Matthew 17 : 14 - 20 The Casting Out of a Devil.

After the transfiguration Jesus delivers an Epileptic from a demon.

Mat 17:14  When they had returned to the people, there came to Him a man who fell on his knees before Him and besought Him.

Mat 17:15  "Sir," he said, "have pity on my son, for he is an epileptic and is very ill. Often he falls into the fire and often into the water.

Mat 17:16  I have brought him to your disciples, and they have not been able to cure him."

Mat 17:17  "O unbelieving and perverse generation!" replied Jesus; "how long shall I be with you? how long shall I endure you? Bring him to me."

Mat 17:18  Then Jesus reprimanded the demon, and it came out and left him; and the boy was cured from that moment.

Mat 17:19  Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked Him, "Why could not we expel the demon?"

Mat 17:20  "Because your faith is so small," He replied; "for I solemnly declare to you that if you have faith like a mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Remove from this place to that,' and it will remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.

Introduction

After descending the Mountain of Transfiguration, Jesus and Peter, James and John were confronted by this demonized Epileptic. The other disciples had been unable to help the lad. This quickly brought them “back to earth” after what had happened on the Mountain. He reasserted His authority over demons and gave some significant teaching on the importance of faith.

Mat 17:14  When they had returned to the people, there came to Him a man who fell on his knees before Him and besought Him.

Mat 17:15  "Sir," he said, "have pity on my son, for he is an epileptic and is very ill. Often he falls into the fire and often into the water.

Notes.

When they were come to the multitude - It appears that a congregation had been collected during our Lord’s stay on the mount: how great must have been the desire of these people to hear the words of Christ! The assembly is self-collected, and no delay on the preacher’s side discourages them - they continue to wait for him. In the present day how rare is this zeal! How few by the most pathetic invitation can be brought together, even at the most convenient times, to hear the same doctrines, and to get their souls healed by the same wonder-working Christ!

Kneeling down to him - Or falling at his knees, γονυπετων. The ancients consecrated the Ear to memory; the Forehead to genius; the Right Hand to faith; and the Knees to mercy: hence those who entreated favour fell at and touched the knees of the person whose kindness they supplicated. A.Clark

"Sir," he said, "have pity on my son, for he is an epileptic and is very ill.

Notes

He asked Jesus to take pity on His son. He says the son is a Lunatic. Carr calls this  an epileptic lunatic. Mark and Luke speak of the boy being possessed of a ‘spirit’. They also say thta he has convulsions epileptic seizures while Matthew says he was ‘suffering grievously.’

Mat 17:16  I have brought him to your disciples, and they have not been able to cure him."

Notes

The man explained that that he had brought his son to ‘your disciples.’ He expected that they would be able to cure him. But the boy was not helped and remained in this desperate state.

Mat 17:17  "O unbelieving and perverse generation!" replied Jesus; "how long shall I be with you? how long shall I endure you? Bring him to me."

Notes

Jesus said, "You people are too stubborn to have any faith! How much longer must I be with you? Why do I have to put up with you? Bring the boy here." CEV.

Here Jesus was confronted by the difficult situation. A desperate boy with a desperate father and a faithless group of His own disciples. How challenging this is to us? Would we be able to do any better than these faithless disciples?

Jesus complains not just about His disciples but the whole “unbelieving and Perverse generation”.i.e All people alive at that time

Jesus castigates them in two ways. They are Faithless and Perverse .

The former speaks of their wrong attitude towards God; throughout Scripture people are urged to trust God, and when they do then nothing is impossible to them.cp.v.20

He also calls them perverse. which may mean that they were twisted in their thinking.

With these two attitudes they were unable to cure the boy.

"how long shall I be with you? how long shall I endure you? Bring him to me."

He asks how long he was to be with these people? It was very difficult for Jesus to sit amongst such spiritual Pygmies. L. Morris p.447

Mat 17:18  Then Jesus reprimanded the demon, and it came out and left him; and the boy was cured from that moment.

