Tag Archives: Jews

Trial By Fire

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TRIAL BY FIRE

“That night the Master appeared to Paul. ‘It’s going to be alright. Everything is going to turn out for the best. You’ve been a good witness for me here in Jerusalem. Now you’re going to be my witness in Rome.'” Acts 23:11 (The Message).

How desperately Paul needed reassurance at that moment! Things looked pretty bad for him. He was not involved in any criminal activity and at least the Pharisee part of the Sanhedrin had given their verdict — in their row with the Sadducees — not guilty, but not in an official trial. He could not be released and even if he were, he was still in danger of being torn apart by the angry mob if he so much as stuck his nose out of doors.

Paul must have felt very alone in his circumstances, between a rock and a hard place and not knowing what would happen to him next. Things seemed to have gone horribly wrong. There seemed no way out and he must have been wondering whether God’s plan for him had been derailed.

Just when he needed it, came the word from the Master Himself. ‘It’s okay, Paul, everything is still on track. I’ll get you to Rome, just as I said I would.’ It’s just like Jesus to affirm Paul even in these sticky circumstances. He spoke words of encouragement and approval like a good father and Paul must have breathed easy again, knowing that, crazy as things seemed to be, God was still there orchestrating the situation for His own purposes.

Paul was in custody in the barracks, and now the Roman captain was sitting with a problem on his hands — what to do with him. He had no authority to release him or to try him. It was the Jews’ fight. Somehow he had to get Paul a trial by the proper authorities.

“Next day the Jews worked up a plot against Paul. They took a solemn oath that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed him. Over forty of them ritually bound themselves to this murder and presented themselves to the high priests and religious leaders. ‘We’ve bound ourselves by an oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul. But we need your help. Send a request from the council to the captain to bring Paul back so that you can investigate the charges in more detail. We’ll do the rest. Before he gets anywhere near you, we’ll have killed him. You won’t be involved.'” Acts 23:12-15 (The Message).

Now what! Paul’s Jewish antagonists had hatched a seemingly fool proof plot to kill him. No one knew about it, so they thought, and now they had Paul in the bag! This reminds me of the words of an old hymn:

“Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet ’tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadows,
Keeping watch above His own
(“Once to every man and nation” – James Russell Lowell)

The reassurance Jesus had given Paul was enough for him to know that, no matter what the current circumstances, God would turn it to His own advantage.

Watch this space for the next episode!

Assuming Is Lying

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ASSUMING IS LYING!

“When the seven days of their purification were nearly up, some Jews from around Ephesus spotted him in the Temple. At once they turned the place upside-down. They grabbed Paul and started yelling at the tops of their lungs, ‘Help! You Israelites, help! This is the man who is going all over the world telling lies against us and our religion and this place. He’s even brought Greeks in here and defiled this holy place.’ (What happened was that they had seen Paul and Trophimus, the Ephesian Greek, walking together in the city and had just assumed that he had taken him to the Temple and shown him around).” Acts 21:27-29 (The Message).

Well now, here’s an interesting situation! Seeing Paul in the city with a Greek was a far cry from seeing him in the temple with the same man. They assumed that Paul had taken him into the temple, and acted like hooligans on their assumption.

Assuming without listening is a dangerous thing to do. By assuming, these men were doing exactly what they were accusing Paul of doing — telling lies! Because they had not listened to Paul’s message in Ephesus and had even possibly been part of the riot there, seeing the whole city was in an uproar, they had certainly not grasped the truth of his preaching or his credibility as a servant of God.

They assumed that Paul was trying to discredit the Jews and their God; they assumed that he was trying to turn the Gentiles against the Jews; they assumed that he had turned against their God himself, and of course they assumed that he was a dangerous man and needed to be eliminated. From where did these assumptions come? From the “father of lies” of course! Anyone is open to these kinds of assumptions if he does not have a heart for the truth.

These Jews were in the grip of both tradition and religion that had turned them into bigots and potential murderers. It was they, not Paul, who were misrepresenting the God they were supposed to be worshipping. It was their agenda, not God’s, they were fighting for because, if they had understood the God who had revealed Himself to them through their history with Him and His law, they would have known Him to be a God of mercy and compassion who had a heart for all people, including the Gentiles.

Their own Scriptures foretold a time when Messiah would come and change everything; when the nations would stream to Jerusalem to be part of the universal worship of God.

“In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Micah 4:1-2 (NIV).

If these men, who were so zealous for their religion, had done more listening and less assuming, they would have recognised that they were uniquely privileged to a part of a new era of God’s grace.

