A Devotion from D.A. Carson

Genesis 20; Matthew 19; Nehemiah 9; Acts 19

CROWD PSYCHOLOGY IS EASILY EXPLAINED after the fact, but difficult to predict. I recall at a raucous

campus election at McGill University thirty-five years ago, one student heckler made a couple of

telling points that embarrassed the candidate in question. The crowd was instantly on his side,

cheering him on. Thus emboldened, he attempted another sally, but this one was anemic and

pointless. The candidate looked at him disdainfully and asked, “Is there some point you are

trying to make?” Unable to reply with a quick and direct barb, the student immediately found

the crowd hissing and booing him and telling him to shut up and sit down. In two minutes the

crowd had turned from avid support to dismissive scorn. It was easy enough to analyze after

the fact; it was difficult to predict.

Demetrius the silversmith learned this lesson the hard way (Acts 19:23–41). In the face of

Paul’s effective evangelism, and therefore the threat of a diminution of his business as an

artisan producing silver figurines of the goddess Artemis (her Latin name was Diana), Demetrius

tries to stir up enough opposition to stop the Christian movement. Planned or otherwise, the

result is a full-fledged riot. Paul sees this as a glorious opportunity to articulate the Gospel to a

huge crowd; his friends, however, see this crowd as so dangerous that they succeed, with

whatever difficulty, in persuading him to stay away.

Eventually the “city clerk” (more or less equivalent to a mayor) quiets the crowd. Ephesus is

a free city; it is trusted by Rome to govern itself and remain loyal to the empire. The city clerk

well knows that reports of riots in Ephesus could prompt an inquiry that might result in a

change of status. Roman troops could be imposed and a governor commissioned by either the

senate or the emperor himself. The Christians, says the mayor, are not guilty of desecrating the

temple of Artemis. So why the riot? If Demetrius and his friends have a grievance, there are

courts, or they can await the calling of the next properly constituted city “assembly”

(19:39—interestingly, the word is ekklesia, from which we derive “church”). So the city clerk

quells the crowd and dismisses it.

Some of the lessons are obvious. (1) It is usually very foolish to whip up a crowd. The results

are unpredictable. (2) God remains in charge. Despite some desperate moments, the results in

this case are wonderful: the Christian cause has been exonerated, Demetrius and his cronies

have lost face, no one has suffered harm. (3) God can use strange economic and political

pressures, including, in this case, a pagan artisan and a mayor, to bring about his good

purposes.