And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
Only a brief space of time lay between the transfiguration and this deliverance, joining the extremes of glory and grief. From the mount where He had been transfigured by the glory of God, where He had talked with the messengers of Heaven and been proclaimed the Son of God by the Father's voice from the radiant glory, Jesus descended to meet the afflicted child. That meeting resolved the disciples' failed attempt to cast out the spirit and their resulting humiliation before the crowd. The child was possessed by a demon that threw him and tormented him, leaving him as a lunatic with distorted countenance, gnashing his teeth in spasms of agony and wallowing on the ground. His was severe visible suffering that no mortal or human could relieve.
Jesus freed the child from Satan's power and the demon's power forever by His own authority, rebuking the devil with a word so that he departed out of him. The child was cured that very hour and at once, restored to his father in health of mind and body. The healing is an object lesson of redemption in which the Divine One stoops from the Father's glory to save the lost. It stands among Christ's miracles whose power and work must not be reduced to merely human influence.
It represents the mission of the disciples and of all who have stood with Christ on the mount of transfiguration to work down in the plain. Souls enslaved by Satan are waiting for the word of faith and prayer to set them free. Those upon whom the glory of the Lord has risen, who have beheld Christ's beauty and become radiant in His glory, are sent with that light to bring deliverance. Coming to Jesus need not involve the same dramatic affliction and struggle as the child's case.
Only a brief space of time lay between the transfiguration and this deliverance, joining the extremes of glory and grief. From the mount where He had been transfigured by the glory of God, where He had talked with the messengers of Heaven and been proclaimed the Son of God by the Father's voice from the radiant glory, Jesus descended to meet the afflicted child. That meeting resolved the disciples' failed attempt to cast out the spirit and their resulting humiliation before the crowd. The child was possessed by a demon that threw him and tormented him, leaving him as a lunatic with distorted countenance, gnashing his teeth in spasms of agony and wallowing on the ground. His was severe visible suffering that no mortal or human could relieve.
Jesus freed the child from Satan's power and the demon's power forever by His own authority, rebuking the devil with a word so that he departed out of him. The child was cured that very hour and at once, restored to his father in health of mind and body. The healing is an object lesson of redemption in which the Divine One stoops from the Father's glory to save the lost. It stands among Christ's miracles whose power and work must not be reduced to merely human influence.
It represents the mission of the disciples and of all who have stood with Christ on the mount of transfiguration to work down in the plain. Souls enslaved by Satan are waiting for the word of faith and prayer to set them free. Those upon whom the glory of the Lord has risen, who have beheld Christ's beauty and become radiant in His glory, are sent with that light to bring deliverance. Coming to Jesus need not involve the same dramatic affliction and struggle as the child's case.