Acts 23

Bible Passage: Acts 23

Yesterday, aquillofGod mentioned that Acts 22 marked the ‘beginning of the end’. Today’s chapter picks up where we left off with the gathering of the Jewish council members. They begin their pretentious showiness of their humanly attained status.

Self-Check

It’s astounding to see how the Jewish leaders were blinded by their pride and face-saving actions. Every action we see of the council members demonstrates that they were unwilling to relent from their hardened position. Such hardened hearts grew the harder with every word that came out of Paul’s mouth.

When we consider the comparison between them and Paul, it’s a deeply uncomfortable realization that the human heart is highly deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9). While we often champion Paul and say that he is the real hero here, another lesson we can learn is that we might very well become hardened in our hearts as well. The Jewish council members and religious leaders were interested in furthering their aims and to do this, it needed them to be consciously or unconsciously deceitful. At such an instance it is a matter of which emotion we give way to.

Will it be:

• Type 1 –
  Pride? Disgust? Self-conceitedness?

Or

• Type 2 –
  Pricked in the conscience? Disdain at one’s own behavior? Submissiveness to the Holy Spirit?

Admittedly, just as it takes more words to produce the emotions listed in Type 2, it requires more effort to be humble and relinquish our own positions and aims. Sometimes, the fear is that we don’t realize that our hearts are gradually hardened. But as Paul rebuked Ananias, may the Holy Spirit also rebuke us. Yet, may our reaction to the rebuke be the opposite of Ananias’s.

A Series of Fortunate Events

If we used our fleshly eyes to perceive the unfolding of the events, putting our selves in Paul’s shoes, we might be tempted to think that everything was going wrong. I doubt I could have the same strong faith at such a stage where everything seemed to be going wrong. Nevertheless, we see how the events happened according to God’s plan.

Very much like a dramatic movie, where there was a tale of bloodthirsty hitmen, a mob uprising, a chance encounter by a young lad, an escape in the nighttime, hundreds of military escorts befitting of a government official, a transfer from one county prison to another, this makes for a good movie plot. Unless, of course, you are the prisoner in question.

Despite the uncertainty of things, we remember that Joseph’s prison term was also as unpredictable way back in Genesis. Who would have guessed that he would eventually rise to be the governor of Egypt and become a historical figure we can learn from today?

Similarly, the position that Paul was in would later prove to be beneficial. And then Felix would hear his account; Festus would see Paul appealing to Caesar; King Agrippa would nearly be converted; and Paul would have safe passage to Rome to eventually conclude the final chapter of his ministry there.

No one would have expected this series of events to happen. But here we are today, learning from history.

God’s plan is higher than ours, but He always works all things out for good, for those who are called according to His purpose, for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). While we may not understand certain stations of our life now, we would do well to emulate Paul, as he emulated Christ. The dark clouds can surround us, but God stands above the clouds to see all things. We will entrust.