Acts 16: 11-40
Now they are in Philippi, the the city of the church Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians to, which was a Roman colony.
Their first convert there is a business-woman named Lydia, who invited them to stay at her home.
It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.
She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the Name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!
And it came out at that very moment.
It just so happened that a demon-possessed
slave-girl was following them, crying out after them; but it annoyed
Paul for a demon to be doing this, and he cast out the demon from her.
He didn't want the promotion of a demon any more than Jesus had (Mark
1:23-25--Jesus told the spirit to "be quiet").
But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities,
and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews,
and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or observe, being Romans.
The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.
When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely;
and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
But when the girl's owners saw that they couldn't make money off of her any more, that's when the accusations came. And it doesn't look like they even had a chance to defend themselves, but were immediately beaten and thrown into the stocks in jail!
Just like today, when righteous people are persecuted, lied about, and slandered--follow the money.
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;
and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened.
When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!
I wonder how many of the other prisoners' interest was piqued by their music? God was not going to let this situation go, but He provided supernatural help using the natural processes of the Earth to show His approval of Paul and Silas.
And when the jailer thought the prisoners had escaped, Paul had to reassure him, and the result was that the jailer and his whole household were saved.
In the morning when the magistrates found out that they were Romans, they were afraid, as they were going to just let them go quietly. Now they know that these men are asserting their rights, so they asked them to leave the city, to avoid any trouble with their superiors.
So they stopped by Lydia's house and encouraged their friends there and left.
O my Father, I pray for those people of Yours who are being slandered and persecuted today. There are people who are doing much good for the people and for Your Kingdom. And their enemies hate them so much that there is nothing they can do to gain agreement with them on anything.
O Father, our enemy knows his time is short, and is so fierce! But he is no match for You, my sovereign Lord. Please protect Your servants, especially the ones who are in the public eye and seem vulnerable to damage from attacks.
Keep Your servants, Your children, in Your sovereign care, Father. Protect us all as we go about doing Your work among the heathen and others who don't know You. Lead us to Your lost sheep, Lord, to draw them into Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And we will all give You all the glory, all the honor, all the praise; for it is You who has done it all! You thought it up, planned it out, designed how it would work and function, and are working everything out to completion.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
