Stay Onboard

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

STAY ONBOARD

Acts 27:27-32

27 On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. 28 They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. 29 Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. 30 In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. 31 Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved." 32 So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away.

NIV

Things have been going from terrible to horrible and it appears it is going to get even worse. Crashing against the land or rocks along the shoreline in the middle of the night could be very frightening and as the soundings were indicating they were indeed getting closer and closer to that moment of impact. Surely even in the darkest of conditions of a storm it should be possible to detect the darker outline of land as compared to the sea and sky unless the storm was so intense visibility was impossible. Yet they still sensed land was near, and some of them were intent to escape the pounding the ship was going to undergo. They attempted to escape using deceit rather than be forthright about their actions. But the story here, the life lesson here is not about this deceitful actions of some of the sailors but rather in what Paul told the centurion. God had instructed Paul that he would be saved, because he had to testify before Caesar, and that because of that God would save all the lives aboard the ship and is seems that only applied if they all were aboard the ship. This has a very familiar ring to it. It reminds us of Noah and the Ark. This also reminds us that unless we are in the cross we cannot be saved. Although this has a little different twist to it in that unless those sailors remained on the ship, the centurion could not be saved. In the natural we would have to see that it was the sailors who knew how to manage a ship even in the midst of terrible seas. If the sailors left, it is certain the centurion and his soldiers would not know how to manage the ship and all would certainly be lost. From this we could learn that although God had promised divine intervention and a promise all would be saved, he would expect that man did what man can do in his own efforts to secure the outcome that was promised. It appears the truth here is that God does not expect us to just sit down and wait for him to do everything. It was necessary for the sailors to remain onboard doing what they could to ensure the ship ran aground as safety as possible. So could we conclude that God and man must partnership in some portions of life in order for the will of God to be accomplished? This of course must first require that man knows the will of God concerning the situations of life. Taking actions on our own, as it appears the sailors were about to do, would cause great harm to both the sailors and those they left on the ship, or to ourselves and those around us. In the case of this story it was imperative all souls stayed onboard, especially those who knew the ship. In our case it is imperative we stay onboard with the will of God and knowing his will, do what we need to do in order for God to accomplished it. It still is all about God, he said stay onboard and Paul wanted all to be onboard. Our truth here is to stay onboard.