A Crafty Way To Escape A Mob

Poor Paul seemed always to be in trouble! Indeed before he became a Christian he caused a lot of trouble among the believers in Jesus and after he became a Christian himself, God told him he was going to suffer much for the name of Christ. And that certainly proved to be true. In the course of his Christian life Paul escaped death by the skin of his teeth on a number of occasions. He had rocks thrown at him, was beaten and flogged, shipwrecked and chased by a mob many times. In Damascus there was a mob baying for his blood and they were helped by the town guard. But Paul and his friends outwitted them, so that while the mob kept watch at the city gates, Paul's friends let him down in a basket through an opening in the city wall and he escaped. Crafty!

But why did Paul bring all this trouble on himself? The reason is found in the work Paul was doing. Paul wanted people to know the good news about Jesus, that he is our Lord, and they must know too about the judgment of God on sin, how Jesus came to save us from its punishment, and that Satan would finally be destroyed. Satan hated Paul and what he was doing. The Romans, who worshipped idols, also hated what Paul was doing, and sinful people hated him too. Paul was probably the greatest servant of Jesus Christ who has ever lived and so the ungodly world just hated him. He suffered so much. But he suffered gladly because it was all for Christ who meant everything to him.