Though shocking, a stark reality hit the Sons of Sceva: for
once, their fakery brought out the evil spirit! (it worked?)
The room suddenly turned a purplish hue, and the swirling wind
normally felt in the arid lands outside Ephesus
blew their robes and threw sand in their eyes.
Regaining their vision, confused and fearful, they heard a
voice; high-pitched but sonorant, with a demonic richness not quite
ear-splitting yet resoundingly clear. It was the evil spirit speaking directly
to them, breathing fire like a dragon.
As the air of life sucked out of the room, all seven
brothers froze in attention looking at the man they were trying to heal. Restored
and vigorous, but trance-like, the man’s lips didn’t move; although he was
definitely the source of the sound. In their lives together on the road as a
merry band of grifters, never had they focused so realistically, so fearfully, on a single voice such as that which roared from this demon.
Unfortunately, their father the Jewish high priest did not
convince them of the prohibition in the Torah about using false gods for evil
purposes, as they had done often around the major coastal city of Ephesus [see Part 1—posted 09/23/2012]. During
these alarming few moments, to their dread, an evil spirit addressed them with
a mysterious and omnipotent capacity that made these experienced hustlers rapt
like little bare-bottomed toddlers.
“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15)
There were no “eyes” fixed upon them but it seemed as if the evil spirit was looking right through the Sons of Sceva. After dancing around a serious spiritual war for which they were not prepared, now they found themselves in the middle of the battle. One of the ghostly warriors took notice of them in a very condescending way: “And, who the hell are you?” Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job, goes the saying; even more, don’t claim heavenly authority against evil forces as a scheme to take innocent, desperate people’s money. Bad choices make bad outcomes.
Many in Ephesus
marveled at Paul’s ministry, even tried to replicate the miracles he (and
Jesus) worked in their midst, but the power and sovereignty of God will not be
mocked or counterfeited. Indeed, without the blessing of God’s grace on our
work, we are impostors. Without God’s divine intervention in our lives, we are
rudderless boats adrift on a hostile ocean.
Eyes like saucers, confounded and silent, the pitiful
brothers made no reaction or even a whimper; yet they reaped the whirlwind of
the evil justice they were due. Breaking through into the realm of spiritual
warfare is difficult. Ignorance suggests they would not have started down this
road knowing what they had joined.
In an instant the man inhabited by the evil spirit leaped
upon them, seemingly with enough arms to wrangle all seven brothers. This
“being” was an entity not quite human, with an ephemeral quality, translucent
and sparkling as it whirled around like a tornado. The storm overcame the room,
as it was powerful enough to carry the whole house away from its foundation.
The fight lasted but a couple of minutes, although it inflicted significant
damage on the Sons of Sceva.
The men fled out of the house without skill or strength,
escaping with their lives alone, by grace alone. Cut, bruised and beaten, they
ran blindly through the streets as fast as their legs would carry them. The ignoble defeat included the fact that they fled naked, the height of
embarrassment in this culture. Far from being an incident of humor or derision,
the whole city heard about what happened with the evil spirit and these "honorable" criminals, and Jews and Greeks alike were aghast. It says in Acts 19: 17 that
because of this provocative incident in Ephesus ,
the name of Jesus Christ was celebrated, or “extolled.”
Common in biblical literature, especially in Luke's book of Acts, God tells His story in an unconventional
way. Ironically, the typical exorcism reversed here; turned upside down in the
surreal context of spiritual warfare. In what appears to be an interlude in the
constant spiritual battle about which we know so little; the evil spirit purged
the exorcists, and not the other way around.
©Mark H.
Pillsbury
