Day 33: Acts 21

God was telling the disciples that danger awaited Paul in Jerusalem. They kept telling Paul not to set foot in Jerusalem. Sometimes God will give us information about the future. The difficulty is discerning what to do with that information. If there is danger associated with it, our natural inclination would be to avoid it, however that may not be what God wants. When we get words of knowledge from the Spirit, we also need to ask God what He wants us to do with that knowledge. In this case, He meant for Paul to face the danger but He comforted everyone that Paul would get through the danger in a way that glorified God.

Paul stayed at the evangelist, Phillip's house. A prophet named Agabus came to see him and demonstrated a strange thing. He took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way, the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and hand him over to the gentiles.’”

Remember, this is exactly what had been done to Jesus before His death. This caused many to beg Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Paul loved them very much and felt their love for him, but he said, “I am not only ready to be bound, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Paul did what he knew God wanted him to do even knowing the danger. When he got to Jerusalem the disciples greeted him warmly and he told them about all his journeys and all the people that had come to know God in foreign lands. The disciples then did a clever thing. They knew that some Jews had heard that Paul was teaching Jews among Gentiles to ignore the laws and customs of Moses. To help prove that rumor false, they had Paul take a Jewish vow with four other guys and shave their heads. Paul paid for their expenses and showed them that he was still a Jew.

Jews from Asia accused Paul of bringing a gentile into the temple because they had seen an Ephesian with Paul in the city. The whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar because of this false accusation. They dragged Paul out of the temple intending to kill him. The leader of the local garrison of Roman Soldiers noticed the uproar and sent soldiers to stop the riot. The Romans bound Paul with two chains and then tried to sort out what he was accused of doing. There was such violence and chaos that the Romans could not determine anything, so they took Paul under guard into the army barracks.

Paul began to speak Greek to the Romans and they realized that he was not a rebel like they had thought. At the edge of the army barracks, they let him speak to the crowd that had gathered there.

We too need to be willing to do what God wants us to do in spite of our own personal risk.
Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit for boldness to take risks as He leads us.