Acts 28:1-10 | It's Always New to Someoneنموونە

Expectations: A New Result

Yesterday, we left Paul with a viper hanging off his arm. Acts doesn’t tell us what kind of viper it was, but based on the passage, it was poisonous. The islanders expected Paul to swell up or suddenly fall dead; either way, they expected some horrible effect.

“But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god” (Acts 28:5-6, NIV).

That’s the thing with God: our expectations don’t contain him. The islanders thought that their goddess Justice would punish Paul, but God is always bigger than the gods of this world. He protected Paul, and as he has done throughout so much of biblical history, showed himself both as the one over all and the one able to save.

For those who put their faith in Jesus, the sin that should result in our eternal death doesn’t. Like the viper, it’s shaken off into the fire.

The people didn’t see Paul as a murderer anymore. They saw him as a god. Paul was no god, but he served the God of all creation—the God of the unexpected result. The God who is powerful to save.

Prayer

What sin has its teeth sunk into you? Jesus has shaken it off into the fire. Christ’s blood is the antidote for all snake bites. Pray for God’s healing for those sins still clinging and praise him for the teeth marks he has healed.