I always wondered why when Jesus met the demon possessed man at the tombs, cast the demon into the pigs, that the town “came out to meet Him” and asked him to LEAVE.
The pig herders lost their entire herd.
Pig/pork was a forbidden food for Jews, so these were gentiles.
The demons knew their time and asked if it arrived early.
The town did not celebrate, they told the Son of God to leave.
But in the end: As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
What does that have to do with today’s Demonic Darkness? There is a significance in that the demon’s seemed to know their ‘time.’ Yet, Christians are told only God knows the final hour or when Jesus will be sent to gather us up.
I have pondered greatly over the countdown clock regarding how many years humans have left. They know their time grows short. Do we as Christians realize this? Are we as Christians looking up and preparing? Are we like the demon possessed man and telling the pagan world all that Jesus has done for us?
Or is the world like town and in fear telling us to leave, rejecting the Salvation of God’s promise?
Sometimes I think we miss the point of this event in the Bible. The Decapolis was not part of Israel at the time of Jesus. The people of the Decapolis region were pagans.
Just a thought, but knowing that your "time isn't up" isn't the same thing as knowing the exact time it will be up.
What the demons said might be translated as "we know that one day our freedom will be taken away, but we also know that day isn't 'today'."
Side note: Looks like "time was up" for these particular demons...as least as it pertained to their possession of this particular man.