Trusting the Master of the Ship Over the Apostle of God
Tying the Boat Off
Acts 27:11
“Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.”
Paul is given inspiration or revelation from God while on the ship that they need to be careful. The ship, crew, and especially the goods on the ship are in danger, and Paul tries to warn their leader and the people. The centurion is the one in charge of Paul and the others with them, but he chooses to not put his trust in Paul and his warnings. Paul even explained that he was visited by an angel of the Lord. We can see from other actions in this chapter that the centurion must have trusted Paul at some level and knew who he was. The centurion gave him a lot of freedom and even allowed him to travel to see friends trusting him to return. In this case he decides to put his trust in the experienced sailor, the master of the ship. He trusts the person who has the most experience and is an expert at sailing. He trusts the one who understands the route, and knows the weather better than any of the passengers.
I’m thinking that in that moment it would be hard to not listen to the experts. How many times in our lives, or with how many decisions would this choice make perfect sense? I suspect more than we know or care to admit. I see myself and others around me distrust guidance from the church, prophets, or the scriptures because experts in some discipline or another disagree. Sometimes it may be peer pressure, we may find ourselves not following because everyone else we know disagrees.
Acts 27:9-10
"So Paul advised them, 'Men, I can see that our voyage will be filled with disaster and great loss, not only to ship and cargo, but to our own lives as well." (Acts 27:9-10, BSB)
Apostles and prophets give us guidance today as they have done in the past, and just as Paul did in his time. They are not experts at all things. They may not be experts at anything. Paul was not an expert sailor. The Lord will revel warnings to his prophet for the good of the people for their specific time. Many times these warnings are subtle and don't feel very specific. Other times they are very specific and exacting in nature. We are asked to follow by faith. We may hear warnings from God’s appointed spokes people that taking a certain course or continue some actions will be dangerous for us. These warnings can and do happen even when all the experts, our family, our friends and others may be saying exactly the opposite. We have a choice in those times. We can follow the Lord's watchtower or follow the learning of humans. I’ll be the first to admit, this is not easy.
Acts 27:11-12
"But contrary to Paul’s advice, the centurion was persuaded by the pilot and by the owner of the ship. Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided to sail on, if somehow they could reach Phoenix to winter there. Phoenix was a harbor in Crete facing both southwest and northwest." (Acts 27:11-12, BSB)
The people on the ship didn't want to spend winter where they were, they wanted to get to Phoenix to winter there. The wind was going in the right direction and the weather was right. Heeding Paul’s warning did not make sense as they looked around. They ended up paying a large price for trusting the hand and learning of humans over that of the Lord. That choice ended in ruin for them.
What can I do to better follow the Lords appointed leaders? How can I listen to things I don't always agree with? Does this mean I should ignore all learning and intelligence of the world? Of course not! But when the two are in conflict how do I make my choice? How do you make yours?
