Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Protection
- Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One. Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us. Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us. Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear. We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.
From a spiritual perspective, there isn’t much going on in Acts
23. Paul goes before the Sanhedrin again
and divides them. Then we have the story
of the plot to kill Paul. Paul is moved
from one place of Roman protection to another place of Roman protection because
Paul is a Roman citizen. It seems like a
fairly unspiritual chapter.
That being said, there is an overarching theme of protection
within these words. God has already
protected Paul from the beating in the temple.
Twice now Paul has been protected by God before the Sanhedrin. When a plot arises to kill him, Paul is
protected once more by God through Claudius Lysias. God continues to watch over Paul.
But here’s the thing. This
might seem like a no-brainer idea because we know the story so well. Looking back at it in hindsight we see God’s
hand all over these actions. But
remember Paul’s circumstances. He went
from being a free Roman citizen proclaiming God’s Word to a man arrested and
bound and on trial for his life. It
would be so easy for Paul to miss God’s protection because of the greater
negative circumstance taking place. But
just because Paul’s temporal life appears to be crumbling around him doesn’t
mean that God isn’t still there holding him up in protection.
Sometimes we have to look past the events of our life to see God’s
hand of protection still at work within us.
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