Mensa Otabil - A Dangerous Behaviour
- Watch
- Donate
Mark chapter 5, and we take it from verse 3 to 5. Who had his dwelling among the tombs that 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. And 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 some very bizarre behavior.
Now, if you saw him behaving this way, you would ask yourself why a human being should behave in that way. Well, remember there’s something inside the man driving him and making him behave the way he did. The three things I want to highlight about his behavior are these: 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.
So, the passage says that all human efforts to help him had failed. People had tried to control him by chaining him; people were trying to bring him under some kind of regiment or system so that his life could be regulated, but nothing could regulate him. He couldn’t be regulated, and the interesting observation here is this: the man who could break chains that were tied to him couldn’t break free from what was inside of him. He had superhuman strength to exhibit strength externally, but internally he was helpless and couldn’t be helped because what was inside of him couldn’t be bound by chains. So the first thing you notice is he is ungovernable.
The second thing you’ll notice about this man is that he disturbed everybody. The passage says that he cried night and day. He was out there in the tombs making a lot of noise, and you know many times people who are under some form of control behave in a way that disturbs everybody, and people get fed up with them. People get tired of them because they’re making noise; they’re disturbing you. 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 that he would cut himself with stones. I suppose he would be bleeding all over. His behavior doesn’t just scare people; it doesn’t just disturb people, but the behavior is destroying himself. He is cutting himself; he is wounding himself, and the reason is that something on the inside is just driving his life in a very, very uncontrollable way. He probably 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 some pornography that they are watching; for some, it’s gambling — whatever it is, it’s a tool that becomes self-destructive and starts ruining their lives, but they just can’t do anything about it.
The good news is God can do something about it. 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 somebody near you is on God’s agenda.
Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, have mercy on those whom the enemy has bound. Bring deliverance to their tortured souls. In Jesus' name, amen.