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Context No. 2493 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 21:7-11: in context

7When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the brothers and stayed with them one day. 8On the next day, we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea. We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. 9Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied. 10As we stayed there some days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11Coming to us and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, “The Holy Spirit says: ‘So the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”

As Paul travels toward Jerusalem, he stays at the house of Philip the evangelist, whose four daughters prophesy. Then a prophet named Agabus comes down from Judea, takes Paul's belt, binds his own hands and feet with it, and delivers a warning: this is how the owner of this belt will be bound in Jerusalem and handed over to the Gentiles. The suffering ahead is spelled out plainly, acted out before Paul's eyes.

Paul is given a clear, vivid preview of the cost of going where he is going. This is not an ambiguous nudge; it is a bound man saying, this will happen to you. And, as the following verses show, Paul goes anyway, ready not only to be bound but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. That is what stands out: obedience that presses forward after being warned exactly what it will cost. The warning did not turn him aside; it clarified the price and he paid it. Sometimes God lets us see the cost in advance, not to stop us, but to let us go in with open eyes.

When I am warned that obedience will cost me, do I turn aside, or press on with open eyes toward what God has set before me?

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