In the book of Acts there is an account of Paul's encounter with two very different women in the city of Thyatira. One was a well-to-do dealer in purple cloth, the other a slave girl.
On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer.i We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us. Acts 16:13-15
Lydia was a businesswoman, a merchant with her own home. It is recorded a little later in the chapter that Paul and Silas went to Lydia's home when they were freed from prison and met with the believers there. Luke says of her that the Lord opened her heart (opened up completely). The word is used of a firstborn opening the womb. She was born again. So, this is the first woman mentioned in this passage – successful, prosperous, confident – one whom I can admire from a distance, but not really relate to. And then there is this slave girl.
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her. When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. Acts 16:16-19
The Bible does not record the fate of the fortune-teller slave, or even her name. But I wondered, what happened to her? She is not mentioned again. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers offers this hope about her:
"But Paul, being grieved . . .—It is obvious that the constant repetition of these clamorous cries must have been a hindrance to the Apostle's work, disturbing him as he talked to the other women at the proseucha. Was it not right for him to do as his Master had done with the demoniacs of Gadara (see Notes on Matthew 8:28-34), and to restore the woman to her true self, by teaching her to distinguish between her longing for deliverance and the wild passions that hindered her from attaining it? And so he spoke, and the evil spirit 'came out the same hour.' Here the history ends, as far as the damsel was concerned; but we can hardly think that she was left to drift back into ignorance and unbelief. Would not such a one find shelter and comfort at the hands of the women who 'laboured' with the Apostle?"
I have a theory about what happened to the fortune teller. Because I can very much identify with her. I was also a fortune-telling female slave in a way. I grew up enmeshed in a dysfunctional family. My mother was steeped in superstitious fears and horoscope reading. As kids we had a Ouija board and in my teen years even tried a seance once. I was expected to buy into it all, especially the passed-down superstitions. But God was, all along, drawing me to Himself.
When I was a young woman, maybe the age of the slave-girl, my heart began following after, desperately seeking the true God. Crying out the muzzled yearning of a captured heart, mind and body enslaved by trauma and abuse, survival response. I had been forced to do, think and even feel, exactly what I was expected, performing and saying what would benefit my captor. Coerced into foretelling and fulfilling a twisted illusion/delusion. A slave of fear and guilt, gaslighting and self-doubt – no, self-erasure – self-loathing. But God delivered me and began the process of restoring me to my "true self."
I wonder what her captors thought of the fortune-teller leaving her station and pursuing Paul. I wonder if they tried to stop her. I'm betting they did. I bet they were vicious and brutal, even more so as they saw their power and income slipping through their fingers. But there was no stopping her now. God was wooing her out into a spacious place free from restriction (Job 36:16), rescuing her because He delighted in her (Psalm 18:19).
I think the fortune-teller was discarded by her captors and driven away when she was no longer of any benefit. Or maybe Lydia, the dealer in purple cloth, purchased and freed her. I don't believe our loving Father would set her heart and mind free and then abandon her. I think she found her way somehow into the family of the redeemed there on the riverbank, and she drank there of the river of delights, the river of the water of life. I believe she began the long process of revelation and healing. The long journey out of darkness and into the great heart of God.
Anyway, that is the story of this once-slave.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14 (ESV)
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light. Psalm 36:7-9 (ESV)
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6:44 (ESV)
i proseuché: "a place in the open air where the Jews were accustomed to pray, outside of those cities where they had no synagogue; such places were situated upon the bank of a stream or the shore of the sea, where there was a supply of water for washing the hands before prayer: Acts 16:13, 16." -- Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Photo by Leonora (Ellie) Enking, detail from The River Where St. Lydia Was Baptized https://flic.kr/p/8xTNZA
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