The universe has fallen. It is broken. It is damaged. When Adam and Eve, who were real people, joined the rebellion of the fallen angels, who are real beings, planet Earth and the rest of the entire universe were dramatically and negatively affected. When Adam, the new lord of the Earth fell, Earth and everything on it fell too. The Earth was cursed; nature was changed; thorns and thistles, earthquakes and hurricanes, droughts and fires and floods, sickness and death became part of the fallen fabric of nature.

Adam and his descendants lost the right to rule the Earth. Satan became the god of this world. We became subject to Satan, sin, sickness and death; to chaotic and deadly storms from without and from within. These dangerous, deadly forces are too powerful for fallen humanity to overcome on our own. We need help from Another Source!

God, being merciful, did not want to leave mankind, made in His image, and the rest of creation, in this fallen, chaotic, dying state. He promised that the Seed of the Woman, the Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer, would come and undo all of the damage that had been done, and bring mankind and the rest of creation back into Edenic harmony.

Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth is that Seed of the Woman. He is the Messiah! He proved that He is the One who alone can save, redeem, bring peace to, restore and renew humanity and the universe! We must know this. We must zealously and enthusiastically believe in Him in order to experience the salvation, redemption and blessing that He alone is able to bring.

Let’s consider Luke 8:22-25: Yeshua overcomes storms that threaten to destroy us from without. Messiah and His followers were in northern Israel on the western side of the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee). The Rabbi from Nazareth and His disciples wanted to go to the eastern shore of the lake, and they got into a boat and headed east. The lake is only 8 miles wide, so a small sailing boat with a decent wind would only take an hour or two to cross.

Due to its low-lying position in a valley surrounded by hills, the lake can experience sudden violent storms. While they were sailing across, one of those storms developed over the lake, and their small boat began to take on water and was in danger of sinking.

The disciples were afraid that the boat was going to sink and they were going to drown in the stormy waters. What to do? The lest they could do was wake their great sleeping Rabbi and let Him know what was happening. They did, letting them know that the situation was very bad and they were about to die.

Yeshua woke up, and knew that they were not about to drown. He knew God’s plan for His life, and that He was going to die in Jerusalem on a cross as the final sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world – not drown in this lake. He must have prayed to His God and Father, who enabled His Son to rebuke the winds and raging waters, which instantly and miraculously became calm!

Yeshua rebuked the unruly winds and the waves, and then He rebuked His disciples for not having more understanding, more knowledge, more faith. They should have known that He and they could not die at this time and in this way, and that God would rescue them.

Yeshua’s followers had seen their Rabbi do many great things, but Yeshua’s ability to command the forces of nature – the mighty winds and waters, left them in fear and amazement! This was something no ordinary man, no ordinary Rabbi, no ordinary prophet, was used by God to do.

God the Father working through Messiah His Son was able to control the out-of-control forces of nature. This foreshadows the ultimate restoration of creation, when God and Messiah will restore the lost harmony of creation, and the vision of Isaiah will be fulfilled, and the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all of the Lord’s holy mountain, for the Earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!

God the Father, working through Yeshua His Son, was able to still the deadly storm from without. Now, God will use Messiah to still what is perhaps an even worse storm – a chaotic and deadly storm from within (8:26-39).

Rabbi Yeshua and His disciples successfully completed their journey to the eastern shore of the lake, where they encountered a man who was possessed by an army of demons. God working though Yeshua had removed evils spirits from many people before, but this man’s situation seems to have been even worse. The fallen angels were in the process of completely destroying this man. They were dehumanizing and de-civilizing him. He was naked. He would not wear clothes. He lost the sense of shame and social appropriateness. He would not live in a house in the city among the living. He preferred to live in tombs among the dead.

Yeshua understood exactly what was happening to this poor man, and came to his rescue, and began to remove these unclean, dirty spirits, commanding them to end their possession of this poor man and leave him.

And, these evils spirits knew exactly who Yeshua was – the Son of God who had the authority to send them into the Abyss, a deep place where demons can be sent and perhaps restrained, prior to their final destination – the Lake of Fire.

