Contemplative Bible Reading

Acts 19:13-16 (New International Version 2011)

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

The Apostle Paul is in the city of Ephesus. According to earlier verses in this chapter, Paul stayed in Ephesus for over two years.  Note what extraordinary miracles happened around Paul:

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

If you could grab a dirty sock from Paul’s laundry basket, you could heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. This power led some Jews to try to cast out evil spirits using Paul’s fame and the power of Jesus Christ.

Note the attributes of evil spirits from verses 13 through 16:

• Evil spirits know about Jesus, i.e., spiritual matters
• Evil spirits know about Paul, i.e., physical, personal, and political matters
• Evil spirits empower people to perform super-human actions
• Evil spirits exist

This leads me to speculate about super-human actions. When was the last time you saw one man beat seven men? We usually refer to such people as professional athletes. I think this is possible, but not likely. It is, however, something to consider.