Acts 21:27-32 - They stirred up the whole crowd

21:27

However, the plan was not going to work as intended. There were some Jews from the province of Asia who on seeing Paul at the temple stirred up the whole crowd and seized Paul. The hatred in people’s hearts can defy all reasonableness and logic. There is no reasoning with such people. There is a notion among many that if only we act in a reasonable manner problems will be sorted out. Now, of course, we should seek to act reasonably, and sometimes this will work, but there will be other times when it does not work. There are those who think that if only Israel was more “reasonable” then the whole Gaza crisis would go away, such thinking is naive in the extreme.

21:28,29

So the agitators from Asia stirred up the crowd accusing Paul of teaching against the Law and Jerusalem. And saying he had brought Greeks into the temple. Gentiles were only allowed in the outer court of the temple. Apparently someone called Trophimus from Ephesus was seen in the city, and they “assumed Paul had brought him into the temple”. Notice the number of assumptions here. Trophimus had been seen in the city, not in the temple, and it was assumed Paul had brought him into the temple.

21:30-32

So the whole city was in uproar and Paul was dragged out of the temple. They were trying to kill Paul. However, the commander of the Roman troops got wind of what was happening. As commander the last thing he wanted was for there to be riots in the city, that would not bode well for him personally. So he took some of his troops and went down into the city. When the rioters saw this they let go of Paul. God can use secular authorities to meet His purposes. There is no consistency in the ways of evil, and these inconsistencies will work against the purposes of evil.