What happens when two people led by the Spirit have conflicting guidance? It's not a matter of one is wrong, and the other right. The person taking the action is the final arbiter. The results are immaterial, as we seldom know precisely what God has in mind.
The entourage boarded ship again in Miletus, stopped overnight twice more until they arrived in Patara, on the southeastern coast of Modern Turkey, in the region known as Lycia. There they took another ship heading directly to Syria. It was a straight shot southeasterly to Tyre, where the ship took a week to unload its main cargo. Naturally, by this time a vivid congregation of Christians had grown up there, and Paul stayed with them. Here, Luke records the more insistent warnings from them about Paul facing real trouble in Jerusalem. When the ship was ready to sail again, they all accompanied Paul to the shore, where they all held one last prayer meeting.
In the next port, Ptolemais, there was another overnight with the local church. The final port of call for Paul's entourage was Caesarea. Back when Stephen was martyred, the Hellenized Jewish Christians had fled Jerusalem. Of the Seven Elders, Philip (now called "the Evangelist" to distinguish him from the Apostle) had settled there. His four young daughters, along with Agabus, prophesied stern warnings Paul would be arrested in Jerusalem. Agabus went so far as to demonstrate symbolically. Everyone was begging Paul to change his mind.
Paul declared those threats didn't matter, nor did his life, if God planned to take it soon. The final say was in the heart of the steward appointed over the item at hand, Paul's freedom and life. The others had to accept his decision.
Apparently Paul had made better time than he had hoped, because he no longer seemed in a hurry. After a few days with Philip, they all packed and headed off to Zion. Along with them was a long-time disciple named Mnason (a Greek name), who owned a house in the city. He would be able to host the Gentiles among the group without troubling the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.
While the Covenant of Moses had ended, it would be hard to imagine a Jew simply abandoning his way of life. In the ministry of Peter, Luke showed us Moses was no longer binding. It was fine if Jews observed Moses purely, as Jesus taught, and not according to Talmudic corruptions. It would certainly fulfill the Laws of Noah, but for Gentile believers, Noah alone was enough. Judaizing was a sin. That had always been the case; Jews had always required to work with Gentiles who observed Noah. The Jews persecuting Paul were in the wrong by any genuine standard, but he observed Moses to leave them no legitimate pretense at all.
Thus, once he met with James and the elders, they suggested he emphasize the point by showing he was no enemy of Judaism. There were false rumors Paul had taught Jews to simply abandon the Law, and their entire Jewish identity. The four men were to undergo a ritual head shaving, which Paul had done not long ago, himself. Him paying for them and their offerings was another ritual act, which would identify him very publicly as the sponsor. However, the church remained steadfast in their letter denying Moses applied to Gentile Christians.
Still, during the seven days it took to carry out all this ritual, Paul was spotted by some radically minded Jews from Asia, who had traveled there for Pentecost. During that season, the Temple would be quite crowded. Having seen Paul recently in the company of a certain Ephesian Gentile Trophimus, they assumed Paul must have defiled the Temple by bringing that man into the Court of Israel. So they started a riot, and men in the crowd seized Paul. They dragged him down to the Court of Gentiles, and closed the doors of the other courts behind the crowd to prevent the riot defiling the Temple any further. There in that very large lower court, they began beating Paul, intent on killing him.
Of course, the Roman barracks was on the northern end of that same Temple Court, and as soon as the watch commander heard, he sent a company of troops to stop the fight. For safekeeping, Paul was chained between two soldiers. When the commander could get no sensible answer what was going on, he took Paul away toward the barracks. The crowd was so violent, the soldiers lifted Paul over the heads to keep him out of reach.
On the double flight of steps leading into the fortress, Paul got close enough to the commander to speak in their common tongue, Greek. For some reason, the officer had assumed Paul was the Egyptian fellow who had lead a small army of assassins out to Mount Olivet, declaring the walls would come down miraculously so they could invade to wipe out the Roman cohort. Instead, the assassin army was attacked and wiped out, but the leader got away. That Paul spoke in Greek was proof enough this was not the same man. So Paul identified himself as a Jewish man from Tarsus, and wanted to address the crowd, in hopes of taming their rage. Since the soldiers were blocking the stairs below, it sounded reasonable to try.
Paul offered the signal he wanted to address the crowd, and they grew rather quiet. As he began speaking in the local Aramaic dialect of Hebrew, the crowd grew hushed, as many had no idea what was going on, and had not expected that.
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By Ed Hurst
19 September 2009
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: People of honor need no copyright laws; they are only too happy to give credit where credit is due. Others will ignore copyright laws whenever they please. If you are of the latter, please note what Moses said about dishonorable behavior -- "be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23)