Acts 23
The heat’s rising, but God’s not done with Paul yet. As in chapter 18, now again God speaks a timely word of encouragement to the battle-tested missionary. One can only imagine the sense of peace and power and presence Paul experienced as “the Lord stood by him” and spoke that night.
There’s an unsung hero in this story, as well. To fulfill His word to Paul, God brings a young man (Paul’s nephew) into the picture to save Paul’s life.
You have to understand the Jews were fuming by this time. They wanted Paul dead so desperately that they bound themselves with an oath to not eat or drink until they had killed him! Sure hope their last meal was a good one.
Our real hero in this story, though, is God, who foiled their plans through the courageous actions of Paul’s nephew. It would have taken a supernatural courage for this young man to approach Paul with the news he’d overheard of the plot against him. And it would have taken even more bravery for him to go to the Roman commander to inform him! He literally risked his own life to save Paul’s!
Amazing, too, is that this commander listened to the boy and accepted his word as true, and then acted in response. But surely by now we know that our Hero does some amazing things to fulfill His word!
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