This is French artist Laurent de la Hyre’s depiction of the Apostle Paul shaking a viper off his hand on Malta, where he had been shipwrecked. De la Hyre lived from 1606-56. (Courtesy Photo)The story in Acts 27:27-28:5 of the Apostle Paul’s danger-fraught journey to Rome and his shipwreck on the island of Malta shows that God always helps his people through trouble.
That’s according to the Revs. Terry Pugh and Vaughny Taylor, who say Paul’s being bitten on the hand by a viper that he shook off into a fire, experiencing no ill effect, is a fitting coda to the story’s theme.
The Rev. Pugh, pastor of the First United Pentecostal Church, said Paul warned a centurion on the ship that a big storm was coming, but he was disregarded.
“The bottom line is that regardless of the trouble you face or where it comes from, God has a plan to get you through it,” the Rev Pugh said. “Paul wanted to talk to Caesar to see if he could change the ruler of Rome’s mind about Christianity because that would have changed everything.
“I think he was very likely tired of fooling with all the people who were causing him grief around Israel.”
Pugh said Paul and his 275 shipmates were only 430 miles from Rome when the ship wrecked.
“I went to Rome and saw the prison he was in,” he said. “It was not a pleasant place.”
Paul was martyred about 65 A.D. at around the age of 60.
The Rev. Taylor, pastor of Central Baptist Church, said the story reads like an adventure movie.
“It’s like ‘The Life and Times of Paul’ navigating life’s storms,” the Rev. Taylor said. “They stopped in Malta for three months and Paul ended up being arrested in Rome, but he had been able to preach there.
“God uses trials and tribulations to cause us to put our faith in him and rely on him. He is still sovereign in our lives and in control of our circumstances. Our prayers will give us courage and confidence when we’re faced with all these situations that we have to overcome.”
Noting that the Republic of Malta still consider’s Paul’s sojourn there the most important event in its history, Taylor said, “That’s what God’s grace and mercy does.
“It’s life-changing.”
The Maltese people who saw Paul bitten by the viper initially said he must be a murderer because he was being punished after surviving the shipwreck, but then they declared him a god because he was unaffected.
“They were able to understand that he was just a messenger and God was directing his life,” Taylor said. “The epilogue is that Paul understood his place and purpose.
“He pointed to God the Father, not to himself.”
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