Acts Lesson 8: 16.6-19, Ps. 139.13-16
Prayers & Announcements
LAST WEEK: In Acts 17 we heard Paul's sermon at the Areopagus, a council of educated Greeks who made decisions on various legal matters, including religious activities. In his sermon, Paul mentions a number of things with which these Athenians would agree. Although the sermon was based upon Hebrew Scripture and Paul's personal experience with the risen Christ, he makes many of his points using Greek philosophical reasoning methods in order to better connect with this learned audience. Although few responded to the sermon in faith, it makes some important points on how we can reach people who are civilized and educated but are ignorant in matters about the one true God.
THIS WEEK: We cover Acts 16:16-19 and Psalm 139:13-16 on the general premise that because God values the life of every human being, we, as believers, are to value all human life the same way. To do this, we should take action to help people in our society who are devalued and marginalized. At the same time, we should actively oppose anything that devalues human life such as abortion, slavery, racism, homosexuality, adultery, sexual immorality, pornography, and illegal drugs, together with any form of exploitation and vice that profits from those things.
Read Acts 16:17-18 - Paul and Silas Act to Help a Demon-Possessed Girl
16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.
Note 1: This is the incident that immediately preceded the lesson we covered two weeks ago when Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten, and thrown into the jail at Philippi.
v. 16: "As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling" - "We" tells us that Luke is reporting this as an eye witness. The term "girl" implies she is young, probably an adolescent. A "spirit of divination" (Gr. pneuma pythos) or python spirit was though to give someone a divine power of wisdom and prophecy, i.e., fortune-telling. This is a clear case of exploitation in which the slave owners were using a young girl's condition to make money. It's a sad fact that many similar forms of slavery exist in the world today. Peddlers of sex and pornography often use enslaved children, male and female, for their purposes. Some Middle Eastern countries often import female workers whose contracts constitute a form of indentured servitude-defacto slavery.
Note 2: Demons, like the one who possessed this girl, are created beings who, unlike God, cannot read minds or predict the future but use deceit and craftiness to read and predict human behavior that can enable them to steer events toward a predicted outcome.
v. 17: "She followed Paul and us, crying out, 'These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation'" - The slave girl, following and listening, is for practical purposes "preaching" for Paul and Silas. Her demonic powers allowed her to recognize them as spirit-filled "servants of the Most High God" and give a demonic "testimony" to their divine credentials and the message they were preaching.
v.18: "And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And it came out that very hour" - While this girl's witness was true, it could easily be misinterpreted by people who knew nothing of Paul or the one true God he represented, e.g., most Greeks would be inclined to apply the title "Most High God" to the mythical Zeus. Paul's command to the demon, invoking the name of Jesus Christ, "come out of her," was similar to Jesus' command to the demon in Lk. 4:35. "That very hour" is an expression that means it happened instantly-freeing the girl from demonic enslavement. Notice that Paul is careful to only speak to demons with the authority of Jesus Christ.
Read Acts 17:19 - Paul and Silas Seized Out of the Owner's Greed
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
The text says nothing about what happened to the girl afterward. In any event, the reaction of the slave girl's owners isn't surprising given the exploitive nature of their business. They cared absolutely nothing about this young girl, a child, except for her usefulness in using her depraved condition to make money for them. Her only value to them was as a business asset, not as a human being. People today who use children for prostitution or pornography are in the same league.
Read Ps. 139:13-16 - The Miracle of Life: Created by God
Note 3: We now move to a Psalm written by David to the Chief musician which highlights God's intimate knowledge and care for every human being He creates.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
v. 13: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb" - The owners of the unfortunate slave girl in the previous verses were blinded by a sinful indifference to her value as a fellow human being. This is a complete contrast to David's words in this Psalm, which recognize and celebrate that God created every aspect of our being while we were still in our mother's womb. He "created" by divine power not just our outward appearance but all of our inner workings and the brain processes that make us who we are. Take a moment to think about the miracle of human anatomy, 100,000+ chemical process taking place in our brains every second, 10 billions nerve cells to record what we see and hear, our eyes each having 100 million receptor cells, and all the rest of our systems that would take many more pages to fully describe. The sheer complexity and design of the human body is proof that God exists. God created us; He owns us.
v. 14: "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well" - This is all about God. David's praise is not general but personal, praising God for creating him, giving him life. "Fearfully and wonderfully" in Heb. means "distinct" (Ex. 9:4). Every one of us is unique as a special creation of God. With the statement "my soul knows very well," David makes a conviction of faith of God's omniscient power in all of the creation-he needed no further evidence.
v. 15: "My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth" - David proclaims God's all-seeing, all-knowing control over the formation of the his "frame"-the bones, muscles, and tendons that support the human body-from the moment of his conception. The term "woven" describes God's craftsmanship as He forms the body into an intricate work of art, a thing of beauty, and phrase the "made in secret," which in Heb. literally means out of sight or covered up, suggests a process concealed from the outside world that is seen only by God, by analogy like the "depths of the earth" hidden under its surface. Yet, God sees all and is constantly there, guiding each stage of development. We are not the product of some random biological process but made by God with a purpose. There is no stronger statement than this that affirms the sanctity, dignity, and immeasurable value-in God's eyes-of every unborn child.
v. 16: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" - While others were unable to see David's embryo forming in his mother's womb, God could see him perfectly. God's perfect knowledge not only extends to the past, before we are conceived, but extends to the future, as David says, numbering every one of our days as if it were written in a book. God Himself tell us, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer. 29:11.
THE TRUTH OF THIS LESSON: God's intentional and purposeful design of each human life gives him or her personal dignity and value at the instant of conception. Three important points of personal application to us stem from this truth:
