Tag Archives: Tyre

ACTS THE SEQUEL…RESOLUTE AND UNWAVERING – 52

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“After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara. There we boarded a ship sailing for Phoenicia. We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship was to unload its cargo. We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem. When we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including women and children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt, prayed, and said our farewells. Then we went aboard, and they returned home.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Criss- crossing sea and land, Paul and his companions reached Tyre, a harbour city in Syria. There was already a group of believers there, so Paul’s group disembarked and joined them while the ship’s cargo was being unloaded. Paul was always ready to use every opportunity to spend time with the believers while they waited to rejoin the ship. 

Have you noticed how the same warning came to Paul…time and again…from each group of believers he met on his way.  “Don’t go to Jerusalem!” they prophesied.  It almost seems as though the Holy Spirit was giving Paul two conflicting messages. Wes this confusion or a test?

Why did Paul disregard the warning? Was he just being stubborn…or skeptical? Should he have changed his plan, gone to Antioch instead…where he would be safe and with friends? Why Jerusalem where his life would be  in danger? Why was he so resolute about going to Jerusalem, of all places? Surely, by this time, the whole world knew that he had preached to and was closely connected to the despised Gentiles. The Jews said he was a sell-out…a traitor.. to be exterminated like a bug. 

Paul had already made clear to the church in  Ephesus that he was well aware of what he was doing. Knowing that his life was at risk, he was passing the baton on to them to continue where he left off. 

“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭20‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

…he had told them…

It is clear that the Spirit was not warning Paul not to go to Jerusalem but rather preparing him for what lay ahead. He was not to be taken by surprise when things turned nasty. He was to go with the flow, knowing that the  Lord was in charge…and that He had a plan. 

The believers in Tyre also warned Paul of impending trouble which he also received but brushed aside, moving resolutely on towards Jerusalem. 

Paul had a different perspective about his life. He held his own life lightly. He would remain on earth as long as His Lord decreed. If he still had work to do, he was safe in the Lord’s hands. If it was time for him to leave, he would not resist the manner of his departure. So, whatever lay ahead in Jerusalem held no terror for him. 

Paul had no idea what awaited him in that city. He only knew that he was on track with the Holy Spirit and that the way ahead was not pretty. What a way to face life…carefree in the care of God! 

We can draw an important lesson from Paul’s example…especially in view of the fact that he was aware of the danger he was facing. By comparison, how relatively easy and trouble-free our lives are. No matter what our circumstances…Jesus said, “Do not worry…” and Paul himself said, “Do not be anxious…” even from his prison cell in Philippi. 

How can we face the uncertainties of life with the same resolute courage as Paul’s even though we don’t know what the future holds for us? God has given us a safeguard against discouragement and despair, a boundary within which we can freely move without fear. 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬-‭29‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Fortified with this promise, there is nothing we face that can destroy us because we have God’s infallible word. When we trace Paul’s story from this point on, the “all things” worked out exactly what, if not how, he wanted. His desire was to reach Rome, the hub of the Roman Empire…and he did…at the government’s expense!

If Paul’s story can teach us one overriding lesson, it’s this…as always…God can be trusted because He is faithful!

To be continued

A Desperate Mother

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A DESPERATE MOTHER

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, yet He could not keep His presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about Him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. (Mark 7: 24-26).

What was He going to do? Jesus was a Jewish rabbi trying to find seclusion for a little while in a Gentile city. Unfortunately for Him, His fame had gone before Him. His presence in that region could not remain a secret because many of the people had already travelled many miles to Galilee and Judea to seek Him. As soon as He arrived in their region, they recognised Him and announced His presence.

Among them was a desperate mother. Her daughter was demon-possessed, probably not uncommon among the pagans of that area. The child’s mother had no hope outside of a miracle and, wonder of wonders, the renowned miracle-worker from Galilee had arrived in her country. What was she to do? Without hesitation she went to Him. Perhaps she did not know what proper behaviour was for a woman in Jewish circles but desperation drove her to the Master. She did the only thing she knew; she threw herself down at His feet in an act of humility and supplication. She worshipped Him.

‘First let the children eat all they want,’ He told her, ‘for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’ (Mark 7: 27).

What on earth was Jesus getting at? Was He rejecting her by refusing to give her “the children’s bread”? Who were the “children”? What was their “bread”? Was He insulting her by calling her a dog? Was He acting just like His fellow Jews, arrogantly refusing to have anything to do with Gentiles? Our Jesus? How out of character for Him!

A few chapters before, He had risked the hazard of a storm on the lake to deliver a demon-possessed Gentile in the region of the Decapolis. Then He had returned to the same region in spite of being chased out by the citizens for destroying their pigs, only to find that they gladly received Him after the powerful testimony of the healed man had convinced them that He was not dangerous.

Why was He acting so differently here? Perhaps He had thought better of His action and decided not to help Gentiles after all. No! Emphatically, no! Jesus was not like that at all. When He acted in an unusual way, it was often to test the faith and the perseverance of the one seeking Him. Jesus was never after popularity. He always acted consistently with the Father. Even His presence in that region was under the Father’s authority.

How desperate was this mother to help her daughter or was she just another sensation-seeker?

‘Lord,’ she replied, ‘even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then He told her, ‘For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.’ She went home and found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone (Mark 7: 28-30).

What a woman! Nothing would put her off from her determined purpose – not even an apparent insult from Jesus. She passed the test with flying colours. Jesus was not reluctant to help a Gentile. In fact, He didn’t see race or colour. Everyone was a person in His eyes, a son or daughter of God who needed to know that God was gracious and wanted them to return to His family regardless of who they were and what they had done. In her humility she was willing to receive only the leftovers of His compassion and mercy because that was enough to bring healing to her child. Even though her faith may have been as miniscule as a mustard seed, it was enough to engage with the compassion of Jesus and bring relief to her child in her torment.

Don’t you just love Jesus? If He ever displayed reluctance to show mercy it was only to encourage and increase faith by testing the sufferer’s perseverance. Why, then, are we so often slow to learn the lesson? Jesus is never reluctant to answer our prayers. Sometimes the delay is about timing. God’s story is much bigger than ours. Our chapter must fit into His story – not the other way around. Sometimes it’s about faith and patience. Weak faith must be strengthened and impatience overcome so that we trust God – period – rather than believing Him for what we can get out of Him.

His goal is that we rest in Him, regardless of the circumstances, like a baby at his mother’s breast, content to be still and enjoy the closeness to his mother, and not worry about whatever is going on around him.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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The Sandwich Man

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THE SANDWICH MAN

 “‘Doom, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had been given half the chances given you, they’d have been on their knees long ago, repenting and crying for mercy. Tyre and Sidon will have it easy on Judgment Day, compared to you.

‘And you, Capernaum! Do you think you’re about to be promoted to heaven? Think again. You’re on a mudslide to hell!

‘The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me.'” Luke 10:13-16 (The Message).

It’s funny how people shrug off warnings like these as the raving of a religious fanatic!

Some 500 odd years before Jesus spoke these words, the prophet Ezekiel warned that the Phoenician city of Tyre, built on an island in the Mediterranean Sea, would disappear into the sea because of its wickedness. Alexander the Great did the unthinkable. When Tyre, thinking it was unconquerable, resisted his armies, he built a causeway from the mainland to the island and took the city, reducing it to rubble.

Although Tyre and Sidon were pagan cities, they had many links with Israel in the Old Testament era. Jesus visited the area and healed a persistent woman’s daughter who was plagued by demons. These cities did not have the opportunities to repent as did the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida did who were visited by the very Son of God Himself.

Jesus was not sandwich man, wearing a board that said, “Prepare to meet thy doom!” He expressed His concern over their hardness of heart. Had Tyre and Sidon received the same opportunity as they had been given, they would have grabbed it and turned away from their wickedness. How tough it would be for the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum which Jesus frequented, healing the sick and preaching the good news of God’s kingdom on many occasions, when they stood in the blinding light of God’s holiness to realise that they has wasted their opportunity to receive Jesus and live God’s way!

Even as you read these words, there is a reaction in your own heart as there is in mine. We can either read them as history or literature, or we can take seriously what the people of these towns did not do. Why did Jesus spend time with them? He had a passionate desire to reintroduce them to the God they had either forgotten or missed in the rubble of their religion. He wanted them to know and love His Father and return to a life of submission to Him in order to experience real life.

We are so conditioned by the persistent bombardment of the entertainment world to be spectators that we are inclined to take nothing seriously. We can watch the most evil and perverse programmes and feel nothing. Every form of wickedness is portrayed on the screen to entertain us so that we become so hardened by crime, violence, and sexual perversion that we are no longer horrified and outraged by them. Even so-called Christian television has become a form of spiritual entertainment.

Jesus’ words of warning should alert us to the reality of the most pernicious disease that afflicts people both inside and outside of the church — no fear of God! What does that mean? Put in very simplistic terms, we have the same attitude as the cities and towns Jesus warned — we don’t take Him seriously.

Let’s make a resolve today, if we consider ourselves to be His disciples, that we will read what Jesus said as though He really meant it and respond with faith and obedience to His Word. What difference would it make, what changes would happen to our lives, to our homes, to our work places and to our communities if we did that?

If we really love Him, we cannot afford not to.