Acts 16:17-18

This girl’s screaming recalls the behavior of the demon-possessed people whom Jesus encountered. The title "Most High God" would have had meaning for Greeks, Romans, and Jews. All of these groups had some interest in a (not "the") way of salvation. The Greeks called Zeus the "Most High God." [Note: C. Roberts, T. C. Skeat, and A. D. Nock, "The Guild of Zeus Hypsistos," Harvard Theological Review 29 (1936):39-88.] However it is probable that those who heard this girl associated the Most High God with the God of the Jews. [Note: Levinskaya, pp. 98-100.] In any case the girl’s crying out would have aroused the interest of Greeks as well as Jews. Paul proceeded to take advantage of this situation. She seems to have appointed herself the apostles’ herald announcing them wherever they went. Paul did not want her to continue doing that, however. Her presence and public relations work implied that the missionaries were allies of the demon that people knew indwelt her (cf. Mark 1:24-25). Jesus working through Paul cast the demon out (Mark 9:14-29; Luke 4:33-35; Luke 6:18; Luke 7:21; Acts 8:9-24; Acts 13:6-12; Acts 19:13-20). Luke did not record whether this girl became a Christian, though she probably did. His interest lay in what happened as a result of this incident.

Acts 16:18 raises a question about Paul’s motivation in exorcising this demon. The text says that he became annoyed after the girl had accompanied the missionaries for many days. Why did he not cast the demon out immediately because he felt compassion for the girl? We can only conclude that God did not lead him to cast the demon out sooner because He used this witness to bring people to Himself. Undoubtedly Paul felt compassion for her since there is plenty of evidence elsewhere that Paul was a compassionate person. It was evidently the continued irritation that this girl created in Paul that God finally used to lead Paul to cast the demon out of her.