You need to know the context.
Last Sunday, my sermon introduction was a dud. I talked about a question that I had heard years before that had plagued me ever since. The question was: Suppose you’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant?” I said that we would go to a store, buy a big umbrella and head to the beach. The response was underwhelming. It was my fault. No one knew the context. They didn’t know that originally my sermon was too long which necessitated me hacking away at my introduction. There were originally two other questions. They were cut. Originally, I told people these were questions innovative employers used to interview prospective employees. This fact was cut. All I left in was the question about the elephant. No context. No framework. No understanding. Worse, no Super Chicken. See, when I was a kid a hundred years ago, I watched an episode of the classic animated show about a mild-mannered chicken who, when he drank the Super Sauce, became Super Chicken, crimefighter extraordinaire. In one of his adventures, an evil mastermind redistributed all the elephants in the world so that the world’s axis flipped on its side causing snow to fall in the unlikeliest of places. Super Chicken is called upon to put the world right-side-up again which he did with his notable pluck and cluck. As a result of his heroics, the nation gives Super Chicken a free week in Miami, but when he goes to the beach, it begins to snow! Super Chicken is aghast and says, “Snow? In Florida? There must be one elephant still out of place somewhere!” Of course, there is an elephant sitting right next to him under a beach umbrella. That’s right—an elephant sitting on a beach under an umbrella. That scene was so funny to me as a kid that it burned itself onto my psyche so that when the question about what I would do with an elephant came up, I saw an elephant on a beach—believing that everyone in our church would also have that same context. They didn’t. Super Chicken would be devastated. There I was, standing there with egg on my face, singing the theme song to myself:
“When you find yourself in danger, when you are threatened by a stranger, when it looks like you will take a lickin’, (bok, bok, bok, bok), there is someone waiting who will hurry up and rescue you, just squawk for Super Chicken! (bok ack). Squawk for Super Chicken (bok ack!)!”
Bottom line: You need to know the context.
You begin reading Mark’s gospel and before you are 21 verses into it, you encounter a demon. There is no context for where these demons come from, who they are or what they are doing. They just appear unannounced. And the Old Testament is no help because any demon mentioned there is of a completely different character than the ones in the New. And when they do appear in the gospel accounts, it is always a major focus of the narrative. In short, we have demons, but we have no biblical context for where they come from, but we do have a time period. They come from the Second Temple period.
In previous posts we noted that it seems like the Babylonians were the first to posit demons in the world – spiritual creatures bent on doing evil and causing harm in the world. Everyone believed in the “gods,” but no one had suggested that evil spirits were at work in our world, but once the suggestion was made, everyone bought into the idea, including the stringently monotheistic Jews. The only thing apparently keeping every Jew from joining the demonic craze was a lack of biblical support. But in the third century BCE, Jewish authors began to find that support. “1 Enoch” set the stage, followed by the “Book of Jubilees.” And once the content of these books was disseminated, everyone bought into it. Everyone, it seemed, in the Jewish world believed strongly in the following seven items. First, scriptural warrant for the origin of demons is found in Genesis 6 and the story of the beginning of the flood. Second, prior to the flood, disobedient angels left heaven and came to earth so that they could have sex with human women. These hybrid angel-human beings went about doing evil and violence on earth; a situation that moved God to bring the flood. When the flood came, these beings were killed, but because they were partially immortal beings, their dead corpses produced a new horror—demons. Third, these demons would cause all manner of harm, mentally, physically and spiritually.
Demons could cause the inability to speak, to hear, and to see, as well as causing epilepsy-like symptoms and even pushing a person into madness and even suicide. Fourth, demons are bent on destruction and will afflict individuals on earth until the end of time. There is no killing them or obliterating them until the judgment at the end of the world. Fifth, demons represent an evil cosmic force that is opposed to God and his kingdom. God is good. Demons are bent on doing evil. Sixth, while demons are a power to be reckoned with, they can be exercised, cast out and kept at bay. Last, there will be a day of judgment where these demons will be finally and utterly annihilated. These seven ideas were in the cognitive ground water from which everyone Jew in the Second Temple period drank. No one was skeptical and no one doubted. And no one questioned the thin biblical support for these ideas (and in my opinion, the support for these ideas were very, very thin).
Since everyone believed these things, that demons existed and were intent on doing people harm, the focus in the last half of the Second Temple period switched from, “Do demons exist?” to “What should we do to protect ourselves from demonic activity?” The answer came back loud and clear. They should seek advice from the dead. Sorry, I keep forgetting to set the context. They should seek to obtain advice from the “Dead Sea Scrolls” (also known as anything produced by the community in Qumran). Matthias Henze writes:
“The rich trove of ancient manuscripts discovered in and around Qumran bears witness to a community that was deeply concerned about spirits and demons. According to the thinking of the Qumran group, human beings had free will, but at the same time they were subject to higher powers that ruled over them, including both angels and demons, The present age is under the dominion of the supreme demon, who is known by many names in the scrolls: Mastema (the same name that is used in ‘Jubilees’), Belial, Satan, and the Angel of Darkness.”
If this present age is subject to demonic powers, what should people do to protect themselves? This was a major focus of the Qumran community because they all feared demonic interference in their lives. And they found some the best advice on spiritual warfare in the “Songs of the Sage.”
Let me set the context. About a hundred years after the “Book of Jubilees,” a leader in the Qumran community called the Sage, began teaching his disciples how to ward off the evil one and his minions. “1 Enoch” was written in the third century BCE. “Jubilees” was written in the second century and the “Songs of the Sage” was written in the first, but it was not written in isolation. It was written in dialog with both 1 Enoch and Jubilees and advanced their thoughts. The Songs of the Sage was also very popular in the Qumran community if we can correlate popularity with how many copies of this “song” were found in Qumran.
