Why did the demons ask Jesus to be sent into the pigs when those pigs would be immediately drowned? After the demons were cast into the swine, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank, into the sea and drowned in the waters.

Mark 5:1–20 King James Version

And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the ^aGadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs ^ba man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and ^cworshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of ^dthe most high God? I ^eadjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is ^fLegion: for we are many. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And ^ffthey went out to see what it was that was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the ^flegion, sitting, and ^gclothed, and ^hin his right mind: and they were afraid. 16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. 18 And when he was come into the ship, ⁱhe that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. 20 And he departed, and began to publish in ^kDecapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

The demons know that in the future, they are appointed for final torment. And they wonder if Jesus has come to start that final judgment. They say, have you come here to torment us before the time? You know, we know there’s a time coming when we’re going to get final torment, but not yet Jesus, or is it, or is it?

The fact that there was a herd of pigs nearby shows that we are in Gentile territory since the Jews regarded pigs as unclean, Deuteronomy 14:8, and did not raise them for food or anything. In other words, this is one of those rare moments when Jesus is reaching out into the Gentile world as a pointer to the fact that his ministry is going to result in a global mission to all the peoples of the world,

The herd was about 2000 pigs large and when the demons go out from the two demonized men into the herd and they all perish, we get a very clear sense of how big, how large, how serious the condition of this man was and how even this was no problem for Jesus.

The fact that the demons pleaded to be sent into the pigs shows how much they hated roaming about in the world without any habitation. This seems to point to how evil they are and how the maximizing of their evil comes from entering into any kind of being that can get their hands on to ruin their lives.

The demons could not have seen that their new habitation, the pigs would suddenly run down the hill at all. And drown. Because if in fact, they saw that coming, they wouldn’t ask for it. That’s not what they were trying to do.

They were trying to get a new place to live and do damage, not a place to be destroyed in the sea. And from what we know of Jesus in the gospels, he would have known what was about to happen so that what they feared, namely, that he was here ahead of time to begin their final judgment was in fact, true.

He had not let them escape into some lesser being for the misery they had brought on this man, but he had them to depart as it turns out without any habitation. And the fact that it was lost in the sea points to the fact that he was sentencing them probably to the abyss.

Now all that seems more or less clear, but is there more that can be said as to why Jesus would bring about the destruction of the pigs.

The herdsmen fled going into the city and told everything. And then it doesn’t say especially about the pigs. It says, especially about what happened to the demon-possessed men. In other words, they told of deliverance and liberation and freedom and healing and behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus.

And when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

Now, two amazing things have happened in this Gentile region suddenly, and by the power of Jesus, number one, two demon-possessed men were now free and their humanity was restored. Their relationships were restored up. They were ruined and now they’re not ruined anymore. Their humanity has given back to them.

And the second amazing thing that happened was a large herd of pigs was destroyed. Now, what this causes me to ponder is another situation in the Bible where the satan attempted to negotiate with God, namely in the first two chapters of Job, the satan asks permission to afflict Job and God gave the satan permission, which proved to be a test of Job’s faithfulness to God.

Job would face the choice. You can love God and trust him, or you can love your possessions and your family and your health more and curse God for taking them away. In other words, God used the satan to test Job.

That seems to me, that’s more or less what’s going on here. Jesus comes into this Gentile world. He conquers the devil. He sets the prisoner free. He presents himself as a great deliverer, able to restore life and hope, but he also takes away a herd of pigs, the livelihood, the wealth from some in the community. He forces a choice, prosperity over love, money over Jesus’ human resources, over divine power.

That is the power and grace of Jesus to give life and hope or the love of possessions and wealth gotten from these pigs and to our utter amazement, they begged Jesus, the life-giver to leave their region.

It seems to me that the story has several levels of meaning.

1. Jesus is the son of God
2. Jesus is triumphant over unclean spirits.
3. Jesus liberates the captive and gives hope to hopeless people, even Gentile people
4. But Jesus demands a choice. Love him and his salvation or love your prosperity and your wealth, namely your pigs. And they failed. They failed the test as mark and the other Gospels report it,

What will you choose?