Acts 28:1 - Meaning and Application

What a great variety of places and situations we find Paul in. He was like a moving planet, not a fixed star. Here he is on an island that, most likely, he would never have reached if a storm had not driven him there. Yet it seems God has work for him even here. Stormy winds still carry out God’s plan, and this storm turned out to be a blessing for the island of Melita, because it brought them Paul’s company for three months. Paul was a blessing everywhere he went.

This island was called Melita, between Sicily and Africa. It was about twenty miles long and twelve miles wide. It lay farther from the mainland than any other island in the Mediterranean, about sixty miles from Sicily. Later, it became famous for the knights of Malta, who made a brave stand when the Turks overran that part of Christendom and slowed the advance of their armies.

Here we see, first, the kind welcome the people of this island gave to the shipwrecked strangers on their coast (Acts 28:2). “The barbarous people showed us no little kindness.” God had promised that no life would be lost, and what God promises, he brings to completion. If they had escaped the sea only to die from cold or hunger on shore, it would have been the same in the end. So God kept caring for them. Whatever good we receive through people’s hands, we should recognize as coming from God’s hand. Every creature is to us exactly what he makes it to be. When he chooses, he can turn enemies into friends. Friends in need are true friends. In hard times, a brother is born for that very purpose.

Notice, first, the general praise given to the kindness the people of Malta showed Paul and his companions. They are called barbarous people because they did not match the language and customs of the Greeks or Romans, who looked down on everyone else as barbarians, even though those others may have been just as civilized, or more so, in some ways. Yet these so-called barbarous people were full of humanity. They showed us no little kindness.

They did not treat the shipwreck as a chance to make money or take advantage, as many who are called Christian people, I fear, might have done. Instead, they treated it as a chance to show mercy. The Good Samaritan was a better neighbor to the wounded man than the priest or Levite (Luke 10:30-37). Truly, we have not always found more humanity among Greeks, Romans, or Christians than among these so-called barbarians. This is written for our example, so we may learn to show compassion to people in distress and help them as much as we can, since we know that we also live in the body.

We should be ready to welcome strangers, like Abraham, who stood at his tent door to invite travelers in (Hebrews 13:2). We should especially welcome strangers in distress, like these men. “Honor all men.” If God has placed us where we can often help people in need, we should not count that as a hardship, but as a blessing. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Who knows whether these barbarous people were placed on this island for such a time as this?

Second, we see one particular act of their kindness. They kindled a fire in some large hall or other, and they welcomed every one of us. They made room for us around the fire and gave us all a warm welcome, without asking what country we came from or what religion we followed. After swimming ashore and climbing over broken pieces of the ship, they were surely soaked through. As if that were not enough, rain from above added to the water from below. The rain was heavy enough to wet them to the skin, and it was cold too. They needed a good fire, especially since they had just eaten a hearty meal on board ship, and they got one right away to warm them and dry their clothes.

Sometimes helping poor families with fuel is as much an act of charity as helping them with food or clothing. “Be warmed” is as necessary as “Be filled.” When we are protected from bad weather by a warm house, bed, clothes, and a good fire, we should think of those who are still out in the rain and cold. We should feel pity for them, pray for them, and help them if we can.

Second, Paul was put in further danger by a viper fastening itself on his hand, and the people wrongly judged what it meant. Paul was among strangers, and he seemed to be one of the least important and most contemptible people there. So God gave him special notice.

When the fire was being made, and made bigger so that so large a group could all benefit from it, Paul was as busy as anyone gathering sticks (Acts 28:3). Though he was free from all and greater than any of them, he made himself servant of all. Paul was active and industrious. He liked to be doing something whenever there was something to do, and he never planned to take it easy. He was also humble and self-denying, willing to stoop to anything that might help, even gathering sticks for a fire. We should count nothing beneath us except sin, and we should be willing to do the lowliest tasks when there is need, for the good of our brothers and sisters.

The others were ready to help, yet Paul, wet and cold as he was, would not put all the burden on them. He would help himself too. Those who enjoy the warmth of the fire should also help bring fuel to it.

But the sticks were old, dry rubbish, and there happened to be a viper among them. It had lain as if dead until the heat reached it, or it had stayed quiet until the fire stirred it up. Then it sprang at Paul as he unknowingly threw it into the fire and fastened on his hand (Acts 28:3). Snakes and other poisonous creatures often hide among sticks. Scripture speaks of one who leans against a wall and is bitten by a snake (Amos 5:19). It was common enough that people were warned not even to break through hedges, because a serpent might bite them (Ecclesiastes 10:8). As there can be a snake under green grass, so there can also be one under dry leaves.

See how many dangers human life faces, and how much danger comes from the creatures beneath us, many of which have become enemies to people since people became rebels against God. And what a mercy it is that we are kept safe from them as often as we are. We often meet with harm where we expected help, and many people are hurt even while they are honestly at work and doing their duty.

The local people, who were uncivilized and unlearned, jumped to the conclusion that Paul was a murderer. Since he was a prisoner, they thought he must have appealed to Caesar in order to escape justice in his own country, and that this snake was sent by God as punishment. If they did not know he was a prisoner, they thought he was fleeing when the snake fastened onto his hand.

From this, we can see some things that natural reason can teach. Even people with little learning may still know that God rules the world and that His providence directs every event. They may also know that evil follows sinners, and that God rewards good works and punishes wicked ones. They understood that murder is a terrible sin and will not go unpunished for long.

