Paul’s Arrival at Rome Acts 28:11 After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. 12 We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. 13 From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. 14 There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. 15 The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged. 16 When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him. * Paul finally makes it to Rome. Luke tells us about each port they landed in and each ship they sailed on. You can tell he’s an educated man by the way he gives details that no one else really cares about. We could have read “Paul sets out for Rome on a ship, there’s a horrible storm and the ship gets torn up but everyone lives and Paul arrives in Rome.” But thanks to Luke we know much more. Paul is not mistreated as he arrives and waits for his hearing before Cesar. He gets his own apartment and a guard. He is allowed to see his friends. My guess is that they wanted him to get away and save them the expense of the trial and caring for him. I don’t know, but it seems to be a very minimum security prison. We are coming to the close of the book. We know that Paul’s journey ends in Rome. Paul has finally reached his final earthly destination. Paul was told by a prophet that he would end up in Rome. He was told he would be arrested and tied up. I think this served two purposes. He knew he was on the right path that God had set him on. He knew he had something to do that required being bound and arrested. The words of God were a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. But he didn’t get the entire picture. Just a few words from a willing vessel. Don’t look for God to tell you the entire outcome. Look for a few words of encouragement from The Body that let you know you’re on the right path. God rarely shows someone the entire story from beginning to end. He just lets us see tiny glimpses so we know we’re on the right road.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 10:27:24 +0000
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