Acts 21:1-17
Life is full of parting and meetings, of letting go things that are past and laying hold of things in the future. The missionaries and these friends had been together but a week, and yet they had become so attached to each other that their parting was tender. Wherever true Christians meet they are at once drawn to each other in holy affection. Jesus said that his disciples should be known in the world, not by their dress, nor by their creed, nor by any other external mark, but “by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
Wherever we go we will find something to do and may leave blessings. The ship which carried Paul’s party stopped at Tyre to unload its cargo. This would require a week. But Paul was not the man to sit upon a ship’s deck in idleness for a week with a whole city of needy people close to him. He improved the opportunity. He left the ship and sought out the Christians who were in the city and did all he could for them during his stay. Here is a good suggestion for those who may be detained in some places for a while. Instead of passing the time in sight seeing or in idleness, let them look up the Christian people of the place or let them find those who need help.
Not all human interpretations of divine teachings are right. These disciples at Tyre knew through the Spirit that danger lay before Paul if he went to Jerusalem. Then they inferred that he ought not to go on his way. “Who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem?” These friends probably considered the forewarning of danger a providential indication that Paul ought not to go on. We must be careful, however, in interpreting God’s purposes in his providence. Difficulties looming up in the way of our advance are not always divine intimations that we should stop in our course or turn aside. Shut doors are sometimes to be opened, and open doors are not always to be entered. The fact that we learn of dangers in our path which it will cost us much to encounter should not always be considered as forbidding us to proceed. It may be that the meeting of dangers and the enduring of sufferings and sacrifices is part of God’s will for us, and therefore part of our duty. We must be careful not to misread providences, lest we draw wrong inferences.
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