Monday
How encouraging it would have been to hear Paul tell them they would all survive, all 276 of them. I guess I didn’t realize that the ancient world had such large ships.
It also occurred to me that our narrator Luke was on board as well. One other thing, this storm on the sea lasted for 2 weeks, I have experienced severe thunderstorms that make me nervous and they have only lasted a few minutes. How exhausted and afraid these men must have been after 2 weeks. It must have been great comfort to hear those words of Paul. I’ve heard it said at different times, that yes Jesus can calm the storm… remember Matthew 8:23-27? But there are times when the storm rages on and Jesus calms us in the middle of it. Well, in our reading today, Jesus is calming the storm within, even as the storm outside rages.
Well, they should have listened to Paul in the first place, (did he just say – “I told you so”?) but at least now they are listening and they are doing what he says. Paul is also saved from execution by the Roman commanding officer, Julius; who had earlier showed favor to Paul by allowing him to go on shore when they first started out.
And so everyone was spared, just as Paul had prophesied (vs 24).
As we read today’s passage, I was impressed with the great story this was, but this wasn’t a work of fiction, this really happened. I believe Luke recounted these events to show how much God’s hand was in every step of Paul’s life, through all the hardships. Paul did not get to Rome because he wanted to, it was because God wanted him there. Otherwise, Paul would have never survived the assassination attempts, he would have been forgotten in some pompous king’s prison, died at the hands of outraged Jewish leaders, or on the sea. No through it all, it was God who guided Paul, not by stopping adversity from happening, but by being with him through all the dangers and trials he faced.
These words would have brought comfort to the people of the early church because they too were facing persecution daily… they were facing prison and/or death. Their faith in God has to be focused on not eliminating their circumstances, but learning to rely on God’s power that will help them to endure and in the end find eternal life in God’s Kingdom.
For many of us, we might be facing our own trials and wondering why God is letting them happen. When young people die, or children are abused, when your boss tells you he no longer has a job for you, when your parents get dementia or you’ve been diagnosed with a crippling disease. Where is God? The truth is, God is there, always there… just like he was for Paul. And the lesson for us is the same as it was for those early Christians… trials happen to help us learn to rely on God’s power.
Praising God in the Storm
Pastor Kathy