Last updated on December 8, 2024
Today’s reading is from Acts 21-23.
Paul and his companions finally made it to Jerusalem, and they met with James and the other leaders. They were told that there was a rumor going around saying that Paul was telling Jews who lived in Gentile lands that they should turn from the law of Moses. They knew this wasn’t what Paul was doing, but they weren’t sure how to proceed; how to protect Paul. They encouraged him to take a Nazarite vow to show that he was still fully Jewish. So he did. This involved going through purification rites, including shaving his head.
After the seven days of purification, Paul went to the temple, and it was there that he was seized. It was actually Jews from Ephesus who had followed Paul back to Jerusalem and who stirred up the crowd against him. Paul was beaten by the Jews, and they were about to kill him, but the Roman soldiers intervened. Paul was arrested simply to calm the mob down. The Roman commander then began trying to figure out what was going on.
Paul was given the opportunity to speak to the crowd. He told them who he was. He was a Jew born in Tarsus who studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the Jewish law. He was zealous in his persecution of the followers of Jesus until that day when he was on the road to Damascus and he met the risen Lord.
The crowd listened to his story until he got to the part where God sent him to the Gentiles, in part because he wasn’t safe among his own people. At the mention of Gentiles they began shouting that he must die. The Roman commander ordered that Paul be taken into custody and beaten.
At this Paul decided he should let the commander know that he too was Roman, and it was illegal to beat a Roman citizen without him first going through a trial.
The next day the Roman commander released Paul into the custody of the Sanhedrin (Jewish ruling body), and he stood before Ananias the high priest.
Paul was a smart fella, and he knew that in this room were both Pharisees and Sadducees, and for many years they had disagreed on whether or not there is a resurrection for God’s people. So he decided to play into this. He told the crowd that he was a Pharisee, and he had hope in the resurrection of the dead. Now all of a sudden the Sadducees were yelling, but the Pharisees said, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him” (Acts 23:9). How funny is that!
The Roman commander was worried that Paul would be torn into pieces by the crowd, so he took Paul into custody, just to keep him safe.
The next day a group of 40 Jews made an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. This is serious. They plotted to kill him when Paul came before the Sanhedrin again. Fortunately for Paul, he was warned of the plot by his nephew. The nephew told the commander, who decided at that point that he couldn’t let this happen to a Roman citizen under his watch. So he sent Paul to Caesarea to let Governor Felix deal with him.
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