There was a stir about that way in Ephesus, a prosperous large city where idolatry abounded. There was an initiation of a large response to the move of God brought about by the gospel preaching of Paul and his companions. It was a big deal that went far beyond the usual concurrent mumblings & grumblings about people not liking what he wore, that his wife should be quiet, or his compensation. This citywide tumult was a response to the gospel and I understand. To tell people already set in their ways that there is no way to cajole or compel deity to grant access to humanity by prayers appealing to an idol's vanity did not sit well with them. To tell people that God grants favor to those who merely believe on Him whom the Father had sent removes the fallaciousness of idols and graven things. They didn't need crucifixes, rosary beads, prayer shawls, or visual depictions of how they thought God should look. And in Ephesus, a city populated by people from around the empire - Jews and Gentiles - the gospel was a direct rebuke to the idolatry of Jupiter and Diana, Roman names for the Greek gods Zeus and Artemis, identifiable to all people who lived in or did business in that city. And one of the biggest lines of business there was the manufacture, distribution, and sale of metallic idols. The ability to produce and shape metal was not common in that time and those who had those particular skills would always be in demand. And there was a lot of money being made working metal in Ephesus by a close-knit community of those who took advantage of their skills to manufacture idols. But the gospel was cutting into their money.
Demetrius, a denizen of the city, a silversmith by trade, unsaved, and caring nothing about the gospel or God Himself became alarmed at the trend and called a meeting. Yeah, even unsaved folk like to have meetings! He has seen how those who practiced sorcery and necromancy had been destroying their books & literature concerning their curious arts, renouncing their spells and incantations as a response to the gospel. It has been long said that the gospel will either draw you or drive you. It appears that while some were drawn, Demetrius gathered together those who had been hardened in their opposition for his fellow idol makers stood to lose a great deal because of the move of God. He stirred up the people and they took two of Paul's companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, and dragged them into the public theater to accuse them and to no doubt bring harm unto them for their works of faith. Paul knew and he would have gone in to bring them out but the disciples would not allow him to go. The authorities whom had apparently befriended Paul warned him not to go. The madness of the crowd of Ephesian citizens who took the law to their own hands assuredly created an unsafe environment. Even those who had no financial stake but who allowed themselves to be manipulated by those who had money by evil means gathered into the riotous rabble. The Bible says that many of them didn't even know why they were there. But they allowed themselves to be swept up into a movement that would not even help them.
But interestingly there was one who knew why he was there, a Jew by the name of Alexander. In the madness and confusion of the moment he was selected to stand up and explain to everyone why he and the other metal workers were there. This very likely was Alexander the coppersmith, a person mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures, a man of whom was said did Paul much evil. As a known Jew in Ephesus he would have known why Paul was there. He would have known what Paul preached. But Alexander was there in contrivance to all of his monotheistic heritage as he was part of a guild that enabled idolatry. Alexander knew that there is only one sovereign God of the universe. And yet he gave himself over to the service of idolatry. He wanted to be a Jew, wanted to understand what Paul preached, and he also wanted to fatten his pockets. Alexander was trying to have it all. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He had his feet in two worlds, trying to make himself acceptable to idolatrous people who could not ever really abide that he was a Jew who only believed in one God.
I need to ask everyone, how are you doing with that? How are you dealing with the fact that you were surrounded by idolaters and idolatry and yet God expects you to hold on to your testimony of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? How are you as a woman navigating the patriarchy? How are you as a non-heteronormative individual adapting to a world that only accepts cisgender binaries? How are you as a Black person living in a country founded on and dominated by white supremacy? How can any Black person in this country cozy up to and associate themselves with the politics of exclusion, racism, and an absence of social justice? How can a woman vote for politicians that relegate her to 2nd class status without control of her body?