Acts 27:13-26
Again, Luke’s “we” passages – verses 15, 16, 18, 20. It’s completely intriguing to me to be reading these words from Luke’s own hand, having been through it all personally. Certainly he had the same fears for his own safety as all the others on board, but he could look to Paul for leadership in a way that the others could not.
Twice each Paul speaks of “no loss of life”, but “loss of the ship”. That must have been some consolation to the men on board – and even some measure of hope to the owner if he was on board.
For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to Whom I belong and Whom I worship… (v. 23) I was trying to think of other times that Paul (or Luke) had reported on “divine intervention” in Paul’s life. Beyond his road to Damascus experience and his time in the wilderness, I could only think of his time with Silas in the Philippian jail and his “thorn in the flesh” as times when God spoke to or miraculously intervened in Paul’s life. No doubt he felt the presence of God in his prayer time and in his preaching and teaching, but as for “divine intervention”, that’s all I can think of. Anyone else? Any other times?
Slava Bohu!
Good question, Fred. Are you thinking of only an angel or the Lord himself as being the “divine intervention”? I am thinking of the Macedonian in the dream saying, “Come.”
Aha! Yes, Debbie, the Macedonian in a dream – in my mind another “divine encounter”. I also thought later about healings, too – physical evidence that God was with Paul.