S: Acts 21
O: As we had already observed the last chapter, Paul was convinced that God wanted him to go to Jerusalem although the God also had warned him that suffering and jail awaited him there. In this chapter, it seems that God kept warning him not to go to Jerusalem – the disciples in Tyre “repeatedly told Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem.” God even had Agabus travel to Caesaria from Judea to warn him, “The Holy Spirit says this: ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
Yet, Paul remained convinced that God wanted him to go to Jerusalem in spite of all those warnings that the Holy Spirit sent. So, he went. And, as the Holy Spirit had warned, Asian Jews stirred up the crowd against him and the Roman authorities were forced to arrest him.
Yet, this did not thwart God’s plan. As a result of that imprisonment for over 2 years, he wrote several of his epistles which we now have today in our New Testament. Also, it may be because of this imprisonment that Luke was motivated to write his 2 books to Theophilus in defence of Paul – what we know today as the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
Some Christians think that this proved that Paul was right – that God wanted him to go on to Jerusalem, and be arrested, which gave him time to write those epistles and motivated Luke to write the 2 books – imagine how different our New Testament would have been had Paul heeded those warnings and not gone to Jerusalem!
But if so, why did God warn him so many times not to go to Jerusalem? It could be that God had other plans for him, and there would be just as awesome epistles and historical books in our New Testament had Paul heeded the warnings and not gone to Jerusalem. Who knows? 🤷🏽♂️
Be as it may, as Paul himself wrote, “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God is still in control although we have the free will to make our own choices!
Back when I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a lot of my friends were fans of the Babylon 5 TV series. Unlike most sci-fi series, this 5-year series was planned out by J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) from the beginning. He had all sorts of contingency plans in case of actors leaving, network interference, etc. And indeed, actors did leave. The network did interfere. But he could still bring the story to a satisfying conclusion after 5 years in spite of all that. I was too busy with my Ph.D. (and didn’t have a TV) to watch the series, but because so many of my friends were talking about it, I knew the general plotline.
After I submitted my Ph.D. dissertation, I took the opportunity to borrow the DVDs and start watching the series from the beginning, and when I watched the first episode, Vorlon ambassador Kosh arrives at Babylon 5, he sees Commander Jeffrey Sinclair and immediately reacts with shock, saying, “He is the one.” Because I had been listening to my friends talk about the series for 5 years, I was amazed – I knew that later, Jeffry Sinclair was actually Valen, the legendary Minbari leader who helped them win the previous Shadow War a thousand years ago. This happens when he travels back in time and transforms into a Minbari using a special device. The Vorlons, being ancient and aware of many timelines, already knew who he was when they first saw him in the present.
But this would not be revealed until 3 years later in Season 3, Episode 16! This in spite of Sinclair’s actor Michael O’Hare leaving after season 1!
What does this have to do with God? Well, in a small way, this illustrates how God can work everything out, similar to how JMS worked everything out, in spite of the free will of the actors to leave the show, etc.
Of course, JMS is not God (though he could be considered the god of Babylon 5, being the creator and showrunner of that series), but in a small way, it helps us see how God’s sovereignty and human free will can interact together in a non-contradictory manner. For the Bible makes it clear – God is sovereign, and yet humans have the freedom to choose to follow God or not to follow God. This has perplexed believers for millennia, and I don’t claim to have explained the whole thing here, but hopefully this helps us wrap our minds around it a bit.
So: was Paul supposed to go to Jerusalem and get arrested, and end up writing the epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon? Or was he supposed to have heeded the Holy Spirit’s warnings and not gone to Jerusalem, and we would have different epistles and a different book of Acts or maybe other books we will now never know about? Who knows? But we can still trust that God is still in control!
A: Even when I feel uncertain about whether I made the right choice, I can still trust that God is sovereign. Like Paul, I need to step forward in faith, seeking His guidance, but also knowing that if I misunderstand or misstep, He is still working for my good. Whether in my teaching, family decisions, or personal walk, I can rest in His control.
P: Father, help me to trust You, even when I second-guess my choices. When I don’t know if I’m making the ‘right’ decision, let me rest in Your sovereignty. Remind me that even my missteps are not outside Your plan. Give me discernment to follow Your leading and peace in knowing You are always in control. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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