Acts 25 Devotional

A Promise Kept Through Politics

“They only had some contentions with him regarding their own religion and a certain Jesus who had died, but whom Paul affirmed to be alive.”Acts 25:19 (BSB)

Two years have passed, and Paul is still in custody. A new governor, Festus, arrives, and at once the chief priests ask him to send Paul to Jerusalem, planning to ambush him on the way (25:2-3). Festus, wanting to do them a favor, asks whether Paul will go. Paul refuses and appeals to Caesar (25:9-11). When Festus later explains the case to King Agrippa, he admits it puzzles him. It concerns a dead man named Jesus, whom Paul insists is alive (25:19).

Festus put his finger on the center of the whole matter without understanding it. Everything turns on whether Jesus is alive. And behind the scheming, favors and delays, God is keeping a promise. He had told Paul that he must testify in Rome (23:11), and an appeal made to protect his life becomes the road that takes him there. No one in this chapter is trying to serve God's plan, yet it moves forward anyway. When your situation seems stuck in other people's decisions, God's promises are not stuck with it.

To think about: Where does your life feel stuck in slow processes or other people's choices, and how could God's faithfulness to Paul steady you there?