And the demons knew that Rabbi Yeshua was superior to them in power and authority, were asking permission of Yeshua to not be sent to the deep Abyss, but into a nearby herd of pigs – which means that demons can live in animals as well as human beings.

Yeshua gave them permission. After all, it was better for unclean spirits to live in unclean animals than a human being made in the image of God. And, what were a herd of pigs doing in what is part of the holy land?

Yeshua gave this entire army of unclean spirits permission, and the legion of demons left the demon-possessed man, freeing him from their destructive, dehumanizing, decivilizing control, and they entered the pigs, who panicked at the entrance of the demons, and rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

Fewer unclean animals in the holy land! Fantastic! No army of unclean spirits remained in the man! He was able to become more human. He was able to think clearly. He got dressed. He was able to be among people once again, and sat at the feet of the Greatest Human – Rabbi Yeshua, learning from Him. Wonderful! Amazing. God be praised! Righteous people would want to see more of this!

God, working through Yeshua, was able to free one man from an entire army of demons, foreshadowing the ultimate liberation of humanity from the god of this world, and his kingdom of darkness. What a great deliverer Yeshua is! All those who love God, love Messiah, love the truth, love salvation, love redemption, should be thrilled!

But, not everyone was thrilled. The people of the area who found out what happen became afraid. Maybe they were afraid that they would suffer more financial losses if the young Rabbi from the other side of the lake remained in their region and did more things, and so they asked Him to leave.

They seemed to have preferred pigs more than peace, riches more than redemption, swine more than salvation! How sad for them. What a great opportunity they lost to know more about Immanuel – God With Us, and what He could have done for them to give them the greatest kind of help that only He could and can give.

But, Yeshua, even though rejected by them, ever gracious as He is, did not leave them without a witness. Refusing the request of the formerly demon-possessed man to return with Him to the western side of the lake, He instructed him to remain in this area, and go home and describe to the people there the great things God had done for him. And the man did, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things that God, working through Yeshua, had done for him.

And, isn’t this a principle for each one of us? Shouldn’t each one of us, after we have been rescued from the demonic storms from within, be like this man, and return to our home and family and friends and without shame, and without embarrassment, boldly proclaim what God and Messiah have done for us?

Yeshua is able to overcome storms that threaten to destroy from without and also storms that threaten to destroy from within; He is able to overcome storms of wind and rain that can destroy the body and storms of mind and emotion that can destroy the soul. Next Luke tells us that He is able to overcome other forces that can destroy us – sickness, even death (40-56)!

When Yeshua returned to the western side of the Kinneret, a huge crowd was waiting for the very popular young, miracle-working Rabbi who was giving such great messages and teaching such profound truths.

Among the multitude was Ya’ir, a leader in one of the synagogues. He had a problem that was bigger than his ability to overcome. He had an only child, a 12 year old daughter, and she was dying. It is a terrible thing for a parent to watch a child die, especially an only child, especially a girl who is just about to become a woman, who will miss living a full life.

This upset father approached Yeshua, and humbly fell at the Rabbi’s feet, acknowledging Yeshua’s superiority; having confidence in Yeshua, Ya’ir asked the Rabbi to come to his house and help his little girl.

But, before He could do that, something else happened. A woman who had been bleeding for twelve long years, who couldn’t be healed by anyone, making her weak and sick and probably ceremonially unclean (see Leviticus 15:25-27), so that she couldn’t touch or be touched by a man, and couldn’t worship at the Temple and probably was excluded from the synagogues too, and so couldn’t get as close to God as she may have wanted to, was in that crowd.

She knew things about Yeshua, and had confidence in Him, that if she could touch the holy Rabbi she could be healed and after so many years, finally get well. She managed to get close to Him, and touch the tzit-tzit, the fringes of the holy man’s garments, symbolic of God’s Word. And instantly the power of God emanated from the Rabbi, and the woman was instantly and completely healed! God the Father and God the Spirit, working through Messiah the Son, healed that woman.

