Acts 16:16-19

¹⁶  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.   ¹⁷  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."   ¹⁸  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.

¹⁹  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.  

 

This girl was smart, street smart. Advertised as a fortune-teller, her ability to read and work a crowd brought in "a great deal of money for her owners" not for her. The spirit she claimed to have made her unpredictable and fearsome. One day she spots the apostles on their way to prayer. Like her these men could also gather a crowd but they didn't work for money. They were known for their ability to heal people and she realized that if these men publicly "healed" her of the spirit which allowed her tell fortunes, she would no longer have value to her owners. She spends days following Paul and the rest yelling, calling attention to them until finally in extreme annoyance Paul demands the demon to come of her and instantly she is liberated.

 

This is all we know about this slave, we don't know her name, her age, her race or how she became a slave. Depending on your reading of scripture we don't even know if she really did have a demon or if this was something she claimed to make some cash and ensure her owners kept their hands off her. Either way, she is freed by Paul and hopefully was released by the people who felt as though they could own another human being. I think we need Paul to come back as there still far too many people living like this woman.

 

Human trafficking, is "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs." (https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html) Currently it is a $32 billion - a year industry and is on the rise in all 50 states. In 2002 the International Labor Organization estimated that 1.2 million children a year were being trafficked for various forms of slavery. Current figures show that human trafficking has surpassed the illegal sale of arms and will surpass the illegal sale of drugs within the next few years. There are approximately 1.5 million slaves living in the United States which means we have all had contact with someone who is seen as being owned by someone else. We have all seen someone not much different than the slave in the passage from Acts.

 

As much as I would love to think that a sentence said in the name of Jesus would release someone from this horrible fate, it usually takes quite a bit more than that. If you suspect someone might be a victim of human trafficking you can contact the numbers and websites below:

The National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free hotline at 1-888-373-7888 :

Anti-Trafficking Hotline Advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking. 

Text the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 233733.

Chat the National Human Trafficking Hotline via www.humantraffickinghotline.org/chat

Submit a tip online through the anonymous online reporting form found here. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/report-trafficking

 

The information you provide will be reviewed by the National Hotline. All reports are confidential and you may remain anonymous.

Report missing children or child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-THE-LOST (843-5678) or through their Cybertipline.