Acts 27:23-26 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For, &c. As if he had said, It is not without good authority that I speak in so express and positive a manner, with regard to an event which seems to you utterly improbable; there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose servant and property I am, and whom I serve Worship and obey. How short a compendium of religion! Yet how clear and how full! Containing both doctrine and practice, both the foundation and the superstructure: comprehending at once faith, hope, and love, with their proper fruits: in fact, all graces and virtues. Reader, see thou be able to say, Whose I am! and then, and not before, thou wilt be able to add, and whom I serve. Be his subject, his servant, his child, his heir, and know thyself to be such, know that thou art of God, by the Spirit which he gives thee, and then thou wilt be able to serve him in holiness and righteousness before him, making his will thy rule, and his glory thy end, in all thy actions, and that all the days of thy life. Saying, Fear not, Paul Such a message God's angels have often brought unto his people. See Daniel 10:12; Daniel 10:19; Luke 2:10; Matthew 28:5. Thou must be brought Rather, be presented; before Cesar: and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee Paul had doubtless prayed for them. And God gave him their lives; and perhaps their souls also. And the centurion, subserving the designs of the Divine Providence, spared, for his sake, the lives of the prisoners, Acts 27:43. Here we have an instance how wonderfully the providence of God reigns in things apparently the most contingent! And, rather shall many bad men be preserved with a few good, (for so it frequently happens,) than one good man shall perish with many bad. So it was in this ship, and so it is in the world. Paul repeats, it seems, the very words of the angel, Lo, God hath given thee all that sail with thee. For at such a time of distress as this, there was not the same danger which there might otherwise have been, of Paul's seeming to speak out of vanity what he really spoke out of necessity. Wherefore, be of good cheer Take courage, and lay aside your fears; for I believe God I trust in him whose word is faithful, and his power almighty; that the event shall be as has been told me. Howbeit I know also; we must be cast upon a certain island And that the vessel will be wrecked upon the coast of it. Nevertheless, if we take care to use the proper means, we shall all escape, and get safe to land.