"And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13. And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy."
We seem to be fascinated with people who live on the edge. This means that they live in constant danger and insecurity. The "Indiana Jones" movies, for example, fed a lot of this fascination. He was in constant danger, and almost lost his life in about every other scene. Well, Bible characters are no strangers to living on the edge. David certainly lived on the edge in the early part of his life as he spent a lot of time evading King Saul, who was trying to kill him. Another Bible character that comes to mind is Paul. Notice that in the text above, there were more than forty men who swore to kill Paul, and that they would not eat nor drink until they had killed him. This wasn't the first threat on his life, for a group wanted to kill him soon after he was converted on the Damascus road. There are other references to people who wanted to kill Paul. Imagine what you would feel if word got to you that more than forty men wanted to kill you and would not eat or drink until they had done so. I imagine that you would go into hiding. (I probably would too.) Through his faith in Christ, Paul lived through these constant threats and other dangers that he faced. What does this have to do with us? We are living in a time when we might learn what it means to live on the edge. I do not mean to imply that we are threatened with death as Paul was, but we are living in what has come to be called the "post-Christian era." There is a move by secularists to take us out of the mainstream of American thought, and they are doing a pretty good job of it. If we stand on the word of God for any reason, we are called "bigots." No one is threatening our lives, but they are threatening our way of life. I have heard that in Canada, preachers have been arrested for preaching the Bible on issues of sin. If secularists have their way, this will happen in our country too. Freedom of religion has taken a back seat to political correctness. We are not living on the edge like Paul yet, but the day may come. The question is, will we stand or will we surrender? Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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