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Acts 27:27–32
“Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.’ Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go” (vv. 31–32).
Routine harsh weather conditions that afflict the Mediterranean Sea during the late fall and into the winter made seafaring incredibly dangerous. Julius, the centurion in charge of Paul’s transport to Rome, and the sailors on board the ship would have known this. Nevertheless, they set out from the port of Fair Havens, hoping to reach a more secure port for the winter months. Caught in a storm, the boat was thrown off course, and the men on board all feared for their lives. But an angel appeared to the Apostle to assure him that all would make it out alive, and so the boat continued on, being carried westward by the winds and the waves (Acts 27:1–26).
Fourteen days after leaving Fair Havens, Luke tells us in today’s passage, the boat was being driven through the Adriatic Sea. This was not the Adriatic Sea as we know it today, which separates the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. In the ancient world, “Adriatic Sea” was the name given to the central portion of the Mediterranean Sea, the wide expanse of open sea south of Italy and Greece. At midnight on the fourteenth day, the sailors began to suspect that they were nearing land, so they took soundings to determine the depth. Their suspicions were confirmed as the soundings indicated that the water was getting shallower (vv. 27–28).
So they set anchor and prayed for day to come, when it would be easier to see exactly where they were. The sailors also lowered the smaller lifeboat, hoping to escape the ship before it was crushed. Seeing this, Paul told Julius the centurion and the soldiers that they could not let this happen, saying that the sailors’ remaining on the ship was required for their rescue. So the soldiers prevented the sailors’ escape (vv. 29–32).
The text does not tell us why Paul believed the men would die if the sailors left the ship. We do know, however, that God typically works through ordinary means such as human skills and decisions to accomplish His ends. He works all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). The Lord does intervene in human affairs in supernatural ways, but more commonly His providence operates in a less fantastic manner. Normally, the lives of people on ships being tossed by the storm are saved by sailors’ steering the boat through the waves. Perhaps Paul reasoned that the sailors were the means that God would use to save all on board the ship.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Paul did not take the fact that God was safeguarding the men as an excuse to do nothing. That is how we should live. Trusting the Lord does not mean being passive when it is in our power to act. Matthew Henry comments, “Duty is ours, events are God’s; and we do not trust God, but tempt him, when we say, ‘We put ourselves under his protection,’ and do not use proper means, such as are within our power, for our own preservation.”
For further study
- Deuteronomy 6:16
- Proverbs 3:27
The bible in a year
- Daniel 9–10
- 2 John 1
- Daniel 11–Hosea 4
- 3 John 1–Jude 1