Untitled Sermon (3)

The answer has not been revealed. It is, however, worthy of special attention that the demons are fully aware of the fact that without Christ’s permission they will not be able to enter the pigs.

William Hendriksen; Simon J. Kistemaker

Jesus allowed the demons to enter the swine to indicate beyond question that their real purpose was the total destruction of their host.

William L. Lane

What must be seen above all else is that the fate of the swine demonstrates the ultimate intention of the demons with respect to the man they had possessed. It is their purpose to destroy the creation of God, and halted in their destruction of a man, they fulfilled their purpose with the swine.

William L. Lane

But in the light of vv. 33–34, the loss of the herd became a way of exposing the real values of the people in the vicinity. They preferred pigs to persons, swine to the Savior.

D. A. Carson

Despair is Satan’s masterpiece; it carries men headlong to hell as the devils did the herd of swine into the deep.

Thomas Brooks

They felt they could not keep both the Saviour and their swine, and of the two they preferred their swine!

H. D. M. Spence

And now the devils had what they aimed at in drowning the swine; they did it, and then made the people believe that Christ had done it, and so prejudiced them against him.

Matthew Henry

When the demons recognize that Jesus will cast them out (“if you drive us out” is a first-class condition almost equivalent to when you drive us out) but will delay their total destruction, they request a new home. Swine, like tombs, defiled Jews but afforded appropriate refuge for evil spirits.

Craig Blomberg

They could not enter even into the swine without Christ’s permission; how much less into “the sheep of his pasture”!

H. D. M. Spence