Tag Archives: slave girl

THE BOOK OF ACTS – DECEITFUL AND BEYOND CURE

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DECEITFUL AND BEYOND CURE

“When her owners saw that their lucrative little business was suddenly bankrupt, they went after Paul and Silas, roughed them up and dragged them into the market square. Then the police arrested them and pulled them into a court with this accusation, ‘These men are disturbing the peace — dangerous Jewish agitators subverting our law and order.’ By this time the crowd had turned into a restless mob out for blood.

“The judges went along with the mob, had Paul and Silas’s clothes ripped off and ordered a public beating. After beating them black and blue, they threw them into jail, telling the jail-keeper to put them under heavy guard so there would be no chance of escape. He did just that — threw them into the maximum security cell in the jail and clamped leg irons on them.” Acts 16:19-24 (The Message).

Wow! All that just because Paul set a girl free! Talk about injustice! Who were the agitators and who were the ones subverting law and order? Certainly not Paul and Silas.

What lay at the bottom of this furore? Money! These slave-owners were mercilessly exploiting another human being for the sake of money. They were turning her spiritual torment into an income for themselves with no regard for her dignity or humanity. It’s no wonder that the Holy Spirit acted quickly to release her from demonic oppression when Paul intervened!

Her owners could not come out with the real reason for their protest. What would it look like for them if they dragged Paul and Silas into court shouting, ‘These men have just set this girl free from demons and now we can’t make money out of her any more’? What an exposure of their own wicked hearts, exploiting the plight of the girl and the gullibility of the public!

What did they say instead? “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to practise.”  Acts 16:21 (NIV). How true was that? Who was throwing the city into an uproar? They were. Where and to whom were Paul and Silas speaking? They were speaking to the women outside the city at the place of prayer near the river. So who was deceiving whom?

This is our story. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Jeremiah wrote this damning diagnosis of the condition of the human heart:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV).

So intent are we on protecting our name, our image, and even our motives that we lie to ourselves and to the ones who are closest to us. The results are alienation and broken relationships, anger, bitterness and resentment because we are unwilling to take responsibility for what we do and say.

What would have happened had the slave-owners resolved to tell the truth? Would they have resorted to the action they took against Paul and Silas? If they were honest, might they not have admitted that their treatment of the girl was wrong and perhaps even set her free because they had been unfair to her?

The miracle of the gospel of Jesus is that it changes our hearts. It enables us to see things from another perspective; truth replaces deception and teaches us to be humble enough to be real with ourselves and others. Only God’s grace can  set us free from our inborn lying natures and embrace who we really are — people created in the image of God who are being transformed from our old corrupt selves into the character of Jesus.

Freed From The Tormentor

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FREED FROM THE TORMENTOR

“One day, on our way to the place of prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her fortune-telling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. She started following Paul around, calling everyone’s attention to us by yelling out, ‘These men are working for the Most High God. They’re laying out the road of salvation for you.’ She did this for a number of days until Paul, finally fed up with her, turned and commanded the spirit that possessed her, ‘Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!’ And it was gone, just like that.” Acts 16:16-18 (The Message).

So what was the problem? Didn’t this girl give Paul just the sort of publicity he needed to get his message across? Wasn’t she helping him in his ministry?

At face value it seems that his reaction was a bit harsh. He interfered with this girl’s owners’ source of income and he cut short the publicity she gave him by her psychic “insight” into who he was and what he was doing.

Let’s look at the issues a little more closely.

First of all, Jesus had the same problems with demon-possessed people. The demons in them had no option but to acknowledge who He was but that did not mean that they did it by their own free will. They were enemies of Jesus, aligned with the devil, and knew very well who the real Master was. Jesus refused to accept testimony from them.

Only people who freely and willingly submitted to Him as Lord had reason to testify. Even then, He would not allow then to speak until His work on the cross was complete. Publicity for the wrong reasons hindered rather than helped his ministry.

Paul, likewise, would not accept publicity from someone who did not bow to Jesus as Lord. This girl’s babbling was not a testimony to the salvation she experienced. She was mouthing words she was forced to speak from the “squatters” who dominated her.

Secondly, the girl was not only owned by unscrupulous masters; she was possessed by an even more unscrupulous spirit who controlled her thoughts and actions. She was a slave in every sense of the word, exploited by her human masters for money and by a demonic spirit who drove her to do his bidding day and night. She was doing to Paul what the demon did to her, tormenting him with her words.

Why he did not act immediately is not clear. Perhaps he was preoccupied with the ministry he was engaged in. Perhaps it took him a while to become irritated by the girl’s tailing him and shouting. Perhaps he was reluctant to fall foul of her owners because he was already in enough trouble with antagonistic Jews.

Finally her condition got to him. In the name of Jesus he evicted the squatter and released her from her so-called “gift” which was nothing but a chain around her spirit. We have no idea what happened to her. No doubt her masters took it out on her as well as on Paul and Silas. They could not control the owners’ treatment of the girl, but at least she was free from the inner torment that had enslaved her spirit. Did she perhaps respond in faith to the Most High God she had so mindlessly proclaimed? We would love to think that she did.

Paul was a man who knew who he was in Christ. He was not afraid to engage the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to win the battle already won on the cross but to take the spoils of war which belonged to the winner. No wonder the demons said to the sons of Sceva who were trying to drive them out, “We know Jesus and we know Paul, but who are you?” and beat them up until they fled!