The Way Home
DANGER AT SEA
Story 18 - Acts 27:1 to 28:1
It was Paul’s right as a Roman to be tried before Caesar the emperor. But his choice to do so made it necessary to send him from Caesarea in Judea to Rome in Italy, where Caesar lived. In those times there were no ships sailing at regular times from city to city. People who wanted to go some place across the sea had to wait until they could find a ship carrying things to those places. Paul and some other prisoners were placed in the charge of a Roman centurion or captain named Julius, to be taken to Rome. Julius found a ship sailing from Caesarea to places on the shore of Asia Minor. This ship would take them a part of the way to Rome. He took Paul and the other prisoners on board this ship, and accompanying Paul were his friends, Luke the doctor and Aristarchus from Thessalonica.
When they set sail from Caesarea, Paul had been in prison for more than two years. They followed the coast northward to Sidon. There they stopped for a day; and Julius the centurion was very kind to Paul and let him go ashore to see his friends who lived there. From Sidon they turned to the northwest and sailed past the island of Cyprus and then westward by the shore of Asia Minor. At a city called Myra they left the ship and boarded another one, which was sailing from Alexandria to Italy with a load of grain from the fields of Egypt.
Soon a heavy wind began to blow against the ship, and it sailed very slowly for many days; but at last they came to the large island of Crete and followed its southern shore in the face of the wind until they found a harbor, and they stayed for a few days. But this harbor was not a good one, and they decided to leave it and sail to another.
Paul now said to them, “Sirs, I see that this voyage will be with great loss to the load and the ship and with great danger to the lives of us all.”
And he urged them to stay where they were at anchor. But the owner of the ship and its captain thought that they might sail in safety. Julius the centurion listened to them rather than to Paul. So when a gentle south wind began to blow, they set sail once more, closely following the shore of the island of Crete. But soon the wind grew into a great storm, and the ship could not face it and was driven out of its course. Behind the ship was a little boat and this they drew up on board; and as the ship creaked and seemed in danger of going to pieces, they tied ropes around it to hold it together.
The storm grew and drove the ship away from the island into the open sea. To make the vessel lighter, they threw overboard a part of the load; and the next day they cast into the sea all the loose ropes and everything on the ship that could be spared.
Day after day went on with no sight of the sun, and night after night with no sight of the stars. The great waves rolled over the ship and beat upon it, until those on board began to lose hope of saving their lives. For days the men and prisoners in their fear had eaten nothing. But in the midst of the storm, Paul stood up among them and said: “Sirs, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete, for then we might have been saved much harm and loss. But even as it is, be of good cheer; for though the ship will be lost, all of us on board shall be saved. This night there stood by me an angel of the Lord, to whom I belong and whom I serve, and the angel said to me, ‘Fear not, Paul; you shall yet stand before Caesar; and God has given to you the lives of all those who are sailing with you.’
“Now, friends, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as the angel said to me. But we must land upon some island.”
The storm lasted fourteen days. It was nighttime when the sailors thought land was near. They dropped down the line and found that the water was one hundred and twenty feet deep; then after a little they let down the line again and found the water only ninety feet deep. They were sure now that land was near, but they were afraid that the ship might be driven upon rocks; so they threw out from the stern or rear end four anchors to hold the ship; and then they longed for the day to come.
The sailors let down the little boat, saying that they would throw out more anchors from the bow or front of the ship, but they really intended to row away in the boat and leave the ship and all on board to be destroyed. But Paul saw their purpose, and he said to the centurion, “Unless these sailors stay in the ship, none of us can be saved.”
Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and let it fall off, so that the sailors could not get away. And as it drew close to daylight, Paul urged them all to take some food. He said: “This is the fourteenth day that you have waited without any food. Now I beg of you to eat, for you need food to stay alive. You will all be saved; not a hair shall fall from the head of one of you.”
He took some bread and gave thanks to God before them all; then he broke it and began to eat. This encouraged all the others, so that they, too, took food. The number of people on board the ship, including sailors, soldiers, prisoners, and others, was two hundred and seventy-six. After they had eaten enough, they threw out into the sea what was left of its load of grain, so that the ship might be less heavy upon the waves and might go nearer to the shore.
As soon as the day dawned, they could see land but did not know what land it was. They saw a bay with a beach, into which they thought they could run the ship. So they cut loose the anchors, leaving them in the sea, and they hoisted up the foresail to the wind and made toward the shore. The ship ran aground and the front end was stuck fast in the sand, but the rear part began to break in pieces from the beating of the waves.
Just as they were beginning to hope for their lives, another danger appeared. By the Roman law, a soldier who had charge of a prisoner must take his prisoner’s place if he escaped from his care. These soldiers feared that their prisoners might swim ashore and get free. So they asked the centurion to let them kill all the prisoners, while they were still on board the ship. But Julius the centurion loved Paul, and to save Paul’s life, kept them from killing the prisoners. He commanded that those who could swim should leap overboard and swim to land. Then the rest went ashore, some on planks and some on broken pieces of the ship. And all came safely to the shore, not one life was lost! And then they found that they were on the island of Melita, which is in the Great Sea, south of the larger island of Sicily.
