Acts Day 285 - What is God Doing?

27:21 When they had gone a long time without food, then Paul stood up in their midst and said, “Men, you ought to have followed my advice and not to have set sail from Crete and incurred this damage and loss. 22 Yet now I urge you to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me, 24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you.’ 25 Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on a certain island.”

What is God doing?  He could rescue Paul but He hasn't. He could prevent the storm but He hasn't. He could just let the events unfold and not tell Paul anything but He has chosen to reveal how the storm and shipwreck will go. The question is why?

To answer this requires a degree of speculation which is always suspect but God told us the story as it is written so He must have as reason. 

On the ship are men. Men of wealth and poor men. Men with rank and position and ordinary men. Men with wives and children and single men. (Presumably) very likely men of different countries and colours. What do all these men have in common who appear to have little or nothing in common?  They are God's sons. Before they were born He knew them but sadly they don't know Him. Their views of God are mixed and jumbled by the religious confusion around them. Like our world today the Roman Empire was a melting pot of peoples and cultures and religions.

How could He reach them under these near hopeless circumstances? 

Remember Jonah? God used his selfish detour on board a ship to Tarshish to reveal Himself to the entire crew in a miraculous, undeniable way.

The parallel is too powerful to ignore. What is God doing? He is using Paul and prophecy to reveal Himself to a ship full of men who desperately need to know who He is. The same God who rescued Daniel from the den of lions is just as concerned about these men. He wants them to know Him and love Him as much as Joseph loved Him. 

What is God doing? He is trying His best to save us. The same thing He's been doing since that first visit to Adam and Eve when they were confused and afraid and hiding.

"You will call His name Jesus because He will save His people..."