EDITORIAL by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 19, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 45.

EDITORIAL

By Editor

A Sabbath Day in the Synagog at Capernaum

AFTER the record of the call of the fishers of men, Jesus went to Capernaum, the city in and around which much of the earthly ministry of our Lord centered. Here people listened to His wonderful teaching, here they witnessed His holy life, here they beheld His wonderful works. No wonder that the rejection of all this brought the busy, bustling city low, "as one speaketh out of the ground," until its very site was disputed. Turning from the word of life brings ruin, even in this sphere. See the words of our Lord in Matt. 11:23.

THE incident of our lesson occurred on the Sabbath day in the synagog. Jesus observed the Sabbath; it was customary for Him to attend services at the synagog. Luke 4:16. In all His life was manifest perfect obedience to the Father. In working out salvation for us, He became our perfect example. He said, "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." His beloved disciple declares, "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked." He was living God's life in human form.

HE taught in the synagog, as many teachers and scholars were privileged to do after the lesson of the day. Wonderful was His teaching to the astonished people, who had listened from Sabbath to Sabbath, through many years, to the traditions of the elders, the learning of the scribes, the subtle sophistry of lawyers, the disputations of Pharisee and Sadducee, all of which left the mind bewildered and the soul unfed. People had come to the synagog for refreshing, as a company on a thirsty desert to a river, but the hoped-for river was a mirage, the expected bread was chaff.

BUT Jesus fed them. He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. He came direct from One who sent Him, with a clear, definite message. He had come from God's presence, and His words were Spirit-filled. He had met man's temptations, and conquered, and His heart burned with eager desire to save the tempted. He was incarnate Love longing to save.

THERE was another one interested, the prince of darkness. He must thwart the ministry of Jesus if possible. Not being able to seduce by his temptations the Man of Nazareth, he would harass and discourage Him; so he projected into the blessed Sabbath service a poor human possessed of an unclean spirit, a demoniac. Men do not believe in the devil now, do not believe that there is an active, malignant foe. They prefer to believe that he does not exist. And this pleases the devil also, for men to believe this; he can better deceive them. But if we believe the Bible, there can be no doubt of the old historic belief. There is a devil. He has his angels, or demons. Once he was an angel of light; and when he fell, his angels fell with him. He is the deceiver of the whole world. He comes at times as an angel of light. His demons also come, sometimes as angels of light, sometimes as spirits of dead friends. Some come as low, bestial, violent intelligences which possess the souls and bodies of poor humans, causing insanity, depravity, violence. It was an unclean spirit which possessed the poor, half insane man at Capernaum. And there were many others such in Palestine at that day, even as there are in the world at this day.

WE may well believe that as the demoniac came into the presence of Christ, his poor enslaved mind longed for deliverance, and sought to cry out for it. And we may well believe, also, that the controlling demon used the human organs of speech directly contrary to his victim's desire. The record says, "And he cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus Thou Nazarene? art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God." The demon did know, and the whole host of them had known that the Holy One of God was in the earth from the time the holy Child was born in Bethlehem. They had been told, doubtless, of His blameless boyhood, His progressive youth, of His baptism in the Jordan, God's approval from heaven, of the temptation in the wilderness, and the defeat of their prince Diabolus. They had been deputed to harass, annoy, counterwork, Jesus and His plans, and the unclean demon at Capernaum was a part of the devil's plan. But the demon knew, also, that if Christ were victorious, a certain judgment-day was coming, and its consequent destruction. Hence the question to Jesus, "Art Thou come to destroy us? We have naught to do with Thee. Let us alone." Even so talk men, and turn from their Deliverer.

BUT behind the voice of the unclean demon, Jesus heard the heart-cry of the poor victim for deliverance, He saw his pitiable plight, He knew his abject and terrible bondage. He saw, in the pitiable insane wreck before Him, the millions of other human wrecks, made so by the enemy because of their yielding to his leading. He would work this miracle, He would deliver this soul, that all thus bound in all the future might have hope. Therefore He responded, to the mad shriek of the demon, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him," and with a final effort to destroy, "the unclean spirit, tearing him ["convulsing," throwing him down, margin and Luke], and crying with

a loud voice, came out of him," doing him no harm. From the body and mind which belonged to the Son of God, He cast out the usurper, and the same word restored the ruined house, and placed mind and will again in control.

THE people were amazed. "A new teaching!" they exclaimed. "Why, this Man even commands evil spirits, and they obey! He commands with authority." He went through no formula of ancient mystic lore, He spoke no unknown words in a mysterious way; but His speech was simple and clear. The simplest auditor understood its import. He neither vociferated nor shouted, but behind the clearly spoken word there was the will and the power of the Infinite. Before it demons trembled and fled. Sin was cleansed away, soul and body were healed.

O SOUL, you who are bound by the chains which some demon of uncleanness, dissipation, or malice, or violence, has welded upon you, there is hope for you. You despise your own weakness, you hate the chains, you get some glimpses of the sordid sinfulness of it all, you know that in some way you are responsible, and therefore deserve your lot, and you go on, in despair, into ruin. Your life is unclean in imagination, and you know it. You tell untruths, you seek to deceive your fellows, and the demons deceive you into believing that you do deceive others; but the discerning despise your falsity of life, see the hollowness of your profession. You are under the control of a lying demon, and often falsify when it would be to your temporary advantage, as well as your eternal, to speak the truth. You have a violent temper, you fly into a rage at a word, and speak acridly, acidly, bitterly. You try to excuse by sickness, or nerves, or nature, yet you know it is wrong. The demon of violence possesses you. Perhaps you may not be given to violent outbreaks, but you hold malice against those who you think have wronged you. You hate them. You would at least not sorrow if ill should overtake them. You would like to "get even." You are controlled by a malicious demon. You may be under the power of the demon of appetite, or pleasure, which leads you to dance and laugh and dissipate the hours, involved in which are the issues of life and death. You may be a worshiper of mammon, giving soul and body to the getting of gold which perishes.

DO YOU, one and all, not wish to be free, free from the demons which drive to despair and destruction, which goad to depravity and death, which shut the soul from wisdom and knowledge, from glory and peace, from love and light eternal? There is freedom for you in Christ Jesus. One word from the Master in response to your all-absorbing heart-cry will bring deliverance and break your chains. Will you not, with all your heart and soul, utter it,—utter it even in the most abject attitude of cursed bondage, and believe He will hear? You have been in the possession of the thief; now the rightful Master has come, and He says to you, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Let the Lifegiver into your soul, and make it pure, make it free; for "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."