Conspiracy

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

CONSPIRACY

Acts 23:12-15

12 The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 More than forty men were involved in this plot. 14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15 Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here."

NIV

The plot thickens. Now it comes down to a conspiracy of the Jews. This is indeed puzzling because these are Jews, the chosen people of God, who he elected to come to them in human form to redeem them from the curse of the law. These are supposed to be holy men, consecrated to God, and worship him in his temple. These are the men who exposed their conspiracy to the chief priests and elders, men who are supposed to be not only holy men but the spiritual leaders of the people. Not only did they expose their plot to kill Paul to the chief priests and elders, but they also wanted and received both their blessings, and involvement. Oh, the depth of depravity among the holy men of God. The worst thing about this depravity, this sinful nature that is motivating their conspiracy to commit murder, is they believed they were doing it in the name of the Lord. We wonder just how much we do in the name of the Lord that is motivated by our own selfish ambitions. Certainly, we would not conspire to commit murder, however, Jesus taught us that we are not to be angry with our brothers. This was in context with him comparing being angry with our brothers as the same as murder. It is interesting the use of the Greek word orgidzo. This means to provoke or enrage. This seems to explain how the Jews felt as they plotted or conspired to commit murder. Again, it is doubtful that any Christian today would become that filled with anger, it would be the same as wanting someone dead. However, do we have people in our lives that we simply do not like? As a believer we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, but can we love someone and still not like them, almost to the point of hatred. There are those people who just rub us the wrong way, like nails scratching on a chalkboard. Still, would we do them any harm? It could be possible that because of our dislike for someone, that we could harm their reputation through gossip. We do not think that any believer would even plot to gossip in an effort to cause friction or harm another believer. It could be a slippery slope that may not be a conspiracy involving many people, but simply an inward one, devised to bring someone’s character into question. This could only be motivated by thinking more highly of oneself than we should. This may be the way the Jews plotted to kill Jesus. They were too much of themselves, blinded to the truth. We have to be very careful not to allow any ill-feeling creep into our thinking for that could lead to being provoked or enraged, if nothing else within, which could lead to outward behavior.