Bible Study on Acts 17, verses 1 to 9, Paul preaches Christ

 

Acts 17:1 ¶  Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 2  And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, 3  Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. 4  And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. 5  But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6  And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; 7  Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. 8  And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. 9  And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.

 

Paul and Silas travel from Amphipolis to Thessalonica and passed through Apollonia. Paul, the way he usually did, went into the synagogue there to witness to the Jews on three different Sabbath days. I have already discussed how the Jews of Christ’s time had no understanding of the Crucifixion or the Resurrection. This shows how the Fundamentalist doctrine that in the Old Testament the Jews were looking forward to the Cross is wrong. Actually, they did not understand Isaiah 53. Their confusion persisted until an eleventh century rabbi nicknamed Rashi developed the idea that rather than being about a singular man the chapters in Isaiah about the Messiah were actually about the suffering Jewish people as a group thereby totally confusing the Jews with regard to Christ.

 

Jesus’ Jewish followers literally had no clue what He was talking about when He referred to His impending agony on the Cross or understood anything about His Resurrection.

Matthew 16:21 ¶  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

 

Mark 9:9  And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. 10  And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean…31  For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. 32 

But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

 

Luke 18:31 ¶  Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32  For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33  And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. 34  And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

 

John 20:9  For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

 

So, Paul probably taught out of Isaiah from where I just referred to.

 

Isaiah 52:13 ¶  Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 14  As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 15  So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

 

Isaiah 53:1 ¶  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 

    4 ¶  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

 

    10 ¶  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

They had some success among the Greek proselytes to Judaism, the devout Greeks and the important women (think of Lydia from earlier). But, the Jews who did not believe and opposed them broke out in a riot and got the city officials involved and accused them not only of heresy but treason. Notice this declaration at the time of the Crucifixion.

 

Joh 19:15  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Bible Study on Isaiah 6, verses 1 to 4, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne

 

Isaiah 6:1 ¶  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

 

Comparing the sixth chapter of Isaiah with the sixth book of the Bible, Joshua let’s examine, first, a willingness to go when called;

 

8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

 

Joshua 1:16 ¶  And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go.

 

Then the prophecy of utter and complete destruction;

 

11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

 

Compare that with what was to happen to the Canaanites when Joshua attacked;

 

Joshua 11:8  And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephothmaim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. 9  And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

 

    10 ¶  And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. 11  And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire. 12  And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. 13  But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn. 14  And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.

 

Now back to chapter 6 and what it says to us.

 

King Uzziah died in the year that Isaiah saw this vision or actual physical manifestation.

 

 

Isaiah SAW the Lord, the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the second of the powers in the Heavens the Targums speak of, who is the visible image of God, the Word, capital W, by which all things were created and are held together, and yet is the same God. Please follow my train of thought through the Scriptures.

 

Hebrews 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

 

Seraphim signifies burning, as per John Gill, and these creatures are like the other creatures around God’s throne as shown in Ezekiel and Revelation. They can be seen with different numbers of wings in different contexts. They are living creatures around the throne doing God’s will at all times and glorifying Him. That’s what is important about them as prototypes of all living creatures serving God day and night.

 

Exodus 26:1 ¶  Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

Something interesting here in Exodus 26 to begin with are the cherubims. There is a description of them in Ezekiel, chapter one, and another in Ezekiel, chapter ten, where a cherub is called a living creature.

Ezekiel 10:20  This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.

Note that as cherubims are called living creatures an angel is a presence so they are not the same in that regard either. Cherubims are not angels and angels are never said to have wings. Angels are typically the appearance of God, men, children in heaven, or churches in the context they are written.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

It appears that, from reading Ezekiel, chapter one, and Revelation, chapter four, that they have the appearance of living creatures representing everything from man, to domestic animals, to wild animals, to birds. Does the difference in the number of wings between the four beasts around the throne in Revelation, who, like the seraphims in Isaiah, chapter six, have six wings while the beasts in Ezekiel have four, have any significance?

Whether they are represented as having two wings as in 1Kings 8:7 or four or six wings we must consider the obvious. They appear at different times slightly different. Six wings in Isaiah for seraphims, four in Ezekiel, and then six in Revelation although depicted over the mercy seat, two, means only that they can be depicted differently in different contexts. Ezekiel, Isaiah, and John were three different men of God who saw things that were given to them and recorded them for our learning. Do not make the mistake of reading the Bible like your car-owner’s manual. There is, however, significance in each description and numbers are interesting, just don’t make too much out of it or you’ll be running to occult books to try to find a difference that probably isn’t there. Whether they be called cherubims, seraphims, or just living creatures consider what they do.

