November 4 Daily Devotional

Acts 21

Paul and his companions sailed on and landed at Tyre. There they found disciples and stayed with them about a week. These urged Paul not to continue his journey to Jerusalem. But he had set his face toward that city; he believed that it was God’s will that he should go on. Before his departure the disciples, together with their wives and children, kneeled down on the shore, and prayed. After stopping at Ptolemais, where they met some Christians, they came to Caesarea. Here they found Philip, one of the seven deacons. While they were in that City, an old man, named Agabus, called a prophet, came down from Jerusalem. When he saw Paul, he took Paul’s girdle and with it bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” When Paul’s friends and the disciples at Caesarea heard this, they besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. But Paul answered, “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And when he would not be persuaded they said, “The will of the Lord be done.”

A few days later Paul and his friends prepared and went up to the great city of Jerusalem. There the apostle James, who was at the head of the church in Jerusalem, and the other elders, gave the apostle, who returned from his great journey, and to his companions a hearty welcome. Paul had a long story to tell them, about carrying the message of salvation unto many cities; he had done a great deal, but he gave glory to God: he said, The Lord hath done it.

The elders at the same time also realized the danger that Paul would be in at Jerusalem, where many Jews gathered in the temple. The elders turned to Paul, saying, “Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law; and they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.” And they urged Paul to show to these believers, that he did not despise Moses’ teachings, as they supposed. To please these men and to protect himself, Paul came to the temple and performed the ceremony of cleansing, according to Moses’ law. While Paul was in the temple, some Jews from Asia met him. They recognized him, and called, “Men of Israel, help: this is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this. holy place.”