I love the story of Jesus and the demon-possessed guy in Mark 5. It opens with a hint of what I suggested yesterday – that the storm was a Satanic attack:

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. (Mark 5.1, 2, ESV)

They “came to the other side and met…a man with an unclean spirit.” Satan didn’t want Jesus messing with this man!

This time through I saw something new: four prayers! The Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) I was reading uses the same English word four times: pleaded. Other translations mix “pleaded” with “begged,” but it’s all the same word in the Greek. Four times someone was pleading with Jesus for something. Here they are, all from Mark 5.1 – 20.

• verse 10, the demons: “Don’t send us out of the region.”
• verse 12, the demons: “Send us into the swine.”
• verse 17, the townspeople: “Please leave our region.”
• verse 18, the cured demon-possessed guy: “Let me go with you.”

Interestingly, the only request that was not answered positively was the last one: the cured demon-possessed guy’s request to travel with Jesus. To all the others, two from the demons and one from the townspeople, Jesus said, “OK.” To enemies and unbelievers, God sometimes lets them have what they want…to their detriment.

The demon-possessed guy, however, was now on Jesus’ side and part of Jesus’ strategic mission.

And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was pleading with Him that he might accompany Him. And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to preach in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was marveling. (Mark 5.18 – 20, LSB)

Jesus put the man right to work telling his story and guess what? When Jesus came back to that area, instead of asking him to leave, they were bringing people to him:

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. (Mark 7.31 – 32, NIV, emphasis mine)