The Trials of Paul (18)

Pray Psalm 143.1, 2.
Hear my prayer, O LORD,
Give ear to my supplications!
In Your faithfulness answer me,
And in Your righteousness.
Do not enter into judgment with Your servant,
For in Your sight no one living is righteous.

Sing Psalm 143.1, 2.
(Divinum Mysterium: Of the Father’s Love Begotten)
Hear my earnest prayer, O Lord!  Give ear to my pleas for grace!
In Your faithfulness and righteousness, look upon me with Your face!
Enter not to judgment with Your servant, Lord, with Your loving servant, Lord:
None can stand before Your Word.

Read and meditate on Acts 28.1-10.

Preparation
1. What did Paul do on the island?

2. How did the people of the island respond?

Meditation
Paul is the hero of this story. Everyone would have understood if he’d have let himself be tended to and cared for by others. But that’s not how Paul worked his Personal Mission Field. Instead, Paul gathered sticks for the fire (vv. 1-3) – still on duty, trying to help where he could, no task too menial. 

The incident with the serpent is a bit of comic relief (vv. 3-6). Paul had escaped assassination attempts (were those guys still fasting?), shipwreck, threat of execution, and more. No little snake – poisonous or not – was going to keep him from getting to Rome.

We note how the local people changed their view of Paul to make sense of the incident they observed (v. 6). Pagan religion – including secularism – is built on all kinds of shifting sand. Paul did not despise them for their fickleness or their folly. He just kept on being Paul and showed himself to be a servant to all, beginning with the father of their generous host (vv. 7-10). Always on duty, always ready to serve, Paul’s example is an excellent one for us (cf. Titus 2.14; 3.1.8.14).

The storm was over, the wreck was in the past. No sense dwelling on these or being traumatized by them. We don’t wallow in our problems, and we can’t let setbacks and trials keep us from our Kingdom-and-glory calling in the Lord. Paul certainly didn’t. He dragged himself up on that shore, and the first question on his mind was, “What can I do to help?” “Imitate me,” Paul instructs us (1 Cor. 11.1).

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Yes, “imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11.1).

The story of the viper that should have killed, but didn’t, is a true example of the potential for death that sin inflicts, and the saving grace of God that heals. The residents of Malta opined, “No doubt this man is a murderer…and that justice [will] not allow him to live” (Acts 28.4). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5.8, 9). Healed from the poison of sin and saved from His wrathful justice by Christ Jesus. Once yes, a murderer, but now justified.

“However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds…” (Acts 28.6). I wonder how many people were watching for us to swell up or suddenly fall down dead when we gave our lives to Jesus? Or, how many people are waiting for those tell-tale signs of death and sin to ravage us? Makes you wonder if there are people who would like that to happen to us anyway. Just waiting to see if our faith is sincere, and if our lives ultimately reflect what our mouths are saying.

But here is God’s answer to all of those wondering about us, when our faith is sincere: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8.1). Paul reminds us to “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Eph. 4.1).

Paul was bitten by a death-wielding viper, yet nothing happened to him because of God’s merciful kindness and protection. “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot” (Ps. 91.13). And it played out just like that.

And the same holds true for us as we fight against our own brand of viper’s bites – our continued encounters with temptation and sin. We have yet to swell up and fall down dead because the merciful grace of God heals us and holds us up. “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (Ps. 91.14-16).

This amazing love spurs us on to welcome with love those with fevers and dysentery into our own Personal Mission Field. Working like Paul, gathering sticks, to bring others to the saving and healing knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For reflection
1. How would you explain to a new believer what it means to imitate Paul as he imitated Christ?

2. The daily work, the little things we say and do, are how we demonstrate the love of Christ for those around us? What little daily work is God calling you to do today?

3. What should we do when some “viper’s bite” of sin gets hold of us?

It was for Paul’s sake that all this took place, so that the prisoners, as well as the soldiers and the centurion, should believe. For even if they were made of stone, from the counsel they heard him give, from the predictions they heard him make, from the miracles they saw him accomplish and from the nourishment they enjoyed because of him, they would have thought him great.John Chrysostom (344-407), Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 54

Pray Psalm 143.7-12.
Pray that God will revive you and strengthen you by His Spirit so that you might be always ready for every good work. Pray that He will show you His will throughout the day, keep you safe from trial or trouble, and use you as His servant today.

Sing Psalm 143.7-12
(Divinum Mysterium: Of the Father’s Love Begotten)
Answer quickly, O my Lord!  Do not hide from me Your face!
For my spirit fails and I am like those who do not know Your grace.
In the morning let me hear Your steadfast love; Lord I trust You, show my way!
I lift up my soul and pray!

Rescue me from all my enemies!  Lord, I refuge seek in You.
Let me know Your will, O Lord my God; make me know what I must do.
Let Your Spirit lead me on to level ground; save my life!  Preserve my soul!
Rescue, Lord, and make me whole!

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.