Mark 5.11-13: Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, (12) and they begged him saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” (13) So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. (ESV)
Many years ago my Hebrew professor, Dr. David Garland, admonished the class never to apologize for something God did in the Bible, nor to apologize for something the Bible sets forth as truth. The events of the verses above are one such case to abide by this advice. Jesus Himself, the only Son of God, has come under criticism and second guessing for allowing a herd of pigs to be invaded and provoked by Legion’s group of demons and ultimately drowned in the Sea of Galilee. I’m not going to criticize or second guess.
There are not many references to pigs or swine in the Bible, but in the Old Testament they were an unclean animal and God’s Law said Israel was not to eat pig flesh, nor to touch a pig’s carcass. In Isaiah 66.17 the prophet makes no moral distinction between eating swine’s flesh and eating mice. Such practice was an abomination to God and provoked Him to wrath.
So eating swine during the time of the Old Testament was forbidden and was an act of rebellion against God. I believe that at the time of this event this prohibition had not yet been taken away. This herd of pigs was being managed either for slaughter for food or for sacrifice on altars during pagan rituals. In either case, the actions of these herdsmen were forbidden and were a willful abomination in God’s eyes. And so if the herd had not been provoked by Legion to rush down the cliff and drowned, it would have been systematically slaughtered for either of the above reasons by the herdsmen and the owner of the herd.
The removal of these pigs, particularly in the way they were utilized, was the removal of an ongoing plan of rebellion against God. This was not something Jesus did. But rather something the Legion demons did. And it most likely happened because the herd went into a panic because of Legion’s invasion.