“Inside, the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another. Everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.” Acts of the Apostles 19:32 NLT
Mob mentality. Where everybody gets together in one group. And they all start raising their voices. It’s like this sea of emotions sweeps around the room. Everybody gets caught up in it. There might be one or two instigators. Yet the whole room takes on the emotions of those one or two instigators. And… Nine times out of ten, they don’t even know what they’re angry about, upset about, or what’s going on.
That’s exactly what happened here when the people from Ephesus got very riled up by one person who made crafts for the Artemis. I think it was Artemis, the goddess. Anyways. he got the other people that were selling idols and stuff all stirred up. Then they gathered together. The instigators got the crowd stirred up, infected with anger. I say “infected” because that’s basically what happened. The anger sweeps through the crowd like a virus does where everybody starts mimicking the same symptoms.
That’s what happened here. And it says, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.
How often do we get swept up? All I can think about is social media. How often do we get swept up in the mob mentality of social media? I mean, go to a popular post. Go down into the comments. Start reading the comments. Once one negative comment pops up, more and more start popping up. It’s like a snowball effect. Pretty soon, almost the whole thread is negative comments instead of positive ones.
Mob mentality on social media is extremely viral. It really seems to have a mind of its own. And most people don’t even know why they’re caught up in it. I mean, that happens to me when I start watching and reading. I get all caught up in the emotions of everybody’s stuff.
Then I have to stop and think, Lord, what do you want me to be thinking in this moment? Why am I here? Why am I here in this place at this time in this moment? Does it have anything to do with You or am I in my flesh?
And that’s what I think a lot of the people were in the Scripture verses. They were in their flesh and that’s why they got caught up in the mob mentality. I think all of us have a tendency to do that.
So that’s where my mind went with this one. This scripture seems to be a snapshot of mob mentality. And if we feel like we are getting caught up in that, we need to take a step back. Refocus on Jesus. When we don’t know why we are somewhere or why we are doing what we are doing we need to put Jesus back at the middle and everything will fall into place. He will let us know if we need to leave, if we need to change our attitude and what we need to do.
Until next time with Jesus’ help let’s be less messy and choose what’s better.