23:11
“The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage!’” Again we see the Lord giving direct encouragement to Paul, there is no reason whatsoever to think that God does not continue to do this. The key thing is that we seek to follow the Lord, to trust and obey Him. From time to time He may give us some sort of special visitation to give us the encouragement that we need, but He will do this at times of His choosing. Here the Lord tells Paul that he will also testify in Rome. Two consequences of this are (i) that he will not be killed in Jerusalem; (ii) he will reach Rome.
23:12
We then see an immediate threat to Paul’s life, but one that is thwarted by the Lord. Some of the Jews made a vow not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. We see the nature that we can have if we set ourselves on an evil course. If we do this then our thinking becomes worthless and twisted. These men thought they were honouring God, but were in fact planning to break one of the ten commandments.
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