Acts 5:21b-26 (NIV)
When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin–the full assembly of the elders of Israel–and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this.
Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
No man can stand in God’s way or foil His plan. The chief priests had put the apostles into jail, intending to stop the proclamation of the gospel by force. But God miraculously released them from the jail and sent them out with orders to continue their proclamation.
Even though the high priests and other Jewish leaders professed to believe in God and regularly proclaimed the miracles He had done for His people in the ancient past, they really had a difficult time believing that He could still work that way in their day.
So, when the apostles mysteriously disappeared from the public jail, leaving the doors locked and the guards still standing alert at their posts oblivious to what had happened, the Sanhedrin’s reaction, sadly, was not to believe that God had done a miracle, and see these men as favored by Him. They were simply confused and troubled by events that did not fit into their worldview.
When the announcement came that the apostles were found preaching on the temple grounds to a sizeable crowd, the leaders decided that caution must be used in bringing them back in, so as not to start an uprising. But it would have gone much better for them if they had taken the opportunity to step back and reexamine their assumptions about who these men were and what they were doing in light of these most recent events.
Father, so many people over the ages have resisted Your plans, and have even set themselves against Your anointed messengers, always to their hurt. But still the enemies of Your kingdom don’t learn the lessons of the past. Even today, those who oppose Your gospel and who live in fear of the expansion of Your kingdom allow themselves to feel emboldened and to act even more strongly purely on the basis of initial victories. “They say, ‘God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will rescue him.’” (Psalm 71:11 NIV) But even though the enemy may seem to have the upper hand at times, You never lose the upper hand; Your plan will always have the last word, and Your name will be glorified. Thank You, Lord, for this inspiration and reassurance for our time. Amen.
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