Tuesday, June 5, 2012

260 in 2012 DEVOS - Day 112 - Acts 23: Paul’s Second Defense & The Providence of God

As much as Paul’s first defense (ch 22) caused a tiff, his second one here begins another plot on his life!

Paul had a clear conscience that he had done God’s work (implying they had not) and so he looked the Sanhedrin (like our Supreme Court) straight in the eye and told them so! The High Priest is Ananias – not the Ananias of chapter 5, he’s dead, and not the Ananias of chapter 9 either – so keep your Ananias’ straight! Anyway, he doesn’t like this so he orders Paul struck by one of his soldiers. And not some slap in the face, but literally a vicious blow! This also was against the law so Paul calls him on it: "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"

Paul then finds out that it’s the high priest he is speaking to and humbly admits that he out of line and shouldn’t have spoken that way (5).

What happens next is totally God! It reads that “Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead." Ingenious! Paul gets them bickering among themselves and the focus is off him! Where did this come from? I believe this is an example of the power Jesus promises believers in Mark 13:9-11: “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” God will help us when our faith is being tested! We see here God’s “providence”: “pro” = “beforehand”, “video” = “to see.” Therefore, providence is God seeing beforehand and that is exactly what happens! We also see in verse 11, that God is near during these times too!

Well, all of this ticks off the Jews and more than 40 of them take an oath not to eat until they kill Paul! And yes, they’re gonna’ go hungry for a while! As they devise a plot to kill Paul, his little nephew overhears it, tells the commander, and an alternate plan is made, saving Paul’s life! Paul is sent to Governor Felix and placed under guard.

SO WHAT?

*We see in this chapter that speaking the truth can make others angry as well as cause division. Paul was sorry for HOW he spoke to the high priest but not about WHAT he spoke, because it was truth. We too must be careful to speak the truth in love.

*Ever been fearful of sharing your faith because you’re not sure what questions you may be cornered with? Go head and share anyway, the Lord promises that He will give you the words to say!

*Finally, I am ever amazed how God uses YOUNG PEOPLE to do AMAZING things for Him! It’s one of the reasons I work with students! God used Paul’s nephew to go before a commander and give him news that saved Paul’s life! Ever think, “I’m just a teen, God can’t use me”? If you’re a young person, God can AND wants to use YOU! And if you’re not as young, well, God wants to use you too! It’s not our ability He wants but our AVAILABILITY!

No comments:

Post a Comment