconced, and they wanted to avoid it for as long as possible. They knew that their final judgment was approaching and were afraid of the Abyss, the abode of departed spirits, where one ‘section' comprised their prison.
Jesus descent into the Abyss is mentioned in Romans 10:7, but there it simply refers to the world of the departed, while in Revelation the Abyss is that part of the world of the departed which is the prison of evil spirits (compare 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6). ‘Abyss' is also related to Sumerian apsu, the sea. This is confirmed by the fact that the Septuagint (LXX) translated ‘the deep' (tehom) of Genesis 1:2; Genesis 7:11; Genesis 8:2 as the ‘Abyss', paralleling the two (compare also Job 38:16; Psalms 33:7; Psalms 42:7; Psalms 77:16; Isaiah 51:10; Ezekiel 26:19; Jonah 2:5). Ironically therefore it may be that we are to see that the final end of these particular evil spirits was the Abyss after all, for they were later swallowed up by the sea.
‘He was saying.' The response of the unclean spirit was not immediate and He was therefore repeating His demand.