Acts 22:5-11 - Who are you Lord?

22:5-7

The high priest and members of the Jewish council could confirm the truth of this. On the day of his conversion he had obtained letters allowing him to go to Damascus to imprison more believers. He was on his way to carry this out when God intervened. Paul saw a bright light and heard a voice saying “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?”. God was calling out to Paul urging a dramatic change in direction. Every man and woman on earth needs this call, for all of us without Christ are heading in a seriously wrong direction.

22:8-11

“Who are you, Lord?” Educated as he was, Paul did not know the Lord, he did not know God. All opponents of the gospel are essentially acting out of ignorance. “They don’t know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). Jesus then spoke to Paul, “I am Jesus of Nazareth”. The Jesus we read of in the gospels is the One who is Lord of All. Those travelling with Paul saw the light, and heard a noise, but did not understand. “What shall I do, Lord?” This is the only proper response. We may imagine that we know what we are doing, what we are talking about, but this is a deception. We need to be ready to learn from the Lord. Only then do we become truly wise. So Paul was told to go to Damascus. This was the very place he was heading for anyway, but now he would go in a very different spirit, and for a very different purpose. Paul was now blind and needed his companions to lead him there. Paul’s circumstances had dramatically changed, but now he was in a much more realistic condition. He was no longer in control, but needed to learn from the Lord, and needed help from others.

Ruth 1:1-5 - There was a famine in the land

1:1

The opening verse states that the events we are going to read about occurred during the time of the judges, we are also told that there was a famine in the land, and this provides the backdrop to the events that will be recounted. Bethlehem has a number of references in the Bible, its being the birthplace of Jesus is, of course, the most famous. Bethlehem means “house of bread”. We are then told that a man, his wife, and two sons decided to move to Moab because of the famine. There is no indication that the famine was a divine judgement upon Israel, though it may have been, given the appalling state of the nation. Moab was an enemy of Israel, and the move to Moab could be viewed as disobedience, but we should note that the text passes no comment on the move.

1:2-5

The husband, the two sons and the wife are then named. This is perhaps a little surprising given that the man and his two sons are soon to die and play no further part in the proceedings. The two sons marry Moabite women. There is actually no direct law against them marrying Moabite women (Deut 7:1-4), though one could infer from the Law that marrying non-Israelites was not a good idea, with warnings that this would lead to them being pulled away to worship idols. As we know, in this case things worked the opposite way around. Ruth would become a godly woman. Thi happened not because of the man she married, but because of Naomi. Naomi’s husband died apparently quite soon after they arrived in Moab, and after they had been there ten years the two sons died as well. 

Acts 22:1-4 - I am a Jew

22:1,2

Paul now speaks to the crowd, and does so in Aramaic. This grabs their attention, for he is speaking in their own language. Paul then recounts his conversion experience. There are three accounts of this in Acts: the original one, given in the third person back in chapter 9; this one; and a later one. Both the latter two are given in the first person by Paul.

22:3,4

Paul begins by stressing what a committed and educated Jew he was. He was brought up in Jerusalem, and educated under Gamaliel, one of the top Jewish teachers. So he received a thorough training in the Law. Moreover, he was very zealous for the Law. It was not just something that he had to learn, but something that he very much took to heart. This zeal for the Law went so far as to lead Paul to actively persecute the followers of “the Way”. Even persecuting them to death and to imprisonment. This applied to both men and women.

Ruth - Introduction

Ruth - Introduction

After the grimness of Judges we come to the more pleasant and positive waters of Ruth. Things aren’t easy in Ruth, but through quiet faithfulness the Lord’s plans are achieved.The book is set in the time of Judges and one of the things it demonstrates is that even in a time of mayhem it is worth obeying the Lord.

It is a feature of the Bible that women tend to come out of things better than the men. In Judges Deborah is the most positive character, then we have Ruth with both Ruth and Naomi being painted rather well, as does Boaz. In the crucifixion and resurrection accounts it is the women who come out of it better than the men. Boaz is also part of the human lineage of Jesus. It is noteworthy that Ruth is a Moabitess. It is possible that the genealogy at the end is partly there to prove that David is ten generations on from Moab, because of a curse on Moab. However, I have to say I am not convinced by this. One of the features of the Bible is that anyone who shows faith in the Lord is welcomed by Him.

We don’t know who wrote the book, it was certainly not completed until the time of David. Boaz as a “kinsman redeemer” gives us a picture of the redemptive work of Christ. We are redeemed by HIm. Ruth was later seen as the ideal convert, for she broke completely with her past life, devoting herself entirely to the Lord.

Acts 21:33-40 - A citizen of no mean city

21:33-36

So Paul was arrested by the Romans and bound in chains. The commander then sought to find out what was going on. The crowd, unsurprisingly, gave an inconsistent message. Paul was then taken to the barracks. The crowd were vehemently against Paul.

21:37,38

It now becomes clear that the Romans didn’t have much of a clue about what was going on at all. On his way to the barracks Paul asked if he could speak to them. They seemed surprised that he could speak Greek. Apparently they thought he was an Egyptian rebel rouser. There were various rebels who arose periodically. The one they mixed him up with had led four thousand terrorists into the wilderness.

21:39,40

Paul informs them that he is both a Jew and a citizen of Tarsus, “no mean city”. He is making them aware that he is more important than they imagine him to be. So Paul is given permission to speak to the crowd. Given Paul’s record of his speeches ending up in a riot, this may not have been a wise decision on the part of the Romans! He motions to the crowd to be still, and then addresses them in Aramaic, their own language.

Judges 21:13-25 - Everyone did as they saw fit

21:13-22

The six hundred escapees of Benjamin were still at the rock of Rimmon, and Israel now sent a peace offering to them. The Benjamites return and are given the four hundred virgins. However, this still left them about two hundred short. This greatly troubled the Israelites, and they were hampered by their earlier oath. So they come up with the most ridiculous solution. There was an annual festival at Shiloh. So they tell the wifeless Benjamites to hide in the vineyards and then to each grab one of the young women as they came out to join in the dancing. They declare that the fathers of the captured women would not be held to have broken the oath. This is an example of the stupidity we can get ourselves into when we make stupid rules. Israel had in effect given these young women to the Benjamites, breaking their own oath.

21:23-25

So the not-so-cunning plan was carried out, and everyone went home to their tribes and clans. The sorry book closes with the refrain of the book, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit”. We may look at the time of the kings and see that most of the time things were not much better. But Israel needed a king, one king, the Lord Himself. We live in an age when “everyone does as they see fit”, and we are reaping the consequences of that.

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.