Acts 27 | God in the Stormনমুনা

Knowing the Sea

The sea here in question is the Mediterranean Sea. Look at a map and you’ll see Paul’s route stretching up the Levant from Caesarea near Jerusalem to the southern coast of Türkiye, then across its southern coastline to the island of Crete, and then to Malta, just south of Sicily.

Scientifically speaking, the sea is just a large body of water. But the sea had a mythology.

It might be fair to say the Jewish people hated the sea. Or if overstated, had a sense of foreboding about the sea. Not just the Mediterranean, but any sea. The sea, after all, is a dangerous place. It’s dark and looming, constantly morphing and shifting, chaotic and unpredictable. Its bottom is unknown. And what might lurk within it is unknown, too. People lose their lives at sea, swallowed up, never to be seen.

The Jewish story starts with the sea, all the way back in Genesis 1, with the Spirit of God hovering over the deep, chaotic waters—that ancient abyss before God called creation into being.

The sea overruns its borders in the Noah story, swallowing up the world in death.

The Israelites face it again in Exodus, hemmed in between the Egyptians and the sea, and miraculously, by the hand of God, are able to cross through it.

Jonah flees from God to the sea, then finds himself thrown into the sea and swallowed by a monster of the sea.

Beasts that terrorize God’s people come from the sea, both in Daniel and Revelation.

The sea tries to drown Jesus and his disciples in Mark 4. Jesus casts demons into the sea in Mark 5. Later in Mark 6, when the disciples are in the boat again without Jesus, it’s the sea fighting against them.

Yes, the sea was a frightening, foreboding place in the Jewish mind. And not for the first time, Paul is being sent out into it.

Today, read Acts 27 again. Pay attention to the power, the danger, and the uncertainty of the sea. Capture the imagination of it, not just the physical danger, but the deeper fears, too.

Each of us fears a sea of one kind or another. What’s your sea? Remember that God is bigger than it. As Moses said when he stood with quaking Israel on the shore of the sea, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today” (Exod 14:13, NIV).