Acts 19:21-27. Paul, inspired by the Spirit, decides he will pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go back to Jerusalem and then to Rome. He sends two of his followers ahead of him to Macedonia, while he remains in Asia a bit longer. Meanwhile, a silversmith named Demetrius begins riling up his fellow craftsman whose trade depends in large part on the making and selling of statues of and shrines to the goddess Artemis. He says Paul has convinced much of Asia that "gods made with hands are not gods." Thus, their livelihood is in danger, but also "the temple of the great goddess Artemis may count for nothing, and ... she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all of Asia and the world worship."

Do we really think that Demetrius was concerned that Artemis may come to count for nothing? If the preaching of one man, Paul, could bring her to that state, she was never much of a god to begin with, was she? I think Demetrius' true concern was his pocketbook. He saw what was happening, and instead of accepting the true God's Word and adjusting his life accordingly (in which case God would have taken care of him), he chose to defend his own "god." This God, like all other false gods, will not defend him in return, it has no power to do so. Gods that require humans to make them are really just a stand-in for the gods humans want to worship - themselves, money, power, etc. They're not only powerless, they eventually leave their worshipers powerless as well.