The Plot

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

THE PLOT

Acts 25:1-7

25:1 Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, 2 where the chief priests and Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. 3 They urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. 4 Festus answered, "Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. 5 Let some of your leaders come with me and press charges against the man there, if he has done anything wrong." 6 After spending eight or ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. 7 When Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.

NIV

We are introduced to the new Roman governor, Festus. We do not know much about him yet; it would appear he wants to find out as much as he can about this conflict the Jews had with Paul, a man being held in Caesarea for over two years. Again, we see religious men, who are supposed to be Godly men, who serve as chief priests and Jewish leaders, who would have been elders and teachers of the law, which would have included the Sanhedrin comprised of both Pharisees and Sadducees, seeking an opportunity to kill a man. How can men who confess their faith in God plot to kill a man because of their hatred of his message about Jesus?  Then, to compound their sin of murder, they added lies to their plot. We know the truth Jesus taught when he expanded the command, "You shall not murder." He made it clear that murder will be judged, but that if we are angry with someone, we will be judged. The truth Jesus taught was that anger, or becoming exasperated with someone, as the Greek word Orgizo carries that meaning, is the same as murder. Of course, the major difference would be that the Jews were plotting to commit murder, we simply are responding with anger, or become exasperated with someone because we think more highly of ourselves than we should. In some sense, we are similar to the Jews, in that they were supposed to be holy men, and we profess our faith in Jesus, being religious people, except we are holy because God has declared us holy and blameless in his sight because of Jesus. Yet, as holy people, spiritual people, rather than religious people, like the Jews, we would not ever consider plotting against or becoming angry with anyone. We do wonder if, by default, gossip is a form of plotting against someone, in essence, attempting to destroy or murder their character, and that it would involve a sense of anger, envy, jealousy, or judgmentalism against the person we are gossiping about. If that happened, we would be guilty of plotting.  Then, we must consider: if we listen to the plot and the gossip, have we become as guilty? Even if we can restrain ourselves from gossip and keep our exasperation just an attitude within, it is still the same as murder.