Some Notes on Acts 27-28

Some notes on Acts 27-28:

*Paul and his shipmates arrive on shore on the 14th day. Whether this is the Sabbath day, the Lord’s Day, or a generic 14th day, doesn’t much matter. What matters is that it is symbolically associated with the Sabbath.

*Stoking up a fire on the Sabbath was a capital crime under Torah. Picking up sticks to stoke up a hearth fire was also a capital crime.

*When Paul does both, the law appears to sting him with venomous poison in the form of the viper. The law seeks to mete out the death penalty to a lawbreaker. Will Paul receive the curse of the law? No, because he is a man in Christ, the curses of the law cannot stick. He is freed from the law. The serpent cannot harm him (cf. Mark 16). He has victory over the serpent, and shakes it off into the fire.

*The pagans on the island jump from one extreme conclusion to another. At first, the think the viper bite means that the goddess Justice has caught up with Paul: He must be a murderer, who escaped the shipwreck by sheer luck, but now will receive what he really deserves. But then when Paul is not harmed by the snake bite, they think that Paul must be a god himself. To have power over serpents is to have a kind of divine power in their eyes.

*So far from getting sick and dying, Paul heals others, rescuing them from death. Malta has become a new creation, a miniature Eden, by the time Paul leaves.

*Paul’s departure is reminiscent of the exodus, but with a twist. Instead of harming the Maltans with plagues, he has healed them. When he leaves, he “plunders” them with all he needs for watery escape. He leaves a freeman, at least in the sense that is clearly not in bondage to the law or its curses.

*The entire experience of the shipwreck is a kind of death and resurrection. It portrays Paul’s gospel ministry. Kingdom blessings of healing, renewal, forgiveness, and transformation flow out.