 

Revelation 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

 

For verse 4, John Gill reported that some ancient commentators view this as a vision during the earthquake mentioned in Uzziah’s time which was caused by his action at the incense altar. The vision then would be the spiritual events invisible to most of us as happening along with physical events. This happens elsewhere in the Bible, particularly in prophecies like Revelation.

 

Zechariah 14:5  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

 

2Chronicles 26:19  Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

Bible Study on Acts 16, verses 25 to 40, the salvation of the jailer

 

Acts 16:25 ¶  And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. 27  And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 28  But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. 29  Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32  And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33  And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 34  And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

 

Paul and Silas faith would not allow them to lament the turn of events and they praised God in their terrible situation, a lesson to us all. They witnessed for God by their singing of praises, possibly from the Psalms, and the other prisoners heard them. A discernible, a great earthquake happened which changed the dynamics. Every prisoner’s chains were loosened from them. The jailer and his family and the jail were in the same house like Potiphar’s in Genesis in Joseph’s story. A jailer who lost his prisoners would be executed and perhaps his family, as well. See a previous situation.

 

Acts 12:19  And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode.

 

Seeing the doors open, the jailer thought it better to die by his own hand than suffer execution for his failure. But, Paul pleaded with him not to take his own life as all of the prisoners were there and no one had escaped.

 

Now, here we have one of those statements or questions in the Bible that may have two meanings. 95% of the time in the Bible when the word salvation or saved is used it is a reference to a physical danger. Just do a word study from Genesis on. Here the jailer could be asking how he could be saved from his situation and Paul promises him twofold, temporal salvation and eternal salvation, along with his family. The jailer took care of Paul and company and was baptized believing and rejoicing in the Lord that night.

 

I cannot tell you how many times I am grateful that my eternal salvation also meant a temporal deliverance. Were God not protecting me there were several times in my life where I should have died from my foolishness and sin. But, God saved me and He saved me, gave me new life and delivered me from danger. 

 

You may not believe that the jailer here was concerned about he and his family’s fate but it is clear that he was in grave danger if the prisoners had escaped.

 

And thy house is a problem for us if you don’t believe he and his family were in danger. Were you promised that if you received Christ that your family got an automatic pass? That it was a guarantee they would all be saved? I think you can find many people who have come to Christ whose family rejected them and never accepted Christ as their Saviour.

 

Here, though, and I am speaking now in regard to eternal salvation, we have a statement, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Apply this to eternal salvation we have believe on. Is that different than believe in? Well, whether it is or not we have the definition at least of what believing on means in John’s Gospel.

 

John 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

 

Clearly, to believe on Christ means to believe what He said about Himself, believing Him. He made clear statements listed in John.

 

John 10:30  I and my Father are one.

 

John 14:1 ¶  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2  In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go

to prepare a place for you. 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

    4 ¶  And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5  Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

 

Acts 16:35 ¶  And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go. 36  And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace. 37  But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. 38 And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. 39  And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city. 40  And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.

 

Would it were so that the authorities today were as concerned about violating our rights as citizens as these provincial magistrates were. Being a Roman citizen carried some weight in this world as we will soon see again as at one time being an American meant something around the globe.

Bible Study on Exodus 21, verses 12 to 21, laws regarding violence against another

 

Exodus 21:12 ¶  He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. 13  And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. 14  But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. 15  And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. 16  And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. 17  And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. 18  And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed: 19  If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. 20  And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. 21  Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.

This passage begins with laws regarding murder, slavers, those who curse their parents, mutual combat and compensation for injuries resulting, and striking a servant. These are God’s commands for civil law for the Hebrews. This gives you a rough idea of the nature of civil protections at that time, certainly shocking by our standards today. God modified existing standards so you can see what must have been accepted practice.

Remember in Genesis how Abraham and Isaac were afraid of being murdered so some ruler could steal their wives, so they lied? That showed us the likely conditions of the time with regard to a powerful man simply taking a less powerful man’s wife for his own sexual purposes. In the same way these Laws given to Moses for the children of Israel must reveal the conditions of the time.

According to some sources the death penalty in Egypt was unevenly applied to those who killed another person and there was no distinction between premeditated murder and unpremeditated manslaughter. God created consistency with His edicts as the standard rather than an official who could be bribed as a matter of accepted practice.

In Egypt, the Pharaoh, as a living god, was the source of justice bound by tradition and convention but with himself and his ministers being able to apply justice as their position and power allowed rather than based on an absolute standard. God is laying down a standard.

The much older so-called Code of Hammurabi, which most certainly was not a body of laws but more a commentary on law or a philosophy of law as there is no evidence it was ever put into practice, had the death penalty for over 30 offenses. For instance, giving refuge to a runaway slave was to require the death penalty. But, it was uneven in that the punishment for a crime depended on the social status of the victim and the perpetrator. Bible skeptics make much out of the “eye for an eye” standard but that only applied between people of equal rank. God is creating an equal standard for everyone as, at this point, there is no aristocracy outside of the leader of a tribe and Moses and his assistants in enforcing God’s Law. They were held to the same standard.

