Acts - Week 11 / Wednedsay

Reading for today: Acts 21:27-22:1

The plan of the Jerusalem church elders failed. Instead of satisfying the Jews, the opposite happened when the 7 days of purification were almost completed. Jews from the Roman province of Asia were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. They saw Paul in the Temple, started making untrue accusations against him, and stirring up the crowd against him. They even accused him of bringing a Gentile into the restricted area of the Temple that was open only to the Jew.

They made that accusation on an assumption. Isn't it true that many false accusations are based on assumptions? The unbelieving Jews had not bothered to seek out the truth. They just assumed that Paul had taken Trophimus into the Temple because they had seen the two men together. Interestingly, when the crowd was stirred up to a frenzy and began beating Paul, nobody seemed to notice that Paul had no Gentiles with him.

Paul's life was probably spared by the Roman commander who came with soldiers, pushed the crowd back, and arrested Paul. Because of the noise, the commander couldn't seem to get to the truth, so he was about to take Paul into the barracks to protect him.

Another assumption was made. The commander assumed that Paul was an Egyptian anarchist who had escaped capture not long ago. He didn't have any facts to back up the assumption, but that didn't stop him. However, when Paul addressed him in fluent Greek, the commander knew Paul was no Egyptian.

When Paul asked the commander for permission to speak to the crowd who had just tried to kill him, amazingly the commander gave permission. Paul silenced the crowd and asked them to listen to his defense.

Lesson: Don't make judgments based on assumptions. Get the truth, and then come to your conclusions.

Tomorrow: The master storyteller does his thing!