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ערות אשת־אביך לא תגלה ערות אביך הוא׃ ס
Apocalypse Revealed # 458
458. So as not to worship demons. This symbolically means that thus they were caught up in the evils of their lusts, and acted in concert with their like in hell.
Demons symbolize lusts for evil arising from a love of the world. That is because people in hell who are caught up in those lusts are called demons, and people on earth who are caught up in them too, become demons after death. They also have an affiliation with those in hell. For everyone is affiliated with spirits in respect to his affections, so closely that the two are inseparable. It is apparent from this that to worship demons is to yield to those lusts from a love of them.
Someone, then, who invokes faith alone as the chief tenet of his religion or as his idol - he, because he does not search out any evil in himself that he calls a sin, and therefore does not determine to remove it by repentance, remains caught up in it. And because every evil is composed of lusts, and is nothing but a bundle of lusts, it follows that a person who does not search out any evil in himself and refrain from it as a sin against God, which is possible solely through repentance, after death becomes a demon.
[2] Demons symbolize just such lusts in the following passages:
They sacrifice to demons, not to God. (Deuteronomy 32:17)
(The children of Israel) no longer offered their sacrifices to demons, after whom they had played the harlot. (Leviticus 17:7, cf. Psalms 106:37)
Ziyyim will meet with 'iyyim, and the forest demon will encounter its companion. (Isaiah 34:14)
Ziyyim will sing there, and their houses will be full of 'ochim; the offspring of owls will dwell there, and forest demons will caper there. (Isaiah 13:21).
Ziyyim, 'iyyim, 'ochim, and the offspring of owls symbolize various lusts. Forest demons are the kinds of lusts exhibited by priapi and satyrs.
Babylon... has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison for every foul spirit... (Revelation 18:2)
The demons that the Lord cast out embodied such lusts when they lived in the world - regarding which see Matthew 8:16, 28; 9:32-33; 10:8; 12:22; 15:22; Luke 4:33-37, 41; 8:2, 8:26-40; 9:1, 9:37-42, 9:49; 13:32.
Luke 8:26-40
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They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
27
When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn't live in a house, but in the tombs.
28
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, "What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torment me!"
29
For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bands apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.
30
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion," for many demons had entered into him.
31
They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss.
32
Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. He allowed them.
33
The demons came out from the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned.
34
When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country.
35
People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
36
Those who saw it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed.
37
All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. He entered into the boat, and returned.
38
But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,
39
"Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you." He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
40
It happened, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.
