Filed under: god | Tags: acts, alexander, aristarchus, artemis, demetrius, erastus, gaius, god, paul, timothy
1. OK, so Paul presses on. He is heading towards Rome…
2. Uh oh…this Demetrius made silver statues of Artemis, and he was rich because of all the Artemis-worship going around. So he called his boys together because he thought Christianity was going to put them out of business. (Yeah, I would consider that an attack on your livelihood if someone said that the thing you make is useless. Kind of reminds me of growing up in rural North Carolina, saying that cigarettes are bad and having kids go nuts on me because that’s how their family makes their money. “Without tobacco, we wouldn’t have this life!”)
3. Their whole religious centered around this fake goddess, Artemis. Worshipping her was kind of like a college frat party, so I can see how no one would want that to end. So they had a religious pep rally for their fake little goddess.
4. They “seized” Paul’s traveling buddies, and they all swarmed into the theater! Insane. Here’s what I love about Paul, though. He wanted to get right in the middle of that theater and tell everyone what was really going on. Fearless. Everyone wanted him to stay away from that theater.
5. He he he… “Most of the people did not even know why there were there.” That makes me laugh. Then again, when a fight happens at school, do people really care why there is a fight? They just want to see what’s going on.
6. I guess Alexander was going to make sense of everything for the people, but they decided to start shouting praises to Artemis FOR TWO HOURS STRAIGHT! Wow…that’s one way to shut people up.
7. Then the city clerk comes in and breaks up the potential riot, explaining that they must conduct things in a civil manner. Good thing they listened. Man, that’s a pretty crazy scene.
