Snakes
I think my second-favorite story in Acts is the story of when Paul and his companions are shipwrecked on the island of Malta. The whole thing with the snake and the people think in he is cursed and then a god because he doesn’t die really portrays the world, I believe. “Survival of the fittest” is our world’s, and country’s, motto. If you are strong then you will survive because you can fight off competition whenever someone wants what you have or wants to get rid of you. If a person is blessed in life then people think that that person is automatically a good person and so great and wonderful and worshipful. But if another person is poor and does not have good circumstances to live in at all then people distain that person and shun him thinking that he must have done something wrong to live in that area of the city, or to live like that.
When Paul was bit by the snake the islanders think that he is cursed because he was bitten by a snake, but then Paul does not die and they think he is a god! How much more fickle can you get?! To go from being an untouchable in India to the President of the United States (viewed by most country’s inhabitants on the status of god) in one sitting would be discouraging and daunting for me. Of course, can I expect any more, really, from mere humans? But how would one preach the Gospel to a people who worship you as a god? Would they be able to take the news that you are actually a human just like them, but there is One greater over all? Many people cannot take the news when they find out that their life-long hero has made a mistake or screwed up somehow. If misfortune comes your way then you did something to deserve it or have bad luck or you’re just a plain bad person.
Comfort for me is that the One who is greatest looks over all circumstances and gets to the core of who we are. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7b. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, whether that’s struggling to stay alive in a disease-laden village in Africa or composing a symphony in Brussels, God knows our hearts. And his Gospel is there for every single one of us. His love reaches out to us and beckons us to come to him and to give our burdens to him. He is not fickle in his thoughts because he is the only thing constant, never changing.
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” Psalm 118:8
When Paul was bit by the snake the islanders think that he is cursed because he was bitten by a snake, but then Paul does not die and they think he is a god! How much more fickle can you get?! To go from being an untouchable in India to the President of the United States (viewed by most country’s inhabitants on the status of god) in one sitting would be discouraging and daunting for me. Of course, can I expect any more, really, from mere humans? But how would one preach the Gospel to a people who worship you as a god? Would they be able to take the news that you are actually a human just like them, but there is One greater over all? Many people cannot take the news when they find out that their life-long hero has made a mistake or screwed up somehow. If misfortune comes your way then you did something to deserve it or have bad luck or you’re just a plain bad person.
Comfort for me is that the One who is greatest looks over all circumstances and gets to the core of who we are. “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7b. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, whether that’s struggling to stay alive in a disease-laden village in Africa or composing a symphony in Brussels, God knows our hearts. And his Gospel is there for every single one of us. His love reaches out to us and beckons us to come to him and to give our burdens to him. He is not fickle in his thoughts because he is the only thing constant, never changing.
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” Psalm 118:8
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