If ever there was a case which we might have thought would have repelled Infinite Goodness and Infinite Purity, it is that described in Luke 8. No leper-house more loathsome or polluted than this! Joined to his filthy idols–the trail of the serpent in every chamber of imagery–Christ might well have said, “Let him alone!”
But who can limit the Holy One of Israel? He would leave behind in that wild region, even if He never visited it again, one enduring memorial of His grace and power. He would tell people in every age that if Satan is mighty, there is a mightier still; that over this Legion dominion “all power” is committed to the “Stronger than the strong man.” He has only to utter the word, and the demons surrender their prey, crouching submissive at His feet!
Moreover, declaring a still further exhibition of the Saviour’s power in the sequel of the narrative, observe the demons would not and dared not enter into the herd of swine until they had received His permissive word, “Go.” Blessed assurance! Satan’s power is bounded! Satan’s Lord says as then, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed!”
Both from the case of this Gadarene demoniac and the one in the synagogue of Capernaum, we learn that, great as was the sway of Satan over the bodies and souls of men, it was not such as to prevent them taking themselves to Jesus, and seeing His mercy. We may take comfort in the assurance that no power of Satan can deter us fleeing to the “Power of God.” If our faith and hope is built on that Rock, “the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”
Further, we have the assurance that there is a period of triumph at hand–a time coming when Satan’s kingdom shall be destroyed, when Jesus shall put him and all other enemies “under His feet.”
That Satanic Empire got its greatest and final blow on the cross of Calvary. “Now,” said Jesus, when that cross was projecting its shadow on His path, “Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out!” And it was so. As He bowed His head and cried, “It is finished,” he dragged the pillars of the Usurper’s Empire to the dust. And if “we see not yet all things put under Him,” we know on infallible authority that victory does await the Prince of life. The chain is already forged which is to bind the destroyer. Ever since the day when his serried legions were routed at Calvary, the loyal subjects of his Divine Conqueror have been following up the triumph of their Lord, gathering spoils and trophies from the nations so long enthralled. The Great Captain of Salvation “from henceforth [is] expecting, until His enemies be made His footstool.”
You who are feeling at times downcast by reason of “the depths of Satan,” mourning over his power alike in your own hearts, in the church of God, and in the world; remember his doom is sealed! Jesus can say of each one of His people as of Gad of old, “A troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last.” We can anticipate with confidence the predicted period when the tyranny of six thousand years shall end–Satan and all his discomfited legions be strewn, like the hosts of Egypt, on the shores of Time–and, in the words of God to His people, “The enemies ye have seen today, ye shall see no more forever.”