Daily Devotional for Monday, May 1

The Jews’ Lawyer

“For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: who also hath gone about to profane the temple,” Acts 24:5, 6.

As advocates of the apostle Paul, Acts 24:1-9 might enrage us. After Tertullus’s customary and flattering greeting meant to convey sincerity and endear the listener to the speaker, his words leave believers aghast. They represent injustice and falsehoods. Typically, any address that necessitates flattery needs to be closely scrutinized. The Jews read the situation through the eyes of jealousy and hate, and they created facts that were not true. Luke’s close attention to detail and wording captured their deceit. The manipulative tone is blatantly obvious.
Again, Paul’s life ran parallel to Jesus’, and a similar injustice was present. As we read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, we want to jump up and scream, “NO!” like the little five-year-old girl at The Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. As the mob chanted for Pilate to release Barabbas instead of Jesus in the production, she jumped up and screamed loud and long, “NO! JESUS!” We feel injustice as the wicked prosper and win. The charges against Paul were similar to those against Jesus for inciting riotous and rebellious mobs and defiling the Temple. As we have followed Paul through our study of Acts, we know neither of those is true. Tertullus’s deceptive words make our hearts scream, “NO!”
The Jewish leaders thought their zeal was righteous. They thought they were fighting for the Lord! However, their injustice toward Paul was not God-honoring nor sanctioned by Him. Proverbs 21:3 says, “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” Isaiah 59 more accurately describes them as, “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity,” (verse 4). The Lord told Paul he would suffer greatly. Unfortunately, it was by the hands of supposedly devout God-followers.

THOUGHT: “Do justly…love mercy…walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8).

Kelli Reynolds