God’s Providence November 19th, 2023
God of ages past, present and yet to come, your Word comes to us as the witness of your saints over many generations. Send the Holy Spirit to open our hearts so that we too may hear your wisdom and come to know Christ more deeply as your Living Word. Amen.
When I first read today’s passage from the book of Acts it wasn’t too long before I noticed that nowhere was the name of God mentioned. And neither could the name of Jesus, nor the Holy Spirit be found in it. And there was nothing about salvation, nothing about redemption, nor eternal life. It seemed to be simply more of a history lesson which didn’t contain anything which would help us better understand God’s will.
But, if you look in the Old Testament, there is a whole book which doesn’t mention the name of God, the name of the Messiah, nor the name of the Holy Spirit and that’s the book of Esther. It’s simply an historical reference book and contains no mention of God. But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t there, he’s still at work behind the scenes. What we have in both these cases are examples of the providence of God.
What we know from the Bible is that God does things two ways: through miracles and through providence, and they’re different. A miracle is when God does something totally out of the ordinary to achieve his purposes, something that would never normally happen. But providence is when God uses everyday occurrences which happen in the world to accomplish what he wants to get done. And today’s reading from Acts is a perfect example of this providence, God using ordinary events to achieve extraordinary things.
It’s a story about how the providence of God protected the Apostle Paul from a plot to kill him, and how God used the Roman authorities to fulfill his plan for Paul to testify in Rome. We’re going to hear of the plan of forty men to kill Paul, promising not to eat or drink until he is dead. We’ll see how the nephew of Paul got wind of the plot and went and warned the leader of the Roman army in Jerusalem who stepped in to rescue Paul and sent him under guard to Caesarea to testify in front of the governor there.
We’ll see that Paul, as often happens, finds himself in a tough spot. And many times, we find ourselves in tough spots, and when we do, it good to always remember that God is there with us just as he was so long with Paul. As Paul would write to the church in Philippi when he was being held in a jail cell in Rome, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6–7).
Our passage begins with a plot by some extremists who swore an oath not to eat or drink until they killed Paul. They were so enraged by what he was preaching that they wanted to get rid of him at any cost. Paul had been put in jail for the night and they conspired with the chief priests and elders to ask the commander to bring Paul down to the council chambers in the morning for further questioning. But what they really planned to do was to ambush and kill him on the way.
Our reading opens with the apostle Luke setting the scene of what was taking place in Jerusalem the morning after Paul had been locked in jail for the night, “In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who joined in this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, ‘We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food until we have killed Paul. Now then, you and the council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you, on the pretext that you want to make a more thorough examination of his case. And we are ready to do away with him before he arrives.’”
This highlights the hopelessness of Paul's attempt to witness to these Jews. They are not only unwilling to listen, but they are also intent upon killing him. So, they concoct a plot by which they can get Paul away from the protection of the Roman guardhouse and down into the streets of Jerusalem while he’s being escorted to the high priest's palace. There they have a band of forty men who have vowed never to eat or drink until they have overpowered Paul’s guards and put him to death.
Being a large group, they thought they could take matters into their own hands and put a stop to anyone who appeared to threaten the Jewish religion and its traditions. So, Paul became public enemy #1 to many of them. There were many Jewish revolutionaries during this ancient time called Zealots, who thought they were justified in using force to accomplish what they thought was God’s will.
It's at this point we first see the providence of God at work, Luke writes, “Now the son of Paul’s sister heard about the ambush; so, he went and gained entrance to the barracks and told Paul. Paul called one of the centurions and said, ‘Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to report to him.’ So, he took him, brought him to the tribune, and said, ‘The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you; he has something to tell you.’”
This was an unlikely turn of events. A teenage boy who happens to be Paul’s nephew overheard a plot to kill Paul. The boy has the courage to tell the Roman centurion who guarded Paul, who in turn took him seriously and brought him to his commander, the tribune. The tribune believed the teenager and kept Paul under guard until he could send him to the governor to defend himself. Every single one of these events were not just unlikely, they were extremely unlikely. But such is the providence of God. God is there helping even when we’re not aware of it.
So, we need to ask ourselves, if God used this boy to stop the plan of the Jewish radicals and save Paul from certain death, why can’t he use us? There was probably nothing spectacular about this boy. He just cared enough about his Uncle Paul to try and do something to help. And there is nothing spectacular about us – at least not when it comes to fighting an unseen enemy. However, if we care enough to let God use us, he will.
So, Paul’s nephew told the tribune about the forty men who were planning to kill his uncle the next day and this was his reaction, “Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, ‘Get ready to leave by nine o’clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and take him safely to Felix the governor.’” Two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen – that’s four hundred and seventy armed men to protect one Christian. That’s a small army, and no band of Jewish zealots is going to attack any force like that. Paul entered our story as a prisoner but ended being guarded like a king!
The passage ends with Paul arriving safely in Caesarea and being kept in Herod's palace until his trial before the governor, Felix. God intervened in a miraculous way to save Paul from his enemies and to bring him to a place where he could continue to witness for Christ.
So, what can we learn from this ordeal which Paul went through? What can we learn from this passage? First, we can see that God is sovereign over all human affairs. He can use even the most unlikely means, such as a young boy, a pagan commander, and a corrupt governor, to accomplish his purposes. He can turn evil plans into good outcomes for his glory and for the good of his people. Nothing can stop his will from being done.
Paul was not what you would call an ordinary believer. God has not used any other man in the history of the church in the same manner as he used the Apostle Paul. That being the case, you would think that God would grant this great man smooth sailing so that he could accomplish as much as possible. But if you have read your New Testament, you know that that’s far from the truth. Here is how Paul himself catalogued what he had gone through: … in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:23b-28).
If Paul, who was one of God’s special servants, went through such trials, then none of us are free from troubles. And yet often believers are surprised when they encounter trials in the course of their service for the Lord. Yet, no where in the Bible does God promise us a life without trials and tribulations. In fact, many times his word often describes the Christian life as warfare, and warfare is hardly a promise of a smooth, easy existence! Our lives will always have our ups and downs as such is our world, but we should always look to God in faith.
When trials and opposition hit, we should trust God to protect us by his providence and to work out his sovereign plan for our lives. To counter the threat on Paul’s life God used regular people, like Paul’s young nephew and the Roman soldier, to ensure that his plan to have Paul bear witness in Rome would be accomplished. In the same way God will use people in our lives as we bear witness for him in today’s world.
And that’s the way things work through God’s providence. Through divine providence God accomplishes his will, he is in complete control of all things. Many times, it might not look as if God were involved at all, and yet all these incidents are occurring at his command, accomplishing his purposes. We can see as it’s written in the Bible, that God is our refuge and strength. He is our help in times of trouble. He is our shield and defender. He is our hope and salvation. No matter what we face in this life, we can trust in him and rely on him. he will never let us down.
And let’s never forget that Jesus is alive and working in our lives. Jesus, our Risen Lord, is at work, regardless of where we are. When we’re going through times of trouble, we always need to remember that he is always with us, and he will protect and provide in the midst of our daily pressures. Then we’ll be able to encourage others when they find themselves in the same place. The promise Jesus made to his disciples, “‘…I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matt. 28:20), is the same promise which he makes to us today.
Let us Pray:
Lord, we thank you for your providence, your faithfulness, and your protection. We thank you for the example of Paul, who trusted in you and obeyed you even in the midst of danger and difficulty. We ask you to help us follow his footsteps and be faithful witnesses for you in this world. We ask you to fulfill your plan for our lives and for your church. We ask you to be our refuge and strength always. In Jesus' name we p