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Had the writer of this article been treated with more human kindness and sympathy in
his early years, he might still have been found in the ranks of the strictly orthodox, using
possibly his talents to combat the teaching of the mystery; as it happened the Lord
overruled painful circumstances to close many doors of so-called "opportunity", and to
lead in everything but actual fetters and chains to a "prison ministry". With what joy,
nevertheless, do we look back on those overrulings, and so must Philip the Evangelist and
Paul the Apostle have humbly yet victoriously praised God for "sovereign grace o'er sin
abounding".
Philip had four unmarried daughters, and these believing women possessed the gift of
prophecy. We are not told that they uttered any specific prophecy during Paul's stay at
the house, but we do read of the coming of another prophet, and what he said:
"And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judæa a certain prophet
named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his
own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem
bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go
up to Jerusalem" (Acts 21: 10-12).
We meet with this prophet Agabus earlier in the narrative of the Acts, for in
Acts 11: 28 he is found foretelling a famine in the Roman world, which came to pass in
the days of Claudius. Agabus adopted the manner of some Old Testament prophets; and
enforced his spoken prophecy with dumb show. Zedekiah made horns of iron to
visualize his prophecy (I Kings 22: 11), and Isaiah walked "naked and barefoot" as a
sign to the people (Isa. 20: 2).
Until now, Paul knew that bonds and afflictions awaited him, and this had been the
testimony of the Holy Ghost in every city (Acts 20: 23), but now at Cæsarea, for the first
time, definite particulars are given. "Jews at Jerusalem" would bring about the binding of
the Apostle, and he would be delivered "into the hands of the Gentiles". Upon hearing
this, both the writer of the Acts--the other companion of Paul, and the believers
assembled at Cæsarea, besought him "not to go to Jerusalem". In Acts 21: 4, no
particulars are given, but they are in verses 11 and 12, and in the latter case we are sure
that the urgent request "not to go up to Jerusalem" immediately followed the hearing of
the prophecy.
In many particulars the apostle Paul followed the footsteps of His Lord, Who when the
time came set His face as a flint to go up to Jerusalem, Matt. 20: 17, 18; Mark 10: 32;
and Luke 19: 28. We know, too, how Peter rebuked the Lord, when he first heard of
His prospective death at Jerusalem (Matt. 16: 21, 22), to whom the Lord had to say:
"Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto Me; for thou savourest not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt. 16: 23).
This word "savourest" might be considered by a literalist too free a translation of
phroneo, yet with the marginal note of Isa. 11: 3 in mind the translation of Matt. 16: 23
is seen to be almost an inspiration: