In the booming of the thunder, You are there, Father. No need to fear. You are Sovereign, praise Your Holy Name!
Acts 21:26-36 (<<click here to read the passage)
I read a story of a police officer some years ago who was on his way home after a very long day. It had been full of difficult people and difficult situations and having to deal with the paperwork of it all, left him frazzled.
He was almost there when out of nowhere a car came careening around the corner narrowly missing his police cruiser. As it passed within inches of his own vehicle, the driver bellowed, “Pig!” (a derogatory term for police in the late 60s-early 70s)
The officer was furious! He slammed on his brakes, readying himself to take off in hot pursuit. But as he quickly turned the corner, his cruiser ran smackdab into a large pig that had been standing in the middle of the road!
Assumptions can get us into trouble! They can be honest mistakes, quick responses in unknown circumstances but it can also be an ingrained mindset just waiting for something to set it off and then “BOOM!” we have a situation on our hands.
As we saw yesterday, Paul was humbly trying to calm down a potentially volatile situation. Well, his good intentions most definitely didn’t bring about the desired conclusion. Instead, his acts were totally eclipsed by some Jews from the province of Asia [who] saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. v27b
Verses 28-29 tell us they got ahold of Paul and yelled,
“Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple—and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles.” (For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and they assumed Paul had taken him into the Temple.) NLT
Twisting the facts, these Jews riled up the crowd in very short order and their assumptions just fueled the fire that they had ignited! So much so that they literally dragged Paul outside the city, fully intending to kill him!
God intervened. A Roman officer heard all the commotion and quickly put a halt to the ensuing execution. Everything was crazy, people were shouting, and few knew what was going on. The Roman soldiers got Paul out of there, but they ended up having to carry him to do so!
This is by no means the end of this part of Paul’s story but the lesson to be learned is that assuming – and there were lots of assumptions here – can cause all kinds of serious problems! We need to make every effort to not be blinded by what we think is the “truth”. We can’t jump to conclusions. Before things become explosive, we need to take time to dig out the real truth. And the best advice of all? Make it your goal, every day, to draw closer and closer to God
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 NLT
July 20th, 2022, Wed, 9:40 pm
