Acts 22-25
What do you think of the mob who is so angry at Paul?
What do you think they are afraid of?
What are they trying to protect?
And I am back to one of my original questions - what about "Thou shalt not kill"?
It looks like they are picking and choosing which parts of the scriptures they want to emphasize.
Look at Acts 23, verse 5. Then look up Exodus 22:28 and Ecclesiastes 10:20. Good advice especially back in those days. A mob accusation without proof and if you weren't a Roman citizen, you could be a goner.
Roberts Rules of Order can be tedious during meetings (i.e. Annual Conference!), but they are fascinating when you realize the fairness of the proceedings and how mob mentality erupt without order.
Paul is in prison in Caesarea for two years. Have you ever wondered what prison was like back then? He is imprisoned because of an angry mob. He is protected in prison because he is a Roman citizen. Religion and politics. Interesting subjects.
His goal is to get to Rome! Paul is a very smart man.
They are a mob because they are not leaders, they are followers, and they have been told something in the past, and Paul is telling them something different. This confuses the mob, so they resist the new, because if they don't, it means they followed the wrong person to begin with, and no one wants to look like a fool.
ReplyDeleteI had to play catchup today, and read chapters 1-22 in one fell swoop. And it struck me how hard Paul's life was. Beatings, floggings, riots, persecutions, wrapped in double chains, imprisonments for years for doing nothing wrong. Makes me wonder if when Jesus showed Paul how much he would suffer for His name, how much detail He went into.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes we assume if God loves us and we are faithful to Him, our life should be easy. And if our life is not easy, then God is being unfair. But God never promises ease and comfort in this life. He just promises He'll never leave us....
Thanks for that playwrightgirl. We all need a reminder that he is there all the time, especially when things get real bad.
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