Verse 12 gives us the meaning of the commandment Thou shalt not kill as Jesus defines it in Matthew 19:18  as do no murder.

Matthew 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

Verse 13 suggests the cities of refuge ordered in Numbers, chapter 35, where an unintentional killer could run to in order to keep from having family vengeance enacted on him. It also shows again God’s hand in events as the accidental victim was delivered into the hand of the killer by God.

Verse 14 shows that committing murder and running to God’s altar for protection will not save you someone from punishment.

1Kings 2:29  And it was told king Solomon that Joab was fled unto the tabernacle of the LORD; and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall upon him. 30  And Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD, and said unto him, Thus saith the king, Come forth. And he said, Nay; but I will die here. And Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me. 31  And the king said unto him, Do as he hath said, and fall upon him, and bury him; that thou mayest take away the innocent blood, which Joab shed, from me, and from the house of my father. 32  And the LORD shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. 33  Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the LORD. 34  So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell upon him, and slew him: and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

Verse 15 requires death for someone who strikes one of his parents. Also note verse 17. Other interesting verses on this subject include the following;

Proverbs 20:20 ¶  Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

Proverbs 30:17  The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

1Timothy 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Rules against disobedient and disrespectful children include;

Leviticus 20:9  For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

Deuteronomy 21:18 ¶  If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19  Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20  And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21  And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

With regard to verse 16 and more modern times it is interesting the kind of man who would have engaged in the slave trade, at least the part involving kidnapping innocent people in Africa and stealing them to sell into North or South America, was doing great evil. One can only imagine a depraved beast of a human being engaging in such wicked trade, particularly if he regarded himself as a Christian.

Verses 20 and 21 modify existing customs on treatment of slaves and servants. There were various customs, laws, and traditions in the Ancient Near East regarding slaves and servants but it was a fact, God’s modifying the institution’s customs and standardizing the treatment of slaves, notwithstanding.

Do not make the mistake of Christians who unified state and church into a monster of oppression into believing that God modifying a cultural practice means that He approves of it or ordains it. In addition, the Hebrews were being given not only their religious law but their civil law, as well. Christians aren’t given that structure. We are not 12-15^th century BC Hebrews. We’re not even justified by the Law but only by faith in Christ. We cannot hide behind the Law given to Moses or use it as an excuse for our own selfish wickedness. Some fundamentalists act like they would enjoy nothing better than bringing back stoning and slavery.

Bible Study on Acts 16, verses 16 to 24, the testimony of devils

 

Acts 16:16 ¶  And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17  The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. 18  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. 19  And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, 20  And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21  And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. 22  And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. 23  And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24  Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

 

James 2:19  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

 

There were other times when devils acknowledged who Christ was.

 

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?

 

Why did Paul cast out this annoying spirit even though it declared who they were, that their God was the most high, and that they showed the way of salvation? God does not need or require the declarations of devils, for one. This woman was declaring openly, loudly, and daily that these men were servants of the greatest God, which would have been an offense to the idolatrous Graeco-Roman world. She was, by her nuisance, making Paul and Silas a public disturbance by their very presence.

 

And yet, by driving the spirit from her, her usefulness to her employers was gone. Some sources claim that people claiming special powers of divination and sorcery were common in these days, with the charmers being under the control of people who made money from them. In fact, religion was the biggest business in the Roman world. The Romans thought of themselves as very religious, collectively pious, and that their success in the world was due to their relationship to the gods. Like the Hindus in India today they would have had no problem adding another cult to their pantheon as long as that cult did not claim that their god was THE God.

 

Paul and Silas are arrested and beaten without a trial to face their accusers which was Paul’s right as a Roman citizen. This is swift injustice and what was perceived to be their interference with the lawful business these people who ran the possessed girl enjoyed, this disturbing the public peace turning what the girl declared back on Paul and Silas was the reason.

 

But, of course, God had another purpose for allowing this to happen in mind.

Bible Study on Exodus 21, verses 1 to 11, a Hebrew servant

 

Exodus 21:1 ¶  Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 2  If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3  If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4  If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. 5  And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: 6  Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. 7  And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. 8  If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. 9  And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. 10  If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. 11  And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

Now comes the civil law that God wants to give the Hebrews to set them apart from other cultures in the world and other nations. This will give us a clue of some of the customs the Hebrews were part of in Egypt, which God is modifying here. He starts with rules for purchasing a servant of his own people. While this would not seem to be of much relevance to us there are some important things to note. Compare the mercy and moderation called for servants to the treatment the Egyptians dealt out to the Hebrews.

