It’s not a reach to consider that this incredibly violent storm that “came out of nowhere” on this lake was connected to the spiritual conditions they were about to discover on Gadarenes.

Men possessed by not just one or two demons, but an entire legion of them. Men so fierce, no one could walk past them. But read one verse further, and you realize that Jesus and the disciples were approaching the country of Gadarenes (vs 28) where two demon-possessed men met them as they docked the boat. This is where most people stop reading and call it a day. And yet, Jesus asked why they were afraid! He proceeded to rebuke the storm, calm the lake, and remind the disciples of their lack of faith. Understandably, the disciples were, shall we say, concerned. That was not a good time to be in a boat. So, when he got in the boat, he went to sleep. When Jesus got into the boat with the disciples, he was coming off interacting with a large crowd, where a lot of healings took place, along with the interaction with the scribe who hesitated in wanting to follow Christ. Verse 28 picks up in a “new” story, with the title “Jesus Heals Two Men with Demons.” But when you read these verses as one continuous account, you might realize something crucial. Verses 23-27 of this chapter are titled in many translations as “Jesus calms a storm”.

But many treasures can be mined when we consider larger portions before and after these breaks and apply proper context. It’s common for people to consider those various breaks a “stopping point” when reading the Word and come back to it later as if the next section is a completely different story. One thing I often forget when reading the Bible is that the chapter and section breaks weren’t originally there. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Daily bible verse devotional