Acts 26-28

It took me almost 18 minutes to read the end of Luke’s accounting of the work in the early church.  During the worst of the storm, that Luke recorded in chapter 27, Paul stood up before 275 sailors and passengers on that boat.  Though Luke doesn’t give us a timeframe, it might have been the fourth or fifth day in the storm, he does mention that they were sick to death and had given up on survival.  But then Paul began his speech with;  “I told you so….”  That’s not the way I would start a speech meant to encourage 275 scared, hungry, and angry seafarers.  But immediately after that Paul passed on a promise that God made to him; “no one is going to drown.”  I’m sure that Luke, Aristarchus, and the other Christians travelling with Paul were reassured, but the other travelers may have been skeptical.  So Paul explained how he received this assurance, through an angle who had visited Paul the night before. (vss 21-26)  But God took his time making the delivery from the storm a reality.  Whether 10 days or 14 days passed I’m not sure, but it must have seemed like an eternity.  Some of the 275 passengers on the boat must have begun to doubt Paul’s message.  But then Paul speaks again; “Eat up.  You’ll need the physical strength to swim to shore.”  I can hear the people grumbling over the wind and the boat creaking as the waves pounded against the side.  “Eat!” Paul encouraged.  He offered a prayer of thanks, in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the sea, with no idea where they were.  Then Paul ate.  Something happened when he did that.  Maybe it was Luke, Aristarchus, and the other Christians.  Maybe they took food, ate a little and began passing it around.  I’m sure there were still naysayers, but at least some, if not all of the people were willing to grab hold of any message of hope.  I wonder how many of those people started listening to everything Paul had to say once they reached Malta.  There may have been a handful of Christians to swim to shore on Malta, but how many Christians left the island three months later?

Stuart