Notes

Then Jesus reprimanded the demon,  [or rebuked the demon.]

Here we see that Jesus goes straight to the cause of the problem. It was a demon.

demon G1140 δαιμόνιον daimonion Thayer Definition:

1) the divine power, deity, divinity

2) a spirit, a being inferior to God, superior to men

3) evil spirits or the messengers and ministers of the devil

Mat 17:19  Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked Him, "Why could not we expel the demon?"

Mat 17:20  "Because your faith is so small," He replied; "for I solemnly declare to you that if you have faith like a mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Remove from this place to that,' and it will remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.

Matthew 8: 23 - 9:7 Three Amazing Miracles Cont.

2. The Demon Possessed Men of Gadara. Matthew   8:28 - 34

Mat 8:28  On His arrival at the other side, in the country of the Gadarenes, there met Him two men possessed by demons, coming from among the tombs: they were so dangerously fierce that no one was able to pass that way.

Mat 8:29  They cried aloud, "What hast Thou to do with us, Thou Son of God? Hast Thou come here to torment us before the time?"

Mat 8:30  Now at some distance from them a vast herd of swine were feeding.

Mat 8:31  So the demons entreated Him. "If Thou drivest us out," they said, "send us into the herd of swine."

Mat 8:32  "Go," He replied. Then they came out from the men and went into the swine, whereupon the entire herd instantly rushed down the cliff into the Lake and perished in the water.

Mat 8:33  The swineherds fled, and went and told the whole story in the town, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

Mat 8:34  So at once the whole population came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they besought Him to leave their country.

Introduction

Matthew’s account is the shortest but Mark’s is the longest.  The principle difference is that Mark and Luke have only one demoniac while Matthew has two. L.M.p.208

Demon-possession is not mentioned but the KJV has those who have familiar spirits.

Familiar spirits H178 Strongs אוב

'ôb obe

From the same as H1 (apparently through the idea of prattling a father’s name); properly a mumble, that is, a water skin (from its hollow sound); hence a necromancer (ventriloquist, as from a jar): - bottle, familiar spirit.

Necromancy /ˈnɛkrɵˌmænsi/ or nigromancy is a form of magic involving communication with the deceased – either by summoning theirspirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge, or to use the deceased as a weapon, as the term may sometimes be used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft.[1][2]Wikipedia.com

I personally believe that there is no contact with the dead but demonic impersonations of dead people.

In the Old Testament

Deu 18:10  There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, an observer of clouds, or a fortune-teller, or a witch,

Deu_18:11  or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or one who calls to the dead.

2Ki_21:6  And he, {Mannasseh},  made his son pass through the fire, and observed times and used fortune-tellers. And he dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He worked much wickedness in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke Him to anger.

Dealt with familiar spirits - This practice was forbidden by Moses Lev_19:31 under the penalty of death Lev_20:27. Its nature is best learned from Saul’s visit to the witch of Endor (1Sa_28:7, etc.).

Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit - Literally, Seek me a woman, בעלת אוב baalath ob, the mistress of the Obidiah or Pythonic spirit - one who had a familiar spirit, whom she could invoke when she pleased, and receive answers from him relative to futurity. Strange that a man, who had banished all such from the land, as dangerous to the state, as impostors and deceivers, should now have recourse to them as the only persons in whom he could safely put his confidence in the time in which Jehovah had refused to help him! At En-dor - This was a city in the valley of Jezreel, at the foot of Mount Gilboa, where the army of Saul had now encamped.

In the Bible demon possession is part of the Upsurge of evil opposing Jesus during the time of his incarnation. Leon Morris.p.208 Thus, there seems to have been heightened activity of demons in the Four Gospels.

Mat 8:28  On His arrival at the other side, in the country of the Gadarenes, there met Him two men possessed by demons, coming from among the tombs: they were so dangerously fierce that no one was able to pass that way.