The tragedy is that people get hurt when we assume without verifying our facts. Our assumptions are often based on our inborn desire to be one up on other people. How often do we assume things that are to the detriment or ourselves and the advantage of other people?

If we are to be true followers of Jesus, we must cultivate a generous and honest heart that assumes nothing but gives people, even those we don’t like, the benefit of the doubt. To take the trouble to be sure of our facts will offset a whole lot of pain, for other people as well as ourselves, and contribute to peace instead of conflict, which is the life we are called to live.

Smooth Sailing

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SMOOTH SAILING

“In the meantime, the rest of us had gone on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos where we planned to pick up Paul. Paul wanted to walk there and so had made these arrangements earlier. Things went according to plan. We met him at Assos, took him on board, and sailed to Mitylene. The next day we put in opposite Chios, Samos a day later, and then Miletus. Paul had decided to bypass Ephesus so that he wouldn’t be held up in Asia province. He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem in time for the Feast of Pentecost, if at all possible.” Acts 20:13-16 (The Message).

For once things were going according to plan for Paul. He had set his sights on Jerusalem in time for Pentecost and he was well on his way to getting there on time. The weather favoured the sailors; he was accompanied by his dear friends and behind him was the result of his faithful labour for Jesus.

He was still a Jew at heart, with the memory of Jewish festivals deeply ingrained in him. He had spent the most part of his life among pagans, gathering in the harvest of souls for the kingdom of God from city to city with toil, hardship and suffering — imprisonment, beatings, stoning, walking thousands of miles, experiencing the rigors of heat, cold, hunger and loneliness, but he was not daunted because he was gathering experience no one could take from him.

Jerusalem was his goal, the centre of the Jewish world and the city of his own people. Like Jesus, Paul was on a determined course for Jerusalem but, unlike Jesus, he did not yet know what awaited him there. He had been the butt of Jewish hostility throughout his travels. Many times he had been forced to turn his back on them and give his attention to the Gentiles because they had rejected him and threatened his life. He had been hounded from one city to the next and often had to change plans to escape their murderous plots but he still loved them and longed for their favourable response to the good news.

“‘I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit — I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.” Romans 9:1-4a (NIV).

How could Paul say a thing like that when his own people had treated him so badly? Surely he must have held a grudge against them for the scars on his body and on his soul? Not at all! Paul, how could you be so forgiving and so caring in the face of all you have suffered at their hands?

Jesus uttered words on the cross that, if we would really take them to heart, would take the sting out of the things we suffer at the hands of others. “‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'” Luke 23:34 (NIV).

Like his Master, Paul realised that the way they treated him was just like the way he treated the believers before he met Jesus on the Damascus road, because he didn’t know what he was doing. Isn’t that true? Ignorance is not an excuse but often a reason for our foolish behaviour. If we really knew what the consequences of our words and actions would be, would we treat others the way we do?

One of the reasons why we withhold forgiveness from another is that we think we are better than he. What he has done to us we would never do to him. Really? We feel so outraged. How could he, she? But we forget that we are just as guilty because we are just as ignorant of the consequences.

Only a compassionate heart that really cared about the lives of those who hated him, could cause Paul to say, “‘I have great sorrow…'”

Murderous Envy

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MURDEROUS ENVY

“When things were back to normal, Paul called the disciples together and encouraged them to keep up the good work in Ephesus. Then, saying his goodbyes, he left for Macedonia. Travelling through the country, passing from one gathering to another, he gave constant encouragement, lifting their spirits and charging them with fresh hope.

“Then he came to Greece and stayed on for three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, the Jews cooked up a plot against him. So he went the other way, by land back through Macedonia, and gave them the slip. His companions for the journey were Sopater, son of Phyrrus, from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus, both Thessalonians; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and two from western Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.” Acts 20:1-4 (The Message).

Paul was a tireless and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus. He had been given a commission to take the gospel to the Roman Empire and he did it as best and as thoroughly as he knew how, not only evangelising but also building up the followers of Jesus in the faith and encouraging them to stay on the path in the midst of persecution from many different quarters.

As we have seen through the pages of Acts, Paul was constantly the object of abuse and very often in danger of being killed by fanatical Jews and over-zealous pagans. Nothing would deter him. On his way back to Syria, via the churches in Greece where he spent three months instructing and encouraging them, he got to hear of a Jewish assassination plot and managed to slip through their fingers.

