Make A Big Splash

Make a big splash

Luke 4:31 – 37

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 4:31 And He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and He was teaching them on the Sabbath; 32 and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority. 33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. 36 And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.” 37 And the report about Him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

We reach this point in chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel we hear about the first struggle with the demon. The watchers described in Genesis chapter 6, who were condemned into the foundations of the earth, are believed by people in Jesus’ day to be the source of the demons and unclean spirits mentioned in the Gospels. Let me give you a brief history of these demons because you will not hear much about them in your normal reading. Now why would that be?

You have to read a book called 1 Enoch to get the full story of the demons. Chapter 1 through 36 of that book is called the Book of the Watchers. You can find a summary about the watchers in Genesis chapter 6. Basically, what happened were 200 angels came before the Lord and said that they wanted to go visit the earth and experience what the humans were experiencing. God said to the 200 angels that if they went to the earth that they would surely sin against God and would have to be punished for it. The 200 angels decided they could handle it, so they went to the earth.

These 200 angels took human form and married mortal women. The offspring from this union were the Giants called the Nephilim. People believe that Goliath, who fought David, was a descendant of these individuals. Unfortunately, the Nephilim and their offspring caused a lot of trouble on the earth. One thing that happened was they killed humans and drank their blood. This infuriated the Lord because one of the most important laws that you’ll find in the book of Leviticus is that you’re not allowed to drink blood. People believed that the soul of the person or the animal lived in the blood. For ancient people, this made sense because when a person bled out, they died therefore, their spirit or soul left the body.

The watchers, the 200 angels, tried to give the humans tools in order to fight the Nephilim. It is believed this is where the knowledge of metallurgy came to be. Of course, God knew that if the humans were to receive the concepts of metallurgy that they would eventually turn against each other and kill each other. God intervened and destroyed the Nephilim and also held the 200 angels accountable for what happened.

The punishment for the angels was that they were sent into the foundations of the earth. Ancient people believed that pillars, the foundations of the earth, held the earth up. It was believed in Jesus' day that the unclean spirits and demons were these 200 watchers trying to affect humanity. From time to time, they would leave the foundations of the earth and infect people. That’s what is happening in this story and every narrative that talks about people being possessed by demons or unclean spirits.

One of Jesus' tasks was to rid the earth of these 200 fallen angels. If you believe Satan is a fallen angel from heaven then you are referring to the Book of the Watchers. The leader of the 200 angels received a sentence to hell and transformed into Satan. That is what the Book of the Watchers talks about. I would love to give you more details of the Book of the Watchers, but that’s not what we're concentrating on today.

So, we know what happened in the narratives when Jesus exorcised these unclean spirits, or demons if you wish to call them that, from a man in the synagogue. What I’d like to talk about is that because of this miracle that Jesus did, his fame spread. It was through his signs, miracles, and wonders that people got to know about Jesus and sought him out.