In-Depth Studies, Mysteries

Noch Noch…Who’s There: Episode II “Water Into Wine & Demons Into Swine”

Author: Andrew Smith

Water Into Wine & Demons Into Swine

The 15th chapter of Enoch sets the stage for a realm of unseen adversaries that DO NOT have our best interest at heart.  I see many people struggling with forces that they brush off as Hollywood fiction and superstition.  I ask the question sometimes, why are people so reluctant to have serious conversations about avenues of spirituality that may help a person to know?  I wish someone would have told me sooner and much grief on my part could have been avoided. It has been my experience that most people talk about the miracles Christ performed in the level of comfort they deem appropriate.  This often leaves those same people with a spiritual deficiency that leaves them not only unaware of some very fundamental Truths but ill-equipped to recognize and combat certain aspects of moving through this mortal coil. People love to talk about certain miracles performed by Christ but tend to conveniently install blinders to the ones that invoke feelings of unsure insecurities.  Let’s look at one that is commonly referred to.  I even remember this one in Sunday school and coloring the illustration in a coloring book.

 

Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him. (John 2:7-11 NLT)

 

Now let’s look at one that is less prevalent in Christian teaching.   Don’t remember the coloring book with the illustration of the graveyard and the pigs jumping off the cliff.  Some might say that demon scripture would be meat and not digestible by those in their cradle of faith.  To that I say hokum.  I wish someone would have told me in my late adolescence that the voices in my head were real and out to get me but subdued with Christ through prayer and not a figment of my imagination and force Prozac, Depakote, and other various spirit numbing junk down my throat.  But it seems that Scripture like this gets lost in the plethora of ones the people like to hear.

 

When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes, two men who were possessed by demons met him. They lived in a cemetery and were so violent that no one could go through that area. They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?” There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. So the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.” “All right, go!” Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone. (Matthew 8:28-34 NLT)

 

Here are some things I see in this Scripture.  One, demons are real.  Two, they knew who Jesus was.  Three, they knew they were under His authority.  Four, they knew there was an appointed time for their impending judgment that had not yet arrived.  Five, either the demons killed the pigs out of a lust for death or the pigs recognized the demonic infection and chose death rather than possession.  I lean more toward the second explanation because the demons didn’t cause the two men to jump off the cliff and drown.  One can postulate that the pigs, even if out of instinct, knew something was terribly wrong and freaked out.  I believe that Christ knew what the pigs would do and is why He said “All right, go!”  I also see a testament to the spiritual blindness of men and the ignorance of the dangers of demonic influence.  I also find ironic that the towns people asked Jesus to leave them alone after this exorcism, much similar to the way many people of faith approach these very scriptures.  In the spirit of this “Noch Noch” series let us explore this demonic realm, that seems to be so mysterious yet ever present, in The Book of Enoch.  To add some context here the Watchers (Angels) had bred with human women to create the Nephilim, which can be referenced in Genesis 6:4, and had asked Enoch to intercede for them to ask forgiveness for breeding with human women and creating the abominations of the Nephilim of all like and manner because they had lost their rank in Heaven and their fellowship with God.   The following two passages speaks of God’s decree as to the Watchers, their offspring through flesh, and the eternal spirits that remain from their union with human women.

 

And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: ‘Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice. And go, say to the Watchers of heaven, who have sent thee to intercede for them: “You should intercede” for men, and not men for you: Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those also do who die and perish. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling.  And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men and from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; they shall be evil spirits on earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. [As for the spirits of heaven, in heaven shall be their dwelling, but as for the spirits of the earth which were born upon the earth, on the earth shall be their dwelling.] And the spirits of the giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack, do battle, and work destruction on the earth, and cause trouble: they take no food, but nevertheless hunger and thirst, and cause offences. And these spirits shall rise up against the children of men and against the women, because they have proceeded from them. (Enoch 15:1-12)

 

And Uriel said to me: ‘Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, (here shall they stand,) till the day of the great judgment in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. And the women also of the angels who went astray shall become sirens.’ And I, Enoch, alone saw the vision, the ends of all things: and no man shall see as I have seen.(Enoch 19:1-3)

 

The reality is that although Hollywood embellishes the demonic and the spiritual realms into a world of fantasy and imagination they are none the less real.  Although they are more abstract and unseen by our physical eyes the eternal danger of ignoring or being ignorant of this realm of influence in our lives is very real.  The good news here is that all the demons in hell are but demons on a leash under the command of the One appointed as Savoir of the believers.  A simple earnest rebuke in the name of Jesus Christ will bring these evil spirits into a submission of measure according to our individual needs.  These spirits are not to be feared in a walk with Christ but ruled and placed.  Belief in these realms and the entities that reside there is not a prerequisite to the existence of them and nonbelief leaves us completely vulnerable and naked on the battlefield of this spiritual war.  A question to those that do not believe in such a realm where the evil spirits bound to earth afflict us and cause trouble, sickness, and disease,  I ask if Jesus is a liar.  From my perspective water is real, wine is real, demons are real, and swine are real.  How do we know this?  Easy, because Christ speaks Truth and deals with things that are real and he turned water into wine and sent demons into swine.

 

May the grace of Christ, and the love of Creator, and the fellowship of Holy Spirit be with you all.

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