Before the sage wrote his songs, most people sought to protect themselves by cursing the demons, by attending special ceremonies, by speaking incantations, by saying special prayers and by exorcisms. But the Sage had a different approach. He offered four pieces of advice to ward off demons, but before we get to that, let’s read the song (I’ve broken it down artificially into four paragraphs to help identify key points). The first nine verses of the song go (this Song of the Sage is identified officially as 4Q510 [4QShir]):
“To the God of knowledge; to the resplendence of the powerful ones; God of gods. Lord of all Holy Ones. His realm is above the powerful and mighty. Before the might of his power all are terrified. They scatter and flee before the radiance of his dwelling of his glory and his majesty.
And I the sage declare the majesty of his radiance in order to frighten and terrify all the spirits of the ravaging angels, and the bastard spirits, those who strike unexpectedly, those who lead astray the spirit to make their hearts forlorn in the era and rule of wickedness. . . .
. . . and in the periods of humiliation for the sons of light. In the guilty period of those defiled by sins, but not for an everlasting destruction, but rather for the era of the humiliation of sin.
Rejoice righteous ones in the God of wonders.
My psalms are for the upright the psalms of his glory.
May all those of perfect path praise you.
As I said, there are four principles here that when correctly applied can ward off demons.
First, those who want to protect themselves against the powers of demons, need to praise God and remember his greatness, goodness and sovereignty. The Sage flips the normal approach on its head. Normally, people would focus on the demons and attempt to undo them through curses. The Sage argues that this approach is backwards. Instead of focusing on how wicked the demons are, the Sage says we need to focus on the goodness and greatness of our God. We see this in the first paragraph where the Sage depicts God as the God of all gods and the Lord of all angels. God is omniscient, omnipotent and sovereign. He is glorious and majestic and awesome in might. In short, praise and worship drives the demons away. Martin Luther had a similar approach. He wrote:
“I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people joyful; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.” And then he adds, “Come, let us sing a psalm, and drive away the devil.”
Praise and worship drive the demons away.
Second, those who want to protect themselves against demons, need to name the forces of evil, describe God’s wrath against them in order to frighten and terrify them. In the second paragraph, we see that the Sage provides a list of all the demonic powers. They are “all the spirits of the ravaging angels, and the bastard spirits, those who strike unexpectedly; those who lead astray the spirit to make their hearts forlorn in the era and rule of wickedness.” Note that the Sage is particularly concerned about those demons who “strike unexpectedly.” Matthias Henze writes: “This list of malevolent beings may not be a complete inventory of all the demons that are active in the world, neither does the list include a description of the sorts of harm they cause.” And yet, naming the demons or at least naming the harm they do seems to unmask them and unnerve them. Again, Luther has a similar approach. He says, “I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing that makes him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and tell him that through God I am more than a match for him.” By naming the demons and by terrifying them with God’s wrath that will one day fall upon them, we make the demons retreat.
Third, we need to remember who we are. The Sage calls us “sons of light,” “righteous ones,” “the upright,” and “those who walk down the perfect path.” We are God’s people, and our God is sovereign over our lives, and therefore, we can trust him. We see this primarily in the fourth paragraph, but there are traces of this in the third, as well. Luther again:
“The devil is not only a liar, but also a murderer, he constantly seeks our life, and wreaks his anger whenever he can afflict our bodies with misfortune and harm. Hence it comes that he often breaks men’s necks or drives them to insanity, drowns some, and incites many to commit suicide, and to many other terrible calamities. Therefore there is nothing for us to do upon earth but to pray against this arch enemy without ceasing. For unless God preserved us, we would not be safe from him even for an hour.”
By remembering that we are God’s people and under his love and care, we remove all threats from the evil one.
Last, to drive away the demons, we need to remind them and us that one day, God’s judgment will fall upon them and they will be destroyed. We, on the other hand, will live. We will be honored and rewarded. They will be humiliated and obliterated. But that is future. In the third paragraph, we see that we now live in a period of humiliation for we are a broken by our sin and shame and demons inflect injury upon us. But again, this will not always be the case. One day, in the not-too-distant future, the Sage tells us that the tables will be turned and our day of humiliation will end and theirs will begin and theirs will be an everlasting torment and destruction. The end of days is near. One more quote from Luther:
“When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: ‘I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.’”
Here’s the big takeaway: The Second Temple period was consumed with demons as an explanation for the evil in the world. Bad things happen all the time. Second Temple Jews had uncovered the reason. Demons were an evil force bent on destroying everything good, starting first with people. But they were also trying to come up with strategies to keep these evil ones far away. They would invest themselves in praise and worship. They would name these demons and terrify them with God’s coming judgment. They would remember who they were—they were children of God, and as such, Satan could not hurt them. And last, they would remind these demons that even though they had the upper hand now, in these days of humiliation, there was coming a day when all demons would be obliterated, but the righteous would be given life in God’s kingdom. And every member of Second Temple Judaism believed all these things with all their heart. Demons were real. Their job was to hold fast to God to protect them.
We now have the proper context to read the Gospels. That’s what we will do next week. In the meantime, here’s one more Luther quote that proclaims forgiveness for sins and if our sins are forgiven, then what else do we need to fear. Grace is always our proper context. Luther wrote:
“If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and sin boldly, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory, we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner.”
