August 26, 2015 (Wednesday)
We are studying the Book of Acts at Bethel Baptist Church, Ingleside. Tonight we will be in chapter 27. Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and spent two years in prison at Caesarea, although he had not been found guilty of any crime. When it appeared that the new Roman Procurator, Festus, was going to turn him over to the Jews for trial, he appealed to Caesar. This was his right as a Roman citizen. He did it because he knew assassins were waiting on the road to Jerusalem, where such a trial would be held. Even if he survived the assassins, the Sanhedrin itself would have sentenced him to death in a “kangaroo court.”
The time arrived for Paul to go to Rome for a trial before the emperor. He was assigned to a Roman centurion, Julius, who treated Paul kindly. For instance, when the ship docked at Sidon, Paul was allowed to visit with his fellow Christians there. Other prisoners were on board the ship, in the charge of the Romans, but Paul, Luke and Aristarchus were kept separate from them.
Their ship hugged the coast all the way to Myra in Asia Minor, where they boarded a larger vessel from Alexandria. The ship’s pilot tried to steer the vessel along the coast, but strong winds of a gathering storm drove it on a southerly course. They sailed by Salmone, on Crete’s northeastern coast, then, hugging the coast, to Fair Havens, a port on Crete’s south coast. It was not where the crew of the ship wanted to weather the storm and wait for it to be over. Paul encouraged the captain and owner of the ship to remain there, but they preferred to move on down the coast to Phoenix, site of a large harbor and a better place to winter, in the eyes of the ship’s crew. They tried to reach Phoenix, but the storm blew them out to sea.
As the storm worsened, the crew took measures to save the ship, at one point wrapping the ship with ropes to hold it together, and they rode out the storm for two weeks, until they ran aground on a sand bar at Malta. The ship’s bow was on the sand and its stern, though anchored, was beaten to pieces. All 276 aboard made it safely to shore.
An angel had appeared to Paul assuring him that he would eventually arrive safely at Rome, so he encouraged the men with the angel’s words.
An exciting adventure came to a close. The ship was destroyed but all aboard were safe in Malta.
(Reprinted from July 17, 2009)