A man told his doctor that he thought his wife was going deaf and the doctor advised him a simple test. When the man reached the front door of his home, he called out ‘’ Darling, is dinner ready?’’ Hearing no response, he repeated the question more loudly. Still he could hear no response and when he reached just behind his wife , he repeated it again and this time he could hear “ Yes darling , now for the 3rd time, I am telling you, dinner is ready’’ This man think , it is not he but his poor wife who is deaf !
Jesus taught and did many miracles and healed the sick and driven out the evil spirits from people and the people, including His own family members, made different opinions about Him. In Mark Chap 3:20 we read ‘’ Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, .……. 21 When his family[b] heard about this,… they said, “He is out of his mind.” In verse 22 we see the then religious leaders accusing Jesus , “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” It is at this that Jesus said in verse 28, ‘’Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” In Verse 30 we see, He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.” The leaders were accusing the work of holy spirit as the work of evil spirit.
The Isrealites were thinking God is blind and has abandoned them and not listening to their prayers and God spoke thru His prophet Isiah, it is not that His hand is short or He is blind or deaf but it is their inequities that prevent Him from answering to their prayers.
In Acts chap 16 we see that when Apostle Paul drive out an evil spirit from a slave girl, her masters who used to make money by predicting the future of people with the help of the evil spirit in her, get agitated accuse Paul of ‘’ throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” He was ordered to be stripped and beaten with rods and thrown into prison. In Acts Chap 17 we could see that a large number of God fearing Greeks, some prominent woman and Jews believed in the gospel preached by Apostle Paul and at this some Jews get jealous , round up some bad characters from the marketplace, form a mob and start a riot in the city and accuse Paul and his companions of ‘’ These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, …They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”
And as we move to chap 19, we see God using Paul in doing extraordinary works and miracles in Ephesus and many become believers but this again incites a silversmith, named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis and used to have a brisk business of profit for him and the craftsmen there. He organize them to stage a riots telling them: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul …. says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess …., will be robbed of her divine majesty’’
It is not uncommon even today God’s spirit is accused or attempts are made to bulldoze anyone who dare to stand for what is truth and right. I had the taste of these many times in recent past for voicing against some malicious actions and campaigns and a part of the the last doze of praise I received from a dear brother goes like this . ‘’This Satanic spell and embraces are there to stay with you’’ As in times of Jesus and Apostles , even today when we speak out truth and challenge the evils and injustices, it will badly impinge on those who are benefitted by the evil forces, stirring them to come out with all the verve in a well organized comportment. Their motivations are same, either to protect their personal profits like the Demetrius, or to prevent people from becoming true believers as the leaders of Apostles’ time or to defend the false divinity and godliness of false idol gods like Artemis, in that vein, it is defending the religion that they believe in. For them, as Bible says, it is like offering a sacrifice to God
Sajan