FREEDOM IN CAPTIVITY

DAY 141: When my husband and I visited Italy to celebrate our 25th anniversary I fell in love with Rome's antiquity.  Coming from America, where few things are older than two hundred years, it is easy to be enamored when history is around every corner and filling ever piazza. There, two hundred year old buildings are a dime a dozen.  The kind of history they have is over 2000 years old.

The Forum Today, Still Impressive

It is hard to say what was our "favorite."  The basilicas were remarkable.  The art was inspiring. The architecture was unparallelled.  And the fountains that have been flowing for hundreds of years were breathtaking. None of it, though, compared to our tour of the Roman Forum.  Situated beside the massive Colosseum, the Forum was the heart of Rome... which was the center of the world at that time. Even though it is in ruins today, what is left standing still belies the power of the Roman Empire.

To fully understand the culture and the society, we walked through remaining pillars, temples and arches with a guide book that depicted each and every structure in its original glory.  To say that it was impressive is a monumental understatement. If our White House humbles foreign dignitaries with its overpowering presence, the Forum had to have had the intimidation factor of 10 White Houses.  With gilded colonnades and magnificent marble facades, three story columns of granite and sculptures standing watch, the Forum was the intellectual, social and political center of world power. It is where triumphal processions were held, speeches were given, gladiators were celebrated and prisoners received judgement.     

A model of the Forum as Paul saw it on his arrival for trial before Ceaser.

As I walked the same ancient stone paths as Julius Ceaser and Marc Anthony, you could still feel the gravitas of the place hundreds of years after its destruction. I tried to image how Paul must have felt when he arrived there, not as a citizen, but marched through the Forum and processed as a prisoner. The intimdation he felt must have been overwhelming.  Today, as the scripture retells that arrival in Acts 28, I have a new appreciation for his experience.

After the arduous trip from Jerusalem, that included a shipwreck and wintering three months on the island of Malta, at long last he is in Rome.  Even though he felt sure this was his destiny,  the combination of weariness, uncertainly and the weight of his mission could have been crushing - except for one thing. 

Luke writes: ^{Acts 28:15} The brothers and sisters in Rome had heard we were coming, and they came to meet us at the Forum on the Appian Way. Others joined us at The Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he was encouraged and thanked God.

It would have been understandable for Paul to just want to sit and lick his wounds.  After all, he had been persecuted by everyone.  Fellow Jews had him arrested and tried to kill him; Christians were skeptical of him; Gentiles chased him out of towns; now the Romans held him prisoner.  It had been a tumultuous few years serving the Lord in perilous circumstances.  How could he not be overwhelmed?  But God sent encouragers to greet him and rather then feeling defeated, he thanked God and got to work.

¹⁷ Three days after Paul’s arrival, he called together the local Jewish leaders. He said to them, “Brothers, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Roman government, even though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors. . .  I asked you to come here today so we could get acquainted and so I could explain to you that I am bound with this chain because I believe that the hope of Israel—the Messiah—has already come.” 

23 . . . He explained and testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade them about Jesus from the Scriptures . . . ³⁰ For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, ³¹ boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him.

Paul didn't let his circumstances, no matter how intimidating, derail  him from his purpose of following God and telling about Christ.  God was faithful to send encouragers, but Paul was faithful to believe God would bless his obedience in spite of the circumstances.  I would even go so far as to say that God actually brings blessing through the difficult circumstances.  Think about Paul's situation.  Before he was a prisoner he was hounded and harassed with regularity; but during this time when he was under house arrest, for two full years "no one tried to stop him" from "boldy proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ."God had given him a new freedom in his captivity that he did not have before.  His imprisonment was God's shelter as his work continued.

I take two lessons from Paul's time in Rome: 

• First, I have the power to be an encourager to someone arriving in a difficult and overwhelming circumstance.  It truly can make a difference in how they move through that season of life, to "go out and meet" my brother or sister on road of their arduous journey.  
• Second, when I am in "captivity" in a difficult place myself, instead of looking at every fearful and intimidating thing in my circumstance, I should look for how even in that place God is providing me His protection in unexpected ways.  As our Psalm for the day declares what Paul already knew:

^{Psalm 9:9} The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed,
    a refuge in times of trouble.
¹⁰ Those who know your name trust in you,
    for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.

Day 151 of 365
1 Chronicles 11
1 Chronicles 12:1-18
Acts 28
Psalm 9:1-12
Proverbs 19:1-3