Acts 22:30–23:5 (ESV)
But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”
The high priest Ananias ordered Paul to be struck on the mouth just because he said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” It sounds like Ananias was not an honorable man. Historians condemn him in much stronger terms than that.
http://biblehub.com/commentaries/acts/23-2.htm
Ananias was deeply and justifiably hated. Josephus Antiquities XX 9:2 describes Ananias and his subordinates as so wicked that their theft of food from lesser priests caused some of them to starve.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/works/files/ant-20.htm
But Paul gave a fearless response, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”
Paul backpedaled when it was pointed out to him that Ananias is the high priest, but his response turned out to be prophetic. In AD 66, some of Ananias’s many enemies find him hiding in a sewer and kill him.
http://biblehub.com/commentaries/egt/acts/23.htm
Paul has a thing about injustice. So does God.
All Christians have a thing about injustice. It’s the signature of evil.
But injustice is rampant around the world. It’s one of the things that makes the news so painful to watch.
Christians are, like Paul, persecuted for their beliefs. Women are treated like cattle. Slavery is common, even sexual slavery. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that evil was winning.
Ask the Lord to turn the tide. I know this sounds like a Miss America contestant wishing for “world peace,” but, seriously, we need supernatural help, and the Lord calls us to ask for “whatever we wish.”
We need the Lord to send an army of angels to bring the hammer down on the forces of evil—and set the captives free.
