The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in Acts 28:3-6,
"Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, 'This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.' But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god."
The islanders of Malta first thought Paul must have been a murderer when they saw an apparently poisonous snake hanging from his hand. They saw Paul was a prisoner and assumed "Justice", the personification of some god, was taking her vengeance since Paul escaped the sea. Next they thought he might be a god when he didn't drop dead from the viper's bite.
If anything, this account portrays the proclivity of man to look for the divine in life. With a clear posture of moral/ethical sensitivity these folks first looked for a divine judicial explanation for something that appears to us as simple happenstance: a snake bite. Knowing the snakes of the area, they next looked for an explanation of what seemed to be supernatural: no ill effects from a deadly viper's bite. Paul must have been a god...
If we take an honest look at the historical record as contained in Scripture (as well as the body of non-scriptural literature) and the culture around us in the world today, we find people looking for answers. In spite of the atheist/humanist outlook of a few, the vast bulk of mankind has always had a sense that God exists and that we stand morally responsible before him. Mankind has turned his collective back on God, and yet, burned into his psyche, is the distant memory of what his experience was in the Garden of Eden: God exists and we are morally accountable to him.
How thankful I am this morning that our righteous and holy Creator God has provided us a remedy to his pending judgment for our sin: Jesus Christ! And, how wonderful it is for us that he has made him known!
The islanders of Malta first thought Paul must have been a murderer when they saw an apparently poisonous snake hanging from his hand. They saw Paul was a prisoner and assumed "Justice", the personification of some god, was taking her vengeance since Paul escaped the sea. Next they thought he might be a god when he didn't drop dead from the viper's bite.
If anything, this account portrays the proclivity of man to look for the divine in life. With a clear posture of moral/ethical sensitivity these folks first looked for a divine judicial explanation for something that appears to us as simple happenstance: a snake bite. Knowing the snakes of the area, they next looked for an explanation of what seemed to be supernatural: no ill effects from a deadly viper's bite. Paul must have been a god...
If we take an honest look at the historical record as contained in Scripture (as well as the body of non-scriptural literature) and the culture around us in the world today, we find people looking for answers. In spite of the atheist/humanist outlook of a few, the vast bulk of mankind has always had a sense that God exists and that we stand morally responsible before him. Mankind has turned his collective back on God, and yet, burned into his psyche, is the distant memory of what his experience was in the Garden of Eden: God exists and we are morally accountable to him.
How thankful I am this morning that our righteous and holy Creator God has provided us a remedy to his pending judgment for our sin: Jesus Christ! And, how wonderful it is for us that he has made him known!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment