But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the
marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's
house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.
Acts 17:5
The next two groups of external tactics Satan used in the New Testament are
merchants and mobs. Merchants or businessmen represent the economic
establishment and are often opposed to Christians purely because Christians are
a threat to their business.
The two clearest examples of opposition from businessmen in scripture are
when Paul visits Philippi and later Ephesus (Acts 16 and 19). In Philippi,
Paul and Silas ended up in jail because of the actions of the owners of a demon
possessed slave girl who was healed. Seeing their source of income disappearing
because of her conversion, her owners pressed a false case against Paul, and had
him jailed for “disturbing the peace.” But the Scripture makes clear their
economic motive, “when her owners saw that their hope of making money was
gone…” (Acts 16:19).
Then when Paul gets to Ephesus the impact of his preaching is so great it
causes the former members of the Artemis cult to hold a bonfire of their
trinkets and shrines. A shop steward called Demetrius, on behalf of the
silversmiths of the town, figures anything that reduces the appeal of the temple
of Artemis is going to be bad for business. He stirs up a riot and Paul has to
hurry out of the city.
Mobs play a major role in persecution, often when an elite group cannot
induce the government to do their dirty work for them. Mobs are easily
manipulated. They can be believers swayed by the heady rhetoric of clerics, or
ruffians ready to commit grievous bodily harm for the sake of money and
excitement.
Christians in Pakistan and Indonesia face the constant threat of annihilation
of their property by mobs. A news agency journalist said, “I am amazed at how
quickly a mob can get going in Pakistan. It just takes three phrases from a
mullah at Friday prayers, and five minutes later thousands are streaming out
into the streets bent on inflicting injury or even killing Christians.”
RESPONSE: Our enemy, Satan, uses every tactic possible to come against
those in the kingdom of God.
PRAYER: Pray for Christians in areas noted above that they will be
protected from Satan’s arrows.