Those who think they will escape all punishment for evil can be corrected by these people, who knew without any written law that judgment comes. If evil people seem to escape the sea, they cannot outrun divine justice. In Job’s time, you could ask anyone passing by, and they would tell you that the wicked are kept for the day of destruction.

But natural reason also has blind spots, and these must be corrected by God’s revelation. These people wrongly thought that all wicked people are punished in this life. They assumed that if someone escapes one danger, another will surely catch him right away. Yet that is not always true. Wicked people, even murderers, sometimes live long and become powerful, because full judgment is often reserved for the next world.

They also wrongly thought that anyone who suffers badly in this life must be especially wicked. So if a viper bit a man, they assumed he must be a murderer, just as some thought the people killed when the tower in Siloam fell must have been greater sinners than everyone else in Jerusalem. Job’s friends made the same mistake when they judged his suffering. God’s word gives the true picture: life often brings the same troubles to everyone, and good people often suffer deeply so their faith and patience can grow.

When Paul shook off the snake into the fire, they still expected judgment to confirm their harsh opinion. They thought he would swell up and die suddenly. This shows how ready people are, once they form a bad opinion of someone, to cling to it and expect God to prove them right. It was good that they did not attack Paul themselves when nothing happened, but they waited to see what Providence would do.

Paul’s rescue from this danger, and the wrong way the people read it, also deserve notice. The snake fastening onto his hand was a test of his faith, and his faith honored God. He does not seem to have panicked at all. He did not scream or jerk back in fear, but let the snake hang there long enough for everyone to notice.

That kind of calm could only come from God’s special help and from trusting Christ’s promise that His followers would take up serpents (Mark 16:18). This is what it means to have a steady heart, trusting in God. Then he simply shook the snake into the fire, without struggle or special help. In the same way, believers, by the strength of Christ’s grace, can shake off Satan’s temptations with firm resolve.

Paul’s action also pictures how Christians should treat the insults and accusations of people. When we have a clear conscience before God, we can treat such attacks lightly and refuse to be shaken by them. They do no real harm unless we let them make us angry, stop us from doing our duty, or tempt us to answer insult with insult.

Paul was unharmed. Those who expected his death watched for a long time, but saw no injury at all. God meant to make him stand out among these uncivilized people and so open the way for the gospel among them. It is sometimes reported that after this no venomous creature could live on that island, but that claim is not clearly proven, even though some Roman Catholic writers stated it confidently.

At once, the same people who had first despised him changed their minds and said he was a god, meaning something like an immortal being. They thought it impossible that an ordinary man could have a snake hanging from his hand and suffer no harm.

See how uncertain public opinion is. It shifts with the wind and quickly runs to extremes. The same crowd that once offered sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas later stoned them, and here it moved from calling Paul a murderer to treating him like a god.

Then came the miracle of healing, first an older man who had a fever, and then others with different diseases, all through Paul. Along with these signs proving Christ’s message, the gospel was no doubt faithfully preached. Notice the kind welcome Publius, the leading man on the island, gave these distressed strangers. He had a large estate there, and some think he was the governor. He received them and housed them for three days with great courtesy, giving them time to get settled elsewhere in the best way possible.

It is a blessing when God gives a generous heart to someone he has also given great wealth. It suited Publius, as the chief man on the island, to be especially hospitable and generous. The richest man should also be rich in good works. Publius’s father then fell sick with fever and dysentery, a bloody illness that often goes with fever and is usually deadly. Providence allowed this sickness to come at just that time, so that his healing would be a ready reward for Publius’s kindness, and especially for his kindness to Paul, whom he had received as a prophet and so gained a prophet’s reward.

Paul looked into the man’s condition, and though no one seems to have asked him to do anything, he entered the room not as a doctor using medicine, but as an apostle working a miracle. He prayed to God in Christ’s name for the man’s healing, then laid his hands on him, and he was made completely well at once. Though the man must have been older, recovering his health was still a mercy, for it likely extended his life.

After that, many others came and were brought to Paul by this healing. If he could heal diseases so easily and so completely, he would soon have many who needed help. He welcomed them all and sent them away healed. He did not say he was only a stranger there, accidentally cast among them, with no duty to help and nothing to keep him from leaving at the first chance. No, a good man seeks to do good wherever God’s providence places him. Paul counted himself a debtor not only to the Greeks, but also to the Barbarians, that is, the non-Greek peoples, and he thanked God for a chance to be useful among them.

He was also especially bound to these people of Malta for the timely shelter and care they had given him. In this way, he in effect paid back his lodging, which should encourage us to welcome strangers, since some have entertained angels and apostles without knowing it. God will not forget any kindness shown to his people in distress. We may well believe that Paul preached the gospel along with these healings, and that, being so strongly confirmed and commended, it was generally accepted among them. If that is so, no people were ever more enriched by a shipwreck on their shore than these people of Malta.

Even these uncivil people showed their gratitude for the kindness Paul had done them by hearing him preach Christ. They were polite to him and to the other ministers with him, who likely helped Paul in preaching among them (Acts 28:10). They showed them every honor they could. They saw that God had honored them, and they felt bound to honor them in return. Nothing seemed too much if it showed their respect. Perhaps they even granted them rights as citizens of the island and admitted them into their guilds and associations.

Faithful preachers of the gospel deserve double honor, especially when God blesses their work. When they were ready to leave, the people loaded them with the supplies they needed. Paul could not work with his hands there, since he had nothing to make or repair, so he accepted the kindness of the people of Melita, not as payment for his healings, for he had freely received and freely given, but as help for his own needs and for the needs of those with him. Having received spiritual blessings from them, it was only right that they should make such a return (1 Corinthians 9:11).