Scripture reading: Luke 8:26-39
The “bottomless pit” is first mentioned in Genesis 1:2a, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the DEEP.” This spiritual language says that it was hell.
The word “deep” in Hebrew means “cavern, a place of darkness, hell.” In its spiritual rendition, it is hell. In Psalm 104:6 it speaks of the deep, subterranean waters beneath the earth, “t’howm” in the Hebrew language. When God looked down upon the earth, the earth was a hell realm, an abyss. He had cast Satan and his angels down to the earth, and He had bound them in this realm, separated from God, the giver of light and life. Thus they dwelt in darkness and death which is called hell.
When God said, “Let there be light,” hell was driven back from this realm and it was given to man to possess. Romans 10:7, “Or, who shall descend into the DEEP? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)” The word “deep” in this verse is the word “abyss,” from the Greek “abussos,” meaning the “abode of demons.”
Luke 8:27, “And when He went forth to land, there met Him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.” Because this man had devils, he wore no clothes. We wonder about the people who are stripping off their clothes in our time. Verses 28 and 29a, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man).” Verse 30, “And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.”
This same story in Matthew gives us new thought. Matthew 8:29, “And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” Matthew’s account added “before the time” and we are grateful for this thought, because it tells us that there IS A TIME to cast out devils from the human realm. It was very early at that time. It was too early to put them into the bottomless pit. God is saying the time of the end is when devils should be cast out and put into the bottomless pit from whence they do not return to torment humanity.
These devils were possessing the soul of this man and his body (their house) and they were cast out of the house. They could have been bound in the pit, but they besought Jesus asking Him not to do it to them, to please let them go, give them a break, because it was too early. They gave Him the reason they were pleading. They said that it was too early. Jesus, amazingly, gave the devils the authority to go into the swine. These devils knew that when they got into those swine, the swine would consume them and they would be free. The swine rushed into the sea and drowned themselves and the demons were set free.
We will deal with this subject more fully some other time because these words “bottomless pit” are also found in Revelation 9:2, 9:11, 11:7, 17:8, 20:1, and 20:3. It is important to understand what we are writing about. The bottomless pit is not just hell, but part of hell that is a prison house, where spirits are bound and chained because God will not allow them to come out. There will be a time when God will release them. God is telling us that we do have the authority to cast these spirits into the abyss, into the bottomless pit, where they will be chained. When they attack humanity, we have the power to cast them into the bottomless pit.
(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 169-170)
Thought for today: Remember, you have the authority to bind spirits and cast them into the abyss where they will be chained.
Sonlight Devotional 