07.23.2017 – New Testament: Acts 23.14–15

To read the Bible in a year, read Acts 23.12–35 on July 23, In the year of our Lord 2017

By Don Ruhl

Something fills our hearts and with great zeal we pursue it with everything that we are, even setting goals and sometimes making promises that we have not fully considered, such as some Jews who wanted to kill Paul,

They came to the chief priests and elders, and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul. Now you, therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him; but we are ready to kill him before he comes near” (Acts 23.14–15). 

Should men on the hunt vow to keep themselves from food? No, they will need strength and energy for the hunt, not knowing how long it shall last. Yet, these forty Jews had done just such a thing. They never captured and killed Paul. Did they let themselves starve to death?

Questions:

• Have you made foolish promises?
• If so, what did you do about it?