SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2018
10:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Calming of the Riot”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
19:35-41
Message of the
verses: “35 After quieting the
crowd, the town clerk said, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there after all
who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of
the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven? 36 “So, since
these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. 37 “For
you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor
blasphemers of our goddess. 38 “So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are
with him have a complaint against any man, the courts are in session and
proconsuls are available; let them bring charges against one another. 39 “But
if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly.
40 "For indeed we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection
with today’s events, since there is no real cause for it, and in this
connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering." 41
After saying this he dismissed the assembly.”
When we look at the words “town clerk” we may wonder why
this man would have the power to do what is described that he did in this
section of Scripture. When I looked up
this word “clerk” in my Online Bible dictionary (Greek/English), it said that this
position was different in different towns, and so we have to believe that in
the case of Ephesus this man indeed had the power to do what is described here,
and that is to s top the demonstration that was going on. John MacArthur states that this man was like
a mayor of a modern city. It is believed
that if this demonstration was not stopped that this man would be accountable
to Rome, and we can surely believe that he did not want that to happen and that
is why he came to stop what was going on in the theater. One of the things that he said to calm the
situation was to talk about this god that many of the Ephesians worshiped: “, "Men of Ephesus, what man is there
after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the
temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from heaven?” In his commentary John MacArthur quotes John
Polhil:
“Meteorites were often
associated with the worship of Mother Goddess [Artemis]. The most famous of these was the sacred stone
taken from Pessinus to Rome in 204 BC. A
meteorite also seems to have been associated with the cult of the Taurian
Artemis. Although there is no evidence beyond this text for such a sacred stone
being connected with the Ephesian cult, it is altogether likely that one
existed, given this common association of the mother goddess with a ‘stone from
heaven.’”
This town clerk continues on by saying “since then there
are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash.” If I am correct in my thinking about this I
think that this man was doing something to make sure he did not get into
trouble with the Romans. You may call it
CYA (Cover Your Anatomy). Now due to
things that are going on this morning at our house we will have to finish this
section in our next SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Every eye.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Aeneas, Jesus
Christ makes you whole: arise, and make
your bed?’”
Answer in our next SD.
6/23/2018 11:43 AM
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