Acts 28:1-10
Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. (v. 7) I wonder who the “us” is in this sentence. Was it only Paul and Luke and Julius? …or the soldiers or the sailors also? …or all 276 men from the ship? Already the natives were thinking of Paul as a god. Maybe it was Paul who was being honored by Publius and he brought along whomever he wanted? Wondering…
…the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him. (v. 8) I had asked a few days ago about “divine intervention” on Paul’s behalf. So here we have more healings. Looking back we have quite a bit of “divine intervention” through Paul: And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul… (Acts 19:11-20) The rest of that passage talks of healings and casting out evil spirits, eventually leading to the riot at Ephesus that was led by Demetrius, the silversmith. So, yeah, the Lord was with Paul in mighty ways!!
When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand… He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. (vv. 3, 5) In our local news we often read about snake-handling in parts of Kentucky and West Virginia. Mostly we read of this practice when someone has died. But snake-handling churches do exist and they draw their Scriptural justification from Acts 28. Even though that’s close to where we live, I don’t imagine that I will be joining them anytime soon!!
Slava Bohu!