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Acts 21:7–16
“While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, “This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles”’” (vv. 10–11).
After spending a week in Tyre, Paul and his traveling companions continued on their journey to Jerusalem (Acts 21:1–6). In today’s passage, we read that Paul next traveled to Ptolemais and then Caesarea, which was located about sixty miles from Jerusalem (vv. 7–8).
Caesarea, we learned earlier in Acts 10, was the home of Cornelius, whose conversion to Christ signaled the beginning of the church’s outreach to the gentiles in earnest. When Paul came to the city, we see in Acts 21:8, he stayed in the house of Philip, one of the seven men appointed to the first diaconate in Jerusalem (see 6:1–7). Philip had a successful ministry in Samaria before settling in Caesarea (ch. 8). Luke tells us that the four unmarried daughters of Philip prophesied, testifying to the piety of his entire family (21:9).
At Caesarea, the prophet Agabus came down from Judea to visit Paul, the same Agabus who foresaw that there would be a great famine in the Roman Empire during the reign of Claudius (21:10; see 11:28). This time Agabus had a word from God concerning what would happen to Paul in Jerusalem. In a sign act reminiscent of those of the old covenant prophets, Agabus bound his own hands and feet with Paul’s belt and said that the Jews in Jerusalem would likewise bind Paul and hand him over to the gentiles (21:11; see Jer. 27). The Jews did indeed later hand Paul over to the Romans, though Luke does not tell us that they bound the Apostle’s hands and feet (Acts 21:27–22:29). Some writers have said that this means that new covenant prophecy is a mixture of truth (Paul’s arrest) and the prophet’s error in interpretation (the binding of Paul’s hands and feet). Because of this, it is argued, when modern prophecies do not come true exactly, that does not prove that the gift of prophecy has passed from the scene. This misunderstands the nature of prophecy, however, and expects an overly literal fulfillment of prophetic sign acts. Agabus gave a completely true prophecy of the Jews’ arrest of Paul and delivering of him to the Roman authorities couched in a highly symbolic action whose every detail is not meant to be taken literally. We have no good reason to believe that God is raising up prophets today.
Hearing of what was in store for Paul, the Christians in Caesarea urged him not to go to Jerusalem. Their hearts were in the right place, for they sought to protect Paul. The Apostle knew that God wanted him in Jerusalem, however, and so to Jerusalem he went (21:12–16).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Even though Paul knew that suffering awaited him in Jerusalem, he found the courage to face it because he knew that it was the Lord’s will. Matthew Henry comments, “When a trouble is come, this must allay our griefs, that the will of the Lord is done; when we see it coming, this must silence our fears, that the will of the Lord shall be done, to which we must say, Amen, let it be done.”
For further study
- Ezekiel 4
- 1 Corinthians 4:19
- James 4:15
- 1 Peter 3:17
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 2–3
- Galatians 2