Shake it off

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

SHAKE IT OFF

Acts 28:1-6

28:1 Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2 The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3 Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4 When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live." 5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

NIV

An unusual event turns the hearts and minds of people. First we should note the hospitality shown to all the souls onboard who made it to shore. The people who lived on this island were open and willing to aid this battered bunch of wet and cold men. We could learn a life lesson from this in that showing kindness toward those who are in need is a good thing, but here this kindness is shown in hospitality as well. But there is something else here which seems strange for a life lesson yet it may well be the foremost point of the narrative at this point regarding being on shore. Paul brings some brush to add to the fire and a snake jumps out and not only bites him, but fastens itself to his hand. That would imply its fangs were deep into his skin injecting its poisonous venom deep within his hand. It is interesting the weird ideas some people have in that the locals were sure that because he was attacked by a snake, he was a murderer and the snake was therefore serving justice on him. Here again we could make a life lesson in that some people, the local people in a community, even a community of believers can develop some pretty weird beliefs, which of course, we should not partake in. But here we see that Paul suffered no ill effects at all from the snake and because of this the locals now though him to be a god. What must the centurion and his soldiers thought of all this? What did all the ship’s crew think? We are not told any others reaction to what happened to Paul except of the locals with their weird beliefs. What we do see, however, is that God protected Paul from any harm. We have yet to hear anything from Paul about this incident as to giving God all the glory. In fact this whole narrative is without mention of Paul testifying at all to anyone, except later we will see him used by God to heal all the sick people on the island. So the lesson here is not about testifying how great God is, but to be living with all expectation of God protecting us from harm. Although the narrative does not indicate the exact response of Paul to having a snake affixed to his hand, it does tell us he simply shook it off into the fire. He did not fall down moaning and groaning crying for someone to do something. He acted as if it was nothing at all, nothing unusual happened, as this is what life is like for a believer in God. Paul’s reaction was not of hysteria, but of calm assurance in his God. This is our life lesson. Whenever situations arise in our life, especially those which might cause harm to us in some way, hysteria should not be our response, but a calm assurance that our God will see us through. We should, at least in some sense, simply shake it off into the fire and move on as if nothing happened. Now it is true because of this the locals thought him to be a god, and we should certainly not act in any manner that would make people think we are a god, which is doubtful in our culture anyway. But the point here is that we should live in a manner that indicates we fully trust in God. We should also note that God did not prevent the snake from biting Paul. We could assume Paul felt the pain of the bite but reacted with calm assurance in God. We might have to endure some pain in some situations, but how we react to it will be the testimony of our faith in God. It is not always about the what, but about how we response. Do we just shake it off?