A Reminder About God’s Sovereignty

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Acts 23 records a very dramatic episode in the life of the Apostle Paul.

After his third, and what was essentially his final missionary journey, Paul returned to Jerusalem as part of his commitment to visit the believers there and to deliver contributions from the Gentile churches.

While in the city, a group of forty men conspired to kill him. They bound themselves under a curse, pledging that if they failed, they would face severe consequences.

The problem was, Paul was in Roman custody because he had been accused by his Jewish brethren of being against the Jewish people, the law, and profaning the temple (all false charges of course).

Knowing Paul was in Roman custody and protected by soldiers, the conspirators devised a plan to persuade the Jewish leaders to request another meeting with him under the pretense of clarifying his teachings.

Their intent was to ambush him on the way to this supposed legal consultation.

Paul’s nephew overheard the plot and immediately informed his uncle.

Then Paul ensured the young man went directly to the Roman commander (who had been holding Paul and overseeing his case), who quickly recognized the seriousness of the threat.

The commander mobilized a large escort of soldiers, horsemen, and spearmen to move Paul safely out of Jerusalem.

The soldiers did as they were told and, in short order, had Paul in Caesarea, where he would appear before Governor Felix to make his case.

When Felix was made aware of what was going on and confirmed that Paul was indeed in his jurisdiction, he said he would hear Paul’s case, but only once his accusers arrived.

So, to distill the bulk of Acts 23, what happened was this: through a series of seemingly disconnected events, a plot to kill Paul was discovered, exposed, and ultimately prevented.

The question becomes, what do we do with such a long piece of narrative like this, one that has no “doctrinal truths or practical exhortations,” as John MacArthur noted?

How do we take such an exciting story and then make a practical application to our lives?

While MacArthur did say the narrative has no “doctrinal truths or practical exhortations,” he also went on to say, “Yet no passage of Scripture could more clearly illustrate the providence of God.”

Explaining what he meant by that, MacArthur said, “God’s providence is His sovereign control over and ordering of natural circumstances to accomplish His will.”

God’s providence and sovereign control is unmistakable in this account, and that is the practical application and takeaway.

If we take in the whole of this account, we are reminded that no opposition can thwart God’s plans.

Jesus told us in Matthew 16:18 that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” His church.

That was true then. It’s still true today.

We are reminded that even in the darkest moments, in the midst of what seems to be certain defeat, God can and does work to advance His cause, and He can even do so without the use of supernatural miracles.

He can do it in seemingly mundane and unlikely ways.

In this case, the Lord used a murderous plot against Paul, a young boy, a Roman commander, and the Roman legal system.

Alexander Maclaren commented on the Lord using seemingly “natural” means.

“… it is more profitable to note how God works out His purposes and delivers His servants by ‘natural’ means, which yet are as truly divine working as was the sending of the angel to smite off Peter’s chains, or the earthquake at Philippi.”

Think about it. Perhaps it wasn’t supernatural, but Paul’s nephew being there, overhearing the plot was without a doubt a miracle.

All kinds of questions surface when we read about Paul’s nephew.

It’s the first and only time in Scripture that we have plain references to any of Paul’s family, who presumably lived in Tarsus.

So, who is Paul’s nephew?

Why was he in Jerusalem?

How did he just happen to be in the right place at just the right time to hear the plot against Paul?

Some would say it’s just a coincidence, but I say it’s providence – miraculous indeed.

It was God working out His will in a seemingly natural way.

Maclaren said of Paul’s nephew: “… that he should have been there then, and, come into possession of the carefully guarded secret, was more than a fortunate coincidence.”

“It was Divinely ordered, and God’s finger is as evident in the [interconnectedness] of cooperating natural events as in any ‘miracle.’”

Of those cooperating natural events, Maclaren said:

“… in this case how wonderfully separate factors, who think themselves quite independent, are all handled like pawns on a chessboard by Him Who ‘makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and girds Himself with the remainder thereof!’”

To be more specific, Maclaren said, “Little did the fiery zealots who were eager to plunge their daggers into Paul’s heart, or the lad who hastened to tell him the secret he had discovered, or the Roman officer who equally hastened to get rid of his troublesome prisoner, dream that they were all partners in bringing about one God-determined result – the fulfillment of the promise that had calmed Paul in the preceding night: ‘So must thou bear witness also at Rome.’”

I would simply offer the reminder that just as God was Sovereign and in complete control over Paul’s life, and all the events surrounding Paul’s life, He is still Sovereign and in complete control today.

And in the same way that Paul, despite a known plot to murder him, could remain calm in prison because he was resting on God’s Sovereignty, whatever we are facing, we can rest in God’s Sovereignty as well.

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