Whose Advice

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

WHOSE ADVICE

Acts 27:1-12

27:1 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. 2 We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. 3 The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. 4 From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8 We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. 9 Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast. So Paul warned them, 10 "Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also." 11 But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship. 12 Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.

NIV

The voyage to Rome has begun, which will lead to much trouble for all aboard the ship. First, as before, we have a travel log of the course the ship traveled. It would make sense that a ship of those days would need to put into port every so often to restore some supplies, such as food and water. Because of some of the comments about the winds, they were aboard a typical wooden ship with anywhere from one to three masts full of sails. The process of tacking against the wind was not easy, and at times it seemed they had no choice in which direction the ship would go. What can we observe and learn from this portion of the trip to Rome? The warning from Paul may have come from his own sailing experience during his various missionary trips, but from the following text, we are certain his warning was inspired by the Lord, perhaps through an angel of God or a vision. However, the men of the ship, the pilot, and the owner felt they knew best, although their reasoning was driven by profits rather than common sense, or taking the advice of a passenger in chains. What we know is that our advice should always be from the Lord, rather than from the world. We should not be driven by personal gain, but by what the Lord inspires us to do. Do we make mistakes? Of course, we are not perfect. We may also have come up against opposing winds, so to speak, experiencing difficult times on our journey through life. They could not find a safe harbor to winter in, so they kept struggling, which would cause them exactly what Paul warned them about: loss of cargo and ship. However, we know our only safe harbor is in our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Why would we want to go on and struggle through on our own when we have a safe harbor? They did not heed the warning and decided they should sail on. We cannot refuse the directions of the Lord and decide on our own to sail on, to make our own decisions. From the next portions of this narrative of their travels, we know they will experience great loss of cargo and ship. When we try to live by our choices, we might experience loss in some way, but when we sail according to the direction of the Lord, we will always find a good place, a safe harbor. The main point is: whom do we listen to, whose advice do we take, men's or God's?