Mensa Otabil - A Self-Destructive Man
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Mark chapter 5, and we take it from verse 3 to 5, who had his dwelling among the tombs. No one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces. Neither could anyone tame him.
Always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. The presence of the unclean spirit in this man drove him to very bizarre behavior. Now, if you saw him behaving this way, you would ask yourself why a human being would act that way. Well, remember there’s something inside the man driving him and making him behave as he does.
There are three things I want to highlight about his behavior. The first is that he was ungovernable; he was uncontrollable, unrestrained, untamed—wild. We would call him mad by some definition, violent, and he possessed superhuman strength. The passage says that all human efforts to help him had failed. People had tried to control him by chaining him. They had tried to bring him under a specific regimen or system so that his life could be regulated, but nothing could regulate him.
The interesting observation here is that this man, who could break chains tied to him, could not break free from what was inside of him. He had superhuman strength to exhibit strength externally, but internally he was helpless and could not be helped because what was inside of him could not be bound by chains. So the first thing you notice is that he is ungovernable.
The second thing you notice about this man is that he disturbed everybody. The passage says he cried night and day. He was out there in the tombs making a lot of noise. Many times, people who are under some form of control behave in a way that disturbs everybody. People grow fed up with them; they grow tired of them because they’re making noise. Their bizarre behavior is just getting on everybody’s nerves, and people wonder, «Can’t you think for yourself?» Well, this man couldn’t think for himself because the storm is inside of him, not outside of him. He can break the chains outside of him but cannot tame the storm inside of him.
The third thing you notice about this man is that he destroyed himself; he was self-destructive. The passage says he would cut himself with stones. I suppose he was bleeding all over. His behavior doesn’t just scare people; it doesn’t just disturb people, but the behavior is destroying him. He is cutting himself; he is wounding himself. The reason is that something inside him is driving his life in a very uncontrollable way, and probably he wants help, but he can’t get it because there is something inside of him.
When evil spirits control people, that’s what happens-they become self-destructive. They give them self-destructive tools. For this man, it was a stone. For some people, it’s a bottle of alcohol. For others, it’s pornography they watch. For still others, it’s gambling. Whatever it is, it’s a tool that becomes self-destructive, starting to ruin their lives, but they just can’t do anything about it. The good news is God can do something about it. So even if you cannot help yourself, God can help you. He is the deliverer, and that’s why Jesus came from a storm in the sea right to this spot because this man was on His agenda. I believe you or someone near you is on God’s agenda.
Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, have mercy on those whom their enemy has bound. Bring deliverance to their tortured souls. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.