A BACKFIRE...AGAIN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment. “This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.”

So he drove them off.

Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.

Acts 18:12-17

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Some people just don’t give up when it comes to trying to wrong others. Maybe you have had this experience before. I know I have.

Plots are contrived and fail. This only leads to new attempts using different or revised tactics. It’s really the work of Satan as he uses others to do his dirty work and we know our enemy is not only a master deceiver but also never gives up in his pursuit of trying to bring people down.

Yes, plots and schemes never seem to stop but there are instances when wicked strategies end up backfiring on the instigators. I have always thought of this as the Lord trying to show conspirators that their evil plans can not only be thwarted but turned into judgment back upon them.

We see such a case in our scripture passage today as Paul continues his military work in Corinth, assured by the Lord that He was with Paul and so there was no need to be afraid. Any wickedness brought against the apostle would be unsuccessful.

The Lord’s promise was soon put to the test for we read where the Jews in Corinth decided to make “a united attack on Paul” bringing him before a Roman named Gallio who was “proconsul of Achaia”. Now Achaia was the Roman province where Corinth was located and the proconsul would hear cases regarding Roman law.

With Paul before Gallio, the scriptures tell us that the Corinthian Jews levied the following accusation:

“This man is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

Of course, the Jews were talking about their own law and up in arms over Paul’s preaching and teaching about Jesus as Messiah and that salvation was only found through Him. In other words, the only way to God the Father was through Jesus, His Son.

Well, Paul heard the charge and was about to respond when he was cut off by Gallio who had this to say to the Corinthian Jews present:

“If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you. But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.”

And with that, Gallio drove them off but note how there ended up being consequences for the Jews as “the crowd there turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue leader, and beat him in front of the proconsul”. It seems those gathered didn’t take kindly to the Jews dragging their affairs before the proconsul, who “showed no concern whatever” over the beating.

So the plot of the Jewish Corinthians had backfired on them but they should have known in advance that their efforts would bear no fruit. This is because their predecessors in the Jewish faith had tried before to stop the Gospel but to no avail.

They tried to stop the work of Jesus by falsely accusing Him and dragging Him before the Roman authorities but they weren’t able to get rid of Him. Actually, they unknowingly played a role in God’s overall salvation plan. They only thought they killed Jesus but on the third day, God raised His Son back to life by way of His resurrection power and this ushered in the advent of the new covenant God would establish with His people, whether Jew or Gentile.

Later, the Jews in Jerusalem would stone Stephen to death and launch a widespread persecution campaign against all Christ-believers. But again, their actions only ended up dispersing Christians into Judea and Samaria before the Gospel would move even beyond those regions to the ends of the earth.

And now, Paul was free to continue going about his work while the Corinthian Jews were left to lick their wounds and come up with a new plan to try and stop the advancing of Christianity. Their efforts had backfired again and the Lord’s unstoppable work of the Gospel would continue. As we’ll see tomorrow, Paul was ready to move to a new location.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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