Yeshua was aware that someone in the crowd had faith in Him and touched Him and had been miraculously healed and demanded to know who it was. The woman, knowing that she had been found out, and afraid that she might be in trouble for touching the holy man, came trembling to Yeshua and fell down before Him acknowledging His superiority.

But even though she may have broken a law of the Torah by touching Him, Messiah was not angry with her. Yeshua had not been made unclean by this woman. In fact, quite the opposite thing occurred. She had been made well.

Messiah didn’t correct her or reject her. He commended her. He complimented her for her knowledge about Him, and her faith in Him that led her to get closer to Him and make contact with Him. Her faith in Him caused Him to feel affection for her and He called her the intimate and affectionate term “daughter” and told her to go, enjoying being in a state of peace with Almighty God.

Meanwhile, someone came from the house of the leader of the synagogue, and told him it was too late for the Rabbi to help. Ya’ir’s 12 year old daughter had died.

But Yeshua, close to God, and hearing from God, knew what should happen next. He told Ya’ir, who must have been very upset by the news of his daughter’s death, to not be afraid. He told him to trust Him, and if Ya’ir did, his little girl would be made well.

And, Ya’ir had the faith to believe Rabbi Yeshua, and went home with Yeshua and the Rabbi’s disciples. The One who can overcome even the great enemy, death, entered the home with Ya’ir and his wife, and with His three disciples who formed the inner core – Peter, James and John. Others were in the home weeping because of this tragic loss of the life of this girl. Messiah told them to stop crying, because the girl wasn’t really dead – she was merely asleep. Oh, she was actually dead, and those in the house knew it, and started laughing at the Son of God. But they should not have laughed at Him. No one is wiser than Rabbi Yeshua. No human being understands anything better than the One through whom the universe was made and is sustained. Yeshua knew what was about to happen – that God was about to use Him to bring her back to life, and so her “death” was more like sleep – temporary unawareness that results in a return to consciousness.

Messiah took her by the hand, and spoke two simple words, yet powerful words coming from the mouth of this man: “Child, arise”. And at the words of the One who is able to call all of the dead to life, and will one day, her spirit returned to her body, and she immediately got up, having overcome the powerful force of death, healthy and ready to eat and continue with her life! Wow! That is powerful! That has tremendous implications! That is full of Good News!

Yeshua instructed those present not to communicate this to others. This was not done for the crowds, but for the family.

What is the Holy Spirit, the author of the book, communicating to us through Luke, trying to tell us?

Humanity is a lot like this 12 year old girl – sick and on the verge of dying a tragic death. We desperately need to overcome the death that we will surely experience – the First Death – Physical Death, followed by the even worse Second Death – the final death of the Lake of Fire. Only God the Father working through Yeshua the Son can overcome death.

Humanity is a lot like this demon-possessed man – controlled by an army of demons, leaving us decivilized and dehumanized.

Humanity is a lot like this woman – sick and unable to be healed by other human beings.

Humanity is a lot like the disciples – in a storm that threatens to drown them, with the Savior in the boat with them, but lacking knowledge and faith.

Yeshua of Nazareth is the Messiah who is able to help the worst off of humanity, a man like the demon-possessed Gerasene, and the best of humanity, a man like Ya’ir, an official in the synagogue of the Chosen People. He is able to help a sick older woman, and a young dying girl. He is able to overcome storms and winds and waves and waters that threaten to destroy.

He is able to overcome the storms without and the storms within; He is able to overcome Satan, sickness and even death! He will completely end the rebellion of Satan and the demons one day. He will bring complete harmony to creation one day. He will restore the lost peace of Eden. He will restore health to the entire universe. He will raise the dead one day, and give eternal life to those who have known Him, loved Him and served Him. May that be you!

And if that is you, won’t you commit your life to telling the rest of the world, starting with the Jewish people, the Good News about the One who alone can overcome all the powerful and negative and destructive and deadly forces that resulted from the Fall?