每日靈修 - Daily Bible

The Jerusalem riot and Paul's first rescue

Act 21:27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd. They seized him,

Act 21:28 shouting, "Fellow Israelites, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place; more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place."

Act 21:29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

Act 21:30 Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.

Act 21:31 While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

Act 21:32 Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

Act 21:33 Then the tribune came, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he inquired who he was and what he had done.

Act 21:34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.

Act 21:35 When Paul came to the steps, the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried by the soldiers.

Act 21:36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, "Away with him!"

Act 21:37 Just as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, "May I say something to you?" The tribune replied, "Do you know Greek?

Act 21:38 Then you are not the Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?"

Act 21:39 Paul replied, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; I beg you, let me speak to the people."

Act 21:40 When he had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the people for silence; and when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:

Nothing stirred the crowd in Jerusalem like the charge of speaking against the temple and the law, especially when coupled with the possibility that the temple’s sanctity had been breached. The people of Yahweh try to kill his messenger, and Paul has to be rescued by an unnamed commander of the Roman corps.

Reflection:

God looked after Paul back then, do you believe that God will look after you and protect you when you are in dreary and miserable time of outreaching and preaching God’s Word?