SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/3/2018
10:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Potential Harm
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 28:3-6
Message of the verses: “3 But when Paul
had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out
because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. 4 When the natives saw the
creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another,
"Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the
sea, justice has not allowed him to live." 5 However he shook the creature
off into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 But they were expecting that he was about
to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time
and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began
to say that he was a god.”
As
we look at this section we can go back to talk about Paul’s leadership which
was especially seen in the voyage of the ship, and now we see humility in Paul’s
life as he picked up a bundle of sticks to keep the bond fire going in order to
help get the people dried out from being in the sea. Mark 10:45 is the key verse in the gospel of
Mark and we read in it of the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ while He was on
planet earth: “"For even the Son of
Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many."” In another passage found in
the 13th chapter of the gospel of John we see Jesus washing the feet
of His disciples in the upper room, another sign of great humility.
While
Paul was gathering the sticks we see that a snake bit him and attached itself
to his hand. I suppose that the venomous
reptile was startled by the heat and so it immediately bit Paul.
John
MacArthur writes “Critics have charged that this is a fictional attempt by Luke
to glorify Paul, or that Luke mistook a harmless snake for a poisonous
one. They raise those objections because
Malta today has no poisonous snakes. But
that does not prove that there were none there nineteen centuries ago. They have disappeared due to the progress of
civilization on Malta since Paul’s day.”
I have to say that I have a great deal of anger for those who try and
disprove the Word of God. Satan has to
be behind this for we know that according to a couple of passages found in the
Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17 “16 All
Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
for training in righteousness; 17 so
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Also 2 Peter 1:21 we read “for no prophecy was
ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from
God.”)
We
are talking about a trained physician here as Luke was a doctor and would
surely know the difference between a harmless snake and one that was poisonous.
Another thing we can look at is that
the natives on this island would not have reacted as they did when they saw
Paul being bitten by a snake. They
thought that he would swell up and die, and the reason they thought this was
because they thought he was an awful criminal and because the sea did not kill
him the snake would.
Once
Paul shook off the snake and did not swell up they changed their minds and
thought that he was some kind of a god.
Every time that I read this passage I think of what is written at the
end of the gospel of Mark. Now before I
quote it I have to say that from Mark 16:9-20 where I will quote verse 18, that
these verses are not found in the original or earliest manuscripts. “They will pick up serpents, and if they
drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on
the sick, and they will recover."”
I have to say that it is my belief that these verses are not creditable and
that even though as one reads through them and can look at other Scriptures to
show that some of the things go along with what they say, such as our verses
for today, that they were added on because some people had a difficult time if
Mark ended with verse eight “They went out and fled from the tomb, for
trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone,
for they were afraid.” I am not really
here to talk about Mark’s gospel as I have written on it in 2012, but I am
willing to say that if one looks at the beginning of the gospel of Mark and how
it begins then they see that if you don’t look at verses 9-20 you can see that
it ended just as it began. At any rate
Paul was not harmed by the poisonous snake as God did protect him because He
had much more work for him to do before he was taken home to be with his Lord.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: God will go to any extreme in order to care
for His own as long as they still have work to do for the cause of Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I pray that the Lord will be with a friend of
mine who is not in Peru and is in the hospital with Pneumonia.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John the son of Zebedee.”
Today’s Bible question: “How long did the flood waters stay on the
earth?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/3/2018 11:16 AM
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