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Tuesday 2 March 2010

Acts 1:12-23

In obedience the apostles returned to Jerusalem. As in Luke's gospel, there is mention of the women. Luke is keen to emphasise that women played an important part in the early church. They all joined together and prayed.

They addressed the issue of a replacement for Judas. Judas had committed suicide after betraying Jesus.

Peter uses Psalm 69:2 and 109:8 as justification for choosing a replacement. They saw the criteria as being someone who had been with them the whole time since John's baptism to the ascension of Jesus. Ie the primary duty was to be a witness to Jesus.

They came up with two suitable candidates and then drew lots to select the "winner". In drawing lots they were entrusting the final decision to God.

Matthias was chosen, though we read nothing further of him. It is not clear whether we should draw from this that the whole thing was a waste of time, for God later chose Paul of whom we hear an awful lot! Moreover Paul did not fit the criteria specified by Peter. Sometimes we do get bogged down in details that really do not matter, and can even provide Biblical justification for getting bogged down.

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