Yesterday I pointed out that Paul had a kind of prophetic mission to his people; to dissuade them from their doomed ambitions and call them onto God’s right path. One of the things that all the prophets sought to do was to bring the real problem to the surface, that is, the self-deception and crooked ambitions of the people. They sought to open up the wound so that the life-threatening infection would be revealed. This is always painful for those involved because it involves putting pressure on the sore spots. Jesus did this. He was constantly putting pressure on his people’s sore spots because he wanted to save them. But they responded negatively and eventually handed him over to the Romans to be executed. Here in Acts the same thing is happening with Paul and Luke wants us to see this parallel. We have seen how the Romans were prepared to treat Paul more justly than his own Jewish brothers. The next thing that happens is that Paul brings out the division in the Jewish leadership. They start to quarrel with each other to the point of violence! It would be this kind of division that would lead to the downfall of this people and God, through Paul, was bringing things to the surface. God will often put us in situations that press on our sore spots. It may seem cruel at the time, but God does this for our good. God wants to deal with the infections and dysfunctions in our lives. The key is to focus, not on the difficult situation, but on what God is doing in the situation.
Is God pressing on a sore spot in your life? Ask God to show you what he wants to deal with.
Read Acts 22:30 – 23:11 again
