Acts 27

     27:1,  The “we” indicates Luke is on board.  Thus the marvelously detailed account of the voyage.

     27:9.  Note margin:  “Day of Atonement in September or October.”

     27:21-26.  The whole account of this voyage tempts to allegorizing, e.g. listening to the wisdom of God rather than the wisdom of man (10-11), etc.  This sort of thing is subject to abuse (what isn’t), but it is no abuse of the text to see God’s providence at work.  And let’s be honest, can many resist the application of this incident to the voyage of God’s people on the stormy sea of the world?  It’s made to order.

     Like Jesus’ promise to Paul that he would preach the gospel at Rome (Acts 23:11), Jesus says of his people, “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.”  (John 10:27).  He did not promise smooth sailing.  “The promise, you see, is not that the ship will not go to the bottom, but that the passengers will all reach shore.”  James Montgomery Boice, in Sermons that Shaped America, Barker and Logan, P.&R. Publishing, 2003, p.389.

     Our voyage will turn out exactly as we have been told, but “we must run aground on a certain island.”  (25-26).

     27:27-44.  Compare God’s promise to Paul in v.24 with the contingencies and the free actions of the men (31) that must all fall together for the promise to come to pass.  God’s providence works through second causes.  Paul didn’t just believe God.  He believed God and took action.  And so, all came to pass just as God had ordained.  It always does.