The Storm, the Shipwreck, and the God Who Brought Them All Ashore

Years after Athens, Paul was still telling people about Jesus, but now he did it as a prisoner. He had been arrested in Jerusalem and had said the words that sent him to sea: "I appeal to Caesar!" So a Roman officer named Julius put him on a grain ship bound for Rome, to stand before the emperor.

(In those days, sensible sailors spent the winter in a harbor.)

It was autumn already when they crept into a harbor on Crete. "Men," Paul warned, "if we sail on, we will lose the cargo, the ship, and maybe our lives." But the captain wanted a better harbor, and Julius listened to the captain. Captains usually know more about the sea than prisoners do. Usually.

Off they went, and a wild wind called the Northeaster grabbed the ship. The sailors tied ropes under the hull to hold the boards together. They threw the cargo overboard, then the ship's own gear. For days there was no sun and no stars, only black cloud and spray, and the ship groaned like an old staircase. At last everyone gave up hope.

Then Paul stood up among them.

"Keep up your courage," he said. "Not one of you will be lost. Only the ship. Last night an angel of the God I belong to stood beside me and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. God has given you the lives of everyone sailing with you.' I trust God. It will happen just as he told me."

On the fourteenth night the sailors sensed land. They dropped four anchors and prayed for morning. Just before dawn Paul held up some bread. "You haven't eaten for two weeks. Eat!" He thanked God in front of them all, broke the bread, and ate, and everyone ate with him. There were 276 people on that ship.

At daylight they ran for a beach. The front of the ship stuck fast on a sandbar, and the waves smashed the back to pieces. The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners so none could swim away, but Julius wanted to save Paul, and he stopped them. "Swimmers first!" he shouted. The rest floated in on planks. Every one of the 276 reached the sand alive.

The island was Malta, and its people built a fire in the rain for the shivering strangers. As Paul added sticks, a snake shot out of the heat and fastened onto his hand.

"He must be a murderer," the islanders whispered. "He escaped the sea, but justice has caught him!" They waited for him to swell up or drop dead. Paul shook the snake into the fire. They waited some more. Nothing. So they decided he must be a god instead. (People change their minds very fast when a snake is involved.) Later Paul prayed for the island chief's sick father, and God made him well.

When the ship broke apart, Paul went into the cold water with everyone else. He had no rope long enough to pull 276 people to shore. The promise held because of the one Paul served.

That one had stood among soldiers too, on a dark night in a garden, with torches all around. "If you are looking for me," he told them, "then let these men go." He had already said to his Father, "I have not lost one of those you gave me." Then he went to the cross alone, so that his friends could go free.

He did not stay dead, and he still keeps that promise. Storms come, and ships break apart, but in the end every person Jesus holds will stand with him, safe on the shore.