And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: (17) The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. (18) And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
There is somewhat very singular in what is here related. This damsel was evidently under an evil possession, as the craft she was engaged in proves. But what she said was strictly true, for the Apostles were the Lord's servants, and shewed the way of salvation in preaching Christ, John 14:6. But whether the Lord over-ruled the enemy which deluded her, to give an unwilling testimony to the truth, as it is in Jesus, as he did in the days of his flesh concerning Christ himself, Mark 1:24, or whether the Lord did by her, as he did by the poor man possessed of an evil spirit among the tombs, suffer this evil possession to be for a time, for the greater manifestation of the Lord's glory, I cannot presume to say. See Mark 5:1-20 and Commentary upon it. But it is worthy remark, that when in the name of the Lord Jesus, Paul commanded the evil spirit to come out, the infamous gain of her masters was at an end, and affords a reasonable hope, that, as in the case of the poor man among the tombs, this damsel might have been delivered, as he was, from the power of Satan to the living God. It is true that the scripture is silent, and hath not added this part to her history. We have therefore no authority to make the conclusion as certain. But it is equally true, that she was delivered from the delusion under which she had been, and therefore we are in some measure authorized to hope it. But here we leave the subject.