Legion of Demons
"Then Jesus asked, 'What is your name?' And the spirit replied, 'Legion, because there are many of us here inside this man.' Then the spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place. There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. 'Send us into those pigs,' the evil spirits begged. Jesus gave them permission. So the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of two thousand pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake, where they drowned" - Mark 5:9-13 (NLT).
Where did demons come from? The Scripture teaches us that Satan and his evil hoard were once angels, but were cast from heaven because they rebelled against God (See Revelation 12:7). However, there seems to be a hierarchy among demons, as if some are greater than others. Even in this story above, the man was possessed by many demons, yet, at first, only one answered Jesus when the latter asked the demon's name. This would seem to show that one had predominance over the others.
This truth is born out when we read Ephesians 6 and find that Paul seems to list different classes of demons in such a way to suggest a hierarchy of command (See Ephesians 6:12). In Daniel, there was a demon called the "Prince of Persia" who fought an angel (Gabriel?) sent from God to Daniel for twenty-one days. Finally, Michael, the Archangel, had to come and help fight this powerful demon so the original angel could carry out God's mission (See Daniel 10:10-14).
From this passage in Daniel, and others, we conclude that demons indeed have a hierarchy of authority (the one in Daniel was a "Prince"), and even territories over which they are assigned. But there is more.
The early Christians (the first three generations after Christ) believed that many demons were the result of the illicit sexual union of fallen angels and women recorded in Genesis 6:4. This immoral union produced the Giants of old, and many also say demons.
Justin Martyr writes, "The angels transgressed this appointment and were captivated by love of women. And they begat children, who are those who are called demons" (Approx. 160 AD). The early Christians believed that these demons, sired by fallen angels, comprised the lesser demons in Satan's hierarchy of evil.
But how do they operate? Well, to begin with, they masquerade as angels of light and ministers of God (See 2 Corinthians 11:14-15). But they are also the false gods that many worship under other names. The Greeks gave names to the "gods" not realizing that their Greek Gods (e.g., Zeus, Hermes, etc.) were actually demons. The same would be true of all other gods worshipped by the world besides the God of the Bible and his Son Jesus Christ. They give them many names, yet they are not gods, but demons. They worship demons - - usually without knowing it.
Paul confirmed this in 1 Corinthians when he told the Christians at Corinth that those who sacrificed to idols were actually sacrificing to demons going by the name of the idol they represented. "These sacrifices are to demons, not to God" Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 10:20). And John spoke of the worship of demons in Revelation 9:20, and said that the people wouldn't stop worshipping them.
This, I believe, is why so many people in Jesus' day were possessed with demons. It is not that they knowingly worshipped demons, rather it was that they worshipped idols and false gods perhaps not realizing that they were worshipping demons. Consequently, they became possessed by inviting the work of demons into their lives.
Whenever we worship or serve anyone or anything other than God, we invite demons into our lives.
The demon in our story was named "Legion." This was a Roman military word. It designated a group of 3-6 thousand foot soldiers. This would mean that the man confronting Jesus had at least three thousand demons living in him! We know he had at least two thousand by the fact that they entered a herd of two thousand pigs and drove them madly into water to drown. So this man had thousands of demons in him - - an unimaginable number! Perhaps he was a REALLY devoted worshipper of Artemis (a great demon in disguise)!
Yet, even thousands of demons were no match for Jesus! He ruled them all, and they groveled at his feet. They had to ask permission to enter the pigs. This clearly shows Jesus' absolute authority over demons, and the fact that the demons themselves recognize his authority. They begged him not to send them to some distant place. Why?
Because they had spent a long time, apparently, building an evil empire in Gerasa, and demons do not willingly relinquish territory to anyone -- not even Jesus. So they begged to enter a herd of pigs.
We might ask why? Why would they want to enter pigs when they knew the pigs would be driven mad and drown themselves in minutes?
The answer is that demons have one mission in life: to destroy. They do not care who or what they destroy, or what they have to do in order to vanquish. They will lie, cheat, steal, entice, seduce, deceive, masquerade, and attack in order to destroy us and drive us from God.
We must ever be wary of inviting their work in our lives through any means.
But we leave with this thought. Demons, even in the thousands, are powerless against one man or woman of God who has Christ within them. They know Christ when they see him in you. While this will not deter them from trying to work against you, if you stand firm in Jesus' name, they must flee (See James 4:7).
Praise be to our Master who rules even the powers of darkness!