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.
No comments:
Post a Comment