Acts 25:23-27 (NIV)
The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high ranking officers and the leading men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. For I think it is unreasonable to send on a prisoner without specifying the charges against him.”
This opening speech by Festus was a normal opening for all Roman legal procedures. In a single speech, Festus made it clear why they were meeting, the legal basis for the hearing, the state of the case to date, and the desired outcome. Paul was present for this speech since, as the accused, he had every right to hear the state of the case against him.
A lot of what he heard was well-known to him. The whole Jewish community, meaning the Jewish leadership who represented them, were shouting that he deserved the death penalty. Paul knew very well that, under what the Jewish justice system had become, his life would be in real danger in a trail superintended by them. That was why he had appealed to Caesar in the first place. At least a Roman court would be willing to look objectively at the evidence (or lack of it!).
But, new to Paul was the fact that all the impassioned arguments that Festus had heard from the Jewish leaders had failed to convince him that Paul was guilty of anything deserving of death, either at their hands or at Rome’s. Instead, this “hearing” was being held purely for the purpose of figuring out what to write on the referral to the emperor’s court. So far, all that had been presented to Festus had seemed completely bogus, unable to stand up to cross examination. But Paul had appealed, he had to be sent to Rom, and something had to be written. Paul couldn’t simply be sent to the emperor with no explanation.
All this was greatly encouraging to Paul. Up to this time, he hadn’t been sure where he stood in the governor’s eyes. But now he realized that God had put him in a place where he would be sent to Rome under the very important presumption of innocence.
Father, I’m sure that Festus was amazed that this whole thing had gotten as far as it had with Felix. There had been so much subterfuge going on for so long that it would have been easy for the essentials to have gotten completely lost in the muddle. But You had brought new clarity to the process, and new assurance to Paul that You were in the midst of it all. Thank You for Your love and care for us all the time, Lord. Amen.
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