A listener named Calvin, great name, from Singapore, writes us today with a Bible question

on Matthew 8.

Pastor John, thank you for your ministry and for this podcast, which I've benefited

from greatly.

My question is over Matthew 8 verses 28 to 34.

In this text, why did the demons ask Jesus's permission to be sent into the pigs when

those pigs would be immediately drowned?

Where else would they have gone and where did they go after the whole herd rush down

the steep bank into the sea and drown in the waters?

This has always perplexed me, Pastor John, what can you tell Calvin?

Not everybody knows this story, so probably we should read that section from Matthew 8

that he's referring to.

When Jesus came to the other side, so this is starting at verse 28 of Matthew 8, when

Jesus came to the other side, to the country of the getterains, to demon possessed men

met him coming out of the tomb, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us, O Son of God?

Have you come here to torment us before the time?

Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them and the demons begged

him saying, if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs and he said to them,

go.

So they came out and went into the pigs and behold, the whole herd rushed down the

steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.

...