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The Truth About Angels
Angels During Paul’s Ministry
An extensive and profitable business had grown up at Ephesus
from the manufacture and sale of small shrines and images, modeled
after the temple and the image of Diana. Those interested in this
industry found their gains diminishing, and all united in attributing the
unwelcome change to Paul’s labors....
“The whole city was filled with confusion.” Search was made for
Paul, but the apostle was not to be found. His brethren, receiving an
intimation of the danger, had hurried him out of the place. Angels
of God had been sent to guard the apostle; his time to die a martyr’s
[235]
death had not yet come.—
The Acts of the Apostles, 292, 293
.
Day after day, as they [Paul and Silas] went to their devotions
[in Philippi], a woman with the spirit of divination followed them,
crying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, which
show unto us the way of salvation.” This woman was a special agent
of Satan; and, as the devils were troubled by the presence of Christ,
so the evil spirit which possessed her was ill at ease in the presence
of the apostles. Satan knew that his kingdom was invaded, and took
this way of opposing the work of the ministers of God. The words of
recommendation uttered by this woman were an injury to the cause,
distracting the minds of the people from the truths presented to them,
and throwing disrepute upon the work by causing people to believe that
the men who spoke with the Spirit and power of God were actuated by
the same spirit as this emissary of Satan.
The apostles endured this opposition for several days; then Paul,
under inspiration of the Spirit of God, commanded the evil spirit to
leave the woman. Satan was thus met and rebuked. The immediate
and continued silence of the woman testified that the apostles were
the servants of God, and that the demon had acknowledged them to
be such, and had obeyed their command. When the woman was dis-
possessed of the spirit of the devil, and restored to herself, her masters
were alarmed for their craft. They saw that all hope of receiving money
from her divinations and soothsayings was at an end, and perceived
that, if the apostles were allowed to continue their work, their own
[236]
source of income would soon be entirely cut off.—
Sketches from the
Life of Paul, 74, 75
.