Having servants or slaves was a normal part of these cultures and the world of that time. In fact, until recently, with the advent of electric appliances and gas-powered equipment for farms having slaves or servants or children to do the manual work alongside farm animals was essential for survival on anything but a subsistence scale.

God did not create culture and civilization. He permitted man to do it and He modified it. He molded and tempered societies. His purpose is His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself, not creating something for historians to write about. As an example, Christianity’s focus moved to Europe, leavened and mixed in with pagan practices to make it more sellable. God did not call for this but permitted this corrupted Christianity but out of that milieu He drew certain people, some called heretics or nonconformists and other names like Paulicians, Henricians, Bogomils, Albigensians, Waldensians and others given their names by their enemies, each group not being perfect in doctrine or understanding but drawing closer to Him moving away from the paganism of established political churches and dying cruel martyrs’ deaths.

Constantly, signs of God’s molding and tempering of the Christian faith moved into the Reformation and beyond. Each generation saw people striving for a purer faith and one more lined up with the Bible. It is a process, a part of reconciling man to Himself but using man’s free will and man’s understanding here a little, there a little to move mankind closer to God.

Back to the Hebrews meant to be a theocracy with God as king, God tempers and constrains the customs of the Ancient Near East to make a people unique to Him. He did not simply wipe the board clean and start over but worked within the framework of culture that existed. He works like that when we are saved individually. We typically don’t quit our jobs, leave our families, and forget all that we’ve learned in the world to start over like a newborn baby with no memory. God molds and shapes us through His Bible, preaching, prayer, and our experience to make us the person He wants us to be which will never be completed on this earth and in this life.

Verse 10 gives us a hint about God’s continuing value of the children of Israel, even today. God the Father calls Israel His wife. For instance, in the book of Hosea Israel is likened to an unfaithful wife…

Hosea 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

…and Israel is also God’s firstborn…

Exodus 4:22  And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

…and the Church is Christ’s bride….

2Corinthians 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

John 3:29  He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Revelation 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Revelation 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

Revelation 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

…and rules are given about a first wife and then the second wife’s children…

Deuteronomy 21: 15 ¶  If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: 16  Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: 17  But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

These verses help explain the doctrine that God has a unique place for Israel in the end times. He is not done with the people He created out of the heathen world of the second millennium BC. There are promises of their supernatural redemption all through the Old Testament.

Jeremiah 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

Bible Study on Acts 16, verses 6 to 15, Lydia of Thyatira

 

Acts 16:6 ¶  Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, 7  After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. 8  And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. 9  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. 10  And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. 11  Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis; 12  And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days. 13  And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. 14  And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. 15  And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.

 

The Holy Spirit guides Paul and company not to proceed any further into the province of Asia, our Asia Minor and Turkey today. They got as far as central Turkey today, Galatia, but were forbidden to go northward into Bithynia. They passed by Mysia and entered Troas, the far western part of the Asian mainland. So, they went east, tried to go north, were stopped, and turned back westward.

 

What does it mean that the Spirit suffered them not? Perhaps they all, through prayer, had the same sense that they were not to go further. Many of us Christians, though, have had experiences where we intended to do something, good or bad, and were prevented by a force that could only be accounted for by the Holy Spirit.

 

It is here that a vision appeared to Paul of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to come to preach the gospel to them in Macedonia, a Roman province that included Alexander the Great’s old kingdom of Macedonia and neighboring regions. It is not the same area as the country of Macedonia today exactly.

 

Here we have mentioned a great woman of God named Lydia, a businessperson who engaged in the selling of purple. Clothing colored that way was so expensive that it came to signify royalty. The Roman soldiers put a purple robe on Jesus to mock Him as the king of the Jews.

Mark 15:17  And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, 18  And began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! 19  And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. 20  And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him.

The wealthy man in the story of Lazarus and the rich man wore purple.

Luke 16:19 ¶  There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

Purple was worn by Roman magistrates and it became the imperial color worn by the rulers of the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, and later by Roman Catholic bishops. Also, in Japan, the color is traditionally associated with the Emperor and the nobility.

Purple was made from a sea snail, traditionally by the seafarers of Tyre. It was known as Tyrian Purple in that context. The process of killing thousands of sea snails and making the dye was long and expensive, requiring a great deal of precision to get it right.

Lydia, as a purveyor of a luxury item, a businesswoman, was probably fairly successful and offered her home as place for Paul and company to stay after she became a Christian. Lydia came from a Greek city in Asia called Thyatira. It doesn’t say she was a Jew so she may have been a convert to Judaism. It is interesting to note that scholars believe that the name of the city is from an old language called Lydian spoken in the ancient kingdom of Lydia and thereabouts. Lydia was probably a fairly common girl’s name in Thyatira, I am thinking. But, we are in Macedonia now in the European mainland north of Greece.