Monday after the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord
Posted on January 31, 2022 by under
Scripture: Acts 28:1-6 (NKJV)
28:1 Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. 2 And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. 3 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4 So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” 5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
Devotion
When the natives see that a viper has attached itself to Paul’s hand they assume he is a murderer and that justice has finally caught up with him. Paul shakes the viper off into the fire and nothing happens to him. The natives change their mind about Paul, thinking him a god. He wasn’t a god. But the Son of God had said that His apostles “will take up serpents” (Mark 16:18) to demonstrate that the Gospel they preached was divine.
This signifies the content of Paul’s message. He preached Christ crucified as the fulfillment of the first Gospel promise to Adam and Eve, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15). The viper in the brush that attacked Paul was a regular viper. But it serves as a reminder of the devil’s temptations which often attack unexpectedly in our daily life. That Paul so easily shook off the viper from his hand teaches that even though temptation often affixes itself to us, we can easily shake it off by relying on God’s promises. The same Paul wrote, “The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:20). God crushes Satan under our feet when, in temptation, we remember that we are His baptized children who have the Holy Spirit. We have better things to do, say, and think about than whatever the ancient serpent might suggest to our flesh.
Prayer: Almighty God, Who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