Gadara

The capital of the Roman province of a Peraea. It stood on the summit of a mountain about 6 miles south-east of the Sea of Galilee. Mark (Mar_5:1) and Luke (Luk_8:26-39) describe the miracle of the healing of the demoniac (Mat_8:28-34 says two demoniacs) as having been wrought “in the country of the Gadarenes,” thus describing the scene generally. The miracle could not have been wrought at Gadara itself, for between the lake and this town there is the deep, almost impassable ravine of the Hieromax (Jarmuk). It is identified with the modern village of Um-Keis, which is surrounded by very extensive ruins, all bearing testimony to the splendour of ancient Gadara.

“The most interesting remains of Gadara are its tombs, which dot the cliffs for a considerable distance round the city, chiefly on the north-east declivity; but many beautifully sculptured sarcophagi are scattered over the surrounding heights. Eaton’s Bible Dictionary

there met Him two men possessed by demons, coming from among the tombs

Demon possessed men love to inhabit cemeteries.

Illustration

Kabinda, Kasai Orientale, Government Hospital

Once while visiting Kabinda in the Congo with a patient for the Hospital we found a man standing in the hospital wards and terrorizing the whole hospital. He was yelling profanities and blasphemies causing the Hospital population to flee. The Administrator asked us to take this man to our church for prayer. He yelled and screamed standing on the back of the 3 ton truck.

After prayer he quietened down but in the middle of that night he started yelling again.

The Missionary Duncan rebuked the foul spirit of Beelzebub in the name of Jesus. The man slunk down only his bed saying, “Yo,Yo, Yo…..” and went sound asleep. He had been living and consulting the dead in the Kabinda cemetary for days

Jesus has power over all the power of the Enemy.

Mat 8:29  They cried aloud, "What hast Thou to do with us, Thou Son of God? Hast Thou come here to torment us before the time?"

Notes

"What hast Thou to do with us,

What have we to do with thee - The literal translation of τι ημιν και σοι, is, What is it to us and to thee; which perhaps might be understood to imply their disclaiming any design to interfere with the work of Christ, and that he should not therefore meddle with them; for it appears they exceedingly dreaded his power.

What have we to do with thee, is a Jewish phrase, which often occurs in the Old Testament, signifying an abrupt refusal of some request, or a wish not to be troubled with the company or importunity of others. A.C.

Thou Son of God.

Do you know who Jesus is ?

The demons knew who Jesus was. “Thou Son of God.” they said.  Not many knew this at that time.

Hast Thou come here to torment us before the time?"

From this it appears that a greater degree of punishment awaited these demons than they at that time endured; and that they knew there was a time determined by the Divine Judge, when they should be sent into greater torments.

Mat 8:30  Now at some distance from them a vast herd of swine were feeding.

Mat 8:31  So the demons entreated Him. "If Thou drivest us out," they said, "send us into the herd of swine."

Notes

"If Thou drivest us out," they said, "send us into the herd of swine."

Send us away seems to express more fully the absolute power Jesus Christ had over them - permission alone was not sufficient; the very power by which they were to go away, must come from Christ himself! How vain was the boast of Satan, Mat_4:9, when we find he could not possess the body of one of the vilest animals that God has made, without immediate authority from the Most High! Since a demon cannot enter even into a swine without being sent by God himself, how little is the power or malice of any of them to be dreaded by those who have God for their portion and protector!

Mat 8:32  "Go," He replied. Then they came out from the men and went into the swine, whereupon the entire herd instantly rushed down the cliff into the Lake and perished in the water.

Rushed . . . into the sea. Maddened, the swine rushed down the steep declivity into the sea. If we knew all the facts we would see more fully the righteousness of the Lord's permission. Perhaps the loss of the swine was a punishment. Perhaps it was to show that evil works its own destruction.

Mat 8:33  The swineherds fled, and went and told the whole story in the town, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

Mat 8:34  So at once the whole population came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they besought Him to leave their country.