“When it was day,
the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither toe at nor drink
till they had killed Paul. There were
more than forty who made this conspiracy…They went to the chief priests and
elders and said, ‘We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food
till we have killed Paul. Now therefore
you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to
you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes
near.’ Now the son of Paul’s sister
heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.” -Acts
23:12-13, 15, 16 (ESV. Read Acts 23:12-22).
Intrigue and conspiracy were moving
against Paul. A group of forty Jews took
a pledge to kill him; and moreover, not to eat until this heinous act had been
accomplished. They went to the chief
priests and elders telling them of their plot and enlisting their help in
carrying out their proposed killing of Paul.
They wanted an order from them to get the tribune to bring Paul back
before them for further questioning so that they could ambush and kill him. I wonder if they could not see that someone
would find out about this conspiracy and try to put a stop to it? After all, leaks in the “best laid plans of
mice and men” in that day and this “oft’ go agley” as Robert Burns wrote in one
of his poems. Were they forgetting that
the Jews did not have the right to bring the death sentence upon anyone? Of course, if they killed Paul, they would
have to resort to stoning him outside the city gate, as they had the first
deacon, Stephen, some years before.
But wait! Someone finds out about the plot to kill
Paul. On the scene comes Paul’s nephew,
the son of Paul’s sister. We do not know
from the Bible the name of this nephew of Paul.
Since Paul had been a strict Pharisee before his conversion, it is
possible that his sister and her family had remained connected to that sect of
the Jews and would thus hear whispered threats. Since the Pharisees, in the
hearing the day before, had exonerated Paul, naturally these family members
would have been upset at the prospect of Paul being killed. We are not told the
forty conspirtora are of the Sadducees sect, but they possibly were. And so the
nephew took it upon himself to go to the barracks prison and tell his Uncle
Paul. Paul, in turn, asked one of the
centurions to take his nephew to the tribune, Claudius Lysias. How did this commandant know the boy was
telling the truth? His earnestness, no
doubt, and the very fact that he was brave enough to come and reveal “inside
secrets” and diabolical plots.
But the forty Jews were going hungry
longer than they anticipated. The Roman
in charge could not afford to lose his prisoner. He immediately set in motion a plan whereby
he would get Paul out of Jerusalem. But
I am getting ahead of the story. Just
now we must focus on the laying-in-wait for Paul, to capture him and possibly
stone him to death. But Jesus’ promise
to Paul after his conversion was still holding true. He had not promised
freedom from troubles for Paul. At times
on his missionary journeys he escaped death and he fled to keep from being
killed during his first visit to Jerusalem.
Now a dark conspiracy was laid against his life. God moves people to rescue others. Paul’s nephew was brave enough to face the
Roman authorities on behalf of his uncle.
The Roman tribune himself hastened plans to get Paul out of Jerusalem to
save him from a mad Jewish mob. We will
continue this exciting God-directed drama tomorrow. Again, I give you the words God gave me to describe
these actions: God’s ways are higher than man’s ways, in all ways, and always.” To God be the glory for all how bravely stand
up for the right and defend the innocent.
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