Although he had many travelling companions, faithful men who accompanied him and helped him with his load of responsibility, it was he who was the wanted man. There was a price on his head, and he had to be on the alert constantly to keep from inadvertently falling into hostile hands. It reminds us of David who got under King Saul’s skin just as Paul provoked the religious Jews to murderous envy. .

What is it that drives one human being to hate the goodness or success of another so much that he is willing to kill for it?

Jesus told a story about a landowner who needed labourers to harvest his grapes. He engaged men from the market place in the early morning and they agreed on the wage he offered. He went back several times during the day to look for more workers. An hour before knocking-off time there were still a few who had not found work. He employed them as well, even though they only had an hour to work.

At the end of the day, they gathered around the employer to receive their pay. The last men employed were paid first. To the annoyance of the ones who had worked all day, they received the same wage as the first ones, even though the last had only worked for an hour. Thinking that they were going to receive more, the first men protested. The landowner replied, ‘Didn’t you agree to the wage I offered you? Don’t I have the right to do with my money as I choose or are you envious because I am generous?’

What has envy to do with generosity? It was the generosity of the landowner that exposed the greed of the men first employed and they didn’t like it. Likewise, it was the generosity of Jesus that showed up the greed of the religious leaders to the extent that they killed Him for it. Instead of responding to His exposure by repenting and turning to Him, their hearts were so wicked that they chose to silence the voice that was offering them a new life.

This story had no value for us if we do not respond to its application. What do we do when the ungodly attitudes in us are exposed by someone else’s goodness? We will either do whatever it takes to silence the one who exposed us, often by character assassination, and keep on living the way we always did or, like Zaccheus, choose to change our ways and enjoy the blessing of a new life and freedom from the destructive ways of greed and wickedness.

Outsiders In – Insiders Out

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OUTSIDERS IN – INSIDERS OUT

“Paul and Barnabas didn’t back down. Standing their ground they said, “It is required that the Word of God be spoken first of all to you, the Jews. But seeing that you want no part of it — you’ve made it clear that you have no taste or inclination for eternal life — the door is open to all the outsiders. And we’re on our way through it, following orders, doing what God commanded when He said,

‘I’ve set you up as alight to all nations. You’ll proclaim salvation to the four winds and seven seas!’

“When the outsiders heard this they could hardly believe their good fortune. All who were marked out for real life put their trust in God — they honoured God’s Word by receiving that life. And this Message of salvation spread like wildfire all through the region.” Acts 13:46-48 (The Message).

What is this thing called “God’s Word”? According to ancient rabbinic teaching, God’s Word is a manifestation of Himself in another form. This means that what God says is who He is in words that humans can understand. His Word, therefore, carries the same authority as God Himself.

Unlike humans who can say one thing and be something else, God’s Word cannot contradict Him and therefore what He says is what He is. He cannot lie because He cannot say anything contrary to who He is. That makes God’s Word reliable, trustworthy and unchangeable and allows us to understand what He requires because He has made His will known to us through the medium of language.

Paul and Barnabas were dealing with two groups of people. The Jews who were God’s covenant people were custodians of God’s Word entrusted to them in a covenant relationship sealed with blood. The Gentiles were associated with the Jewish religion but were considered “outsiders” because they had no claim to the covenant or the promises of God.

Written into the Old Covenant was the promise that the time would come when Messiah would open the door to Gentiles to have a share in the covenant and in the blessings promised to Abraham. Because of Jewish prejudice, this group of Jews and many others that Paul encountered on his journeys, refused to honour God’s Word by believing the message and receiving their Messiah. They pooh-poohed Paul’s teaching and turned violently against him with full intention of killing him.

The Gentiles, on the other hand, gladly received their message and honoured God’s Word by believing the truth and entering into all the benefits of this new life. Part of the Jewish resistance to the message must surely have been their refusal to accept that Gentiles could share in this salvation on equal terms with them.

When Paul announced that, because of their persistent rejection of the good news he was proclaiming, he would no longer waste his time preaching to deaf ears, and offering God’s gift of salvation to people who had no desire for it, they went ballistic. How dare he take what they thought was exclusively theirs and give it away freely to the despised “outsiders”!

But that is exactly what God intended them to do from the beginning and which they failed to do because they did not honour God’s Word themselves and they thought that they were better than everyone else. Instead of embracing God’s grace and gladly sharing it with anyone who would believe, they shut themselves out of the new covenant and all the blessing promised to them through their revered ancestor, Abraham.

God’s Word gives us glimpses into His big heart. When we take what He says seriously and act on it, we both honour Him and we also gain access to everything He has said. What fools we would be to pass that up in favour of our own paltry opinions!