Acts 22:30-23:5 (NIV)
The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”
Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?”
Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'”
The commander wanted to conduct a preliminary hearing before the Sanhedrin. Since the issue appeared to be about Jewish religious structures and observances, he hoped that the religious leaders could resolve it outside the Roman legal system.
Paul’s opening statement, that he had fulfilled his duty go God in all good conscious how whole life, was true. His early life up to his Damascus experience was lived in good conscience. Even his opposition to the Church had been in accordance with the dictates of his conscience at the time, as hardened and twisted as his conscience might have been at that time. After Damascus, however, his conscience had been redirected, readjusted to a new lodestar in Jesus. Since that time, he had lived according to the dictates of his now better informed and purified conscience.
His claim and his speaking so forcefully in his own defense sparked an instant rebuke from the high priest, who ordered that he be hit in the mouth. This brought an instant and equally fiery response from Paul, who accused the man of acting outside the dictates of the law.
Those near Paul sharply rebuked him in turn for speaking harshly to the high priest. Paul’s response to them is interesting and contains in it a sharp rebuke for Ananias. Paul quoted Exodus 22:28 correctly from memory, but his claim to not know that Ananias was the high priest would have drawn questioning stares and murmurs. How could he not know that this man, finely attired in the distinctive robes of the high priest and sitting on an ornate chair on the dais, was the high priest?
But what Paul was saying, subtly but cuttingly, was that the man on the chair and in the high priestly regalia had issued an order to strike him that was so out of line with the just and righteous requirements of the law that Paul reasoned that he couldn’t possible be the high priest, the Jewish intermediary between God and mankind, who was required by the law to exhibit absolute fairness and equity in his legal decisions.
Paul now knew that the whole Sanhedrin was biased against him, and if he simply let those corrupt men decide his fate, he was going to be unjustly condemned.
Father, sometimes we may find ourselves in just that kind of situation, where the deck is clearly and unfairly stacked against us. In those places, we need to remember and act on Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 10:19-20 (NIV), just as Paul did: “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Help me, Lord, when I myself am facing long odds, to be like Paul, and to rely on You for the words I need to say and any actions I need to take. Amen.
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