And after many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him … Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.
Paul’s deliverance by the basket
I. God wages war with pride in every form.
1. There is, perhaps, no greater wonder than that man should be proud. Turn where we will, everything seems to teach humility. The grass whispers, “You are dependent on us for food.” The beasts say, “You have to borrow our strength.” The clouds drop down a voice: “If we descend not upon you, you die.”
2. And God, from time to time, makes man learn this lesson, whether he be His friend or foe. Frogs, flies, lice, locusts--all petty in themselves, become terrible to proud Pharaoh; and worms become fatal beneath the royal purple, when the proud Herod is to be destroyed.
3. To none does God more unmistakably teach the folly of pride than to His own people. A great part of life’s discipline is just a self-emptying in this respect--that man may learn that God is all-in-all. The greatest of God’s servants are, from time to time, reduced to be dependent upon the poorest earthly instrumentality--Elijah upon a handful of meal; Jeremiah upon old rags and clouts, as he is drawn up out of the pit; Paul upon a basket. God so often uses poor instrumentalities for accomplishing the deliverance of His people, because the tendency of man is to glorify the instrument (Habakkuk 1:16).
4. God will fix man’s eye upon Himself.
5. God would show His lordship in energising them.
II. The good effects of a knowledge of this. If we see plainly that God often uses very poor earthly instrumentality--
1. We shall not despair in great troubles, because great ways of deliverance are not opened up before us. Goliath, armed in his panoply of brass, must surely be met with something in proportion; but God teaches the secret of the smooth stones of the brook--the proportion that He knows of, though we knew it not. Many a child of God is like the lion entangled in the meshes of the net, that found deliverance by the nibbling of the mouse.
2. We shall be very cheerful in our times of trial, feeling that there are possibilities of deliverance all around us. “With God all things are possible.” The man of God is taught that he has resources in everything.
3. We shall be in a very humble frame of mind, ready to receive help from any direction. Sometimes God has to make His people ready. The spirit of Naaman is too much in them; they have Abanas and Pharpars of their own, which they think better than anything else, unless it be something very striking and grand. And, sometimes, our blessing comes by a very humble hand. During one of his severe illnesses, Bengel, the great commentator, sent for a student, and requested him to impart a word of consolation. The youth replied, “Sir, I am but a pupil; I don’t know what to say to a teacher like you.” “What,” said Bengel, “a divinity student! and not able to communicate a word of Scriptural comfort!” The student, abashed, contrived to utter the text, “The blood of Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth us from all sin.” “That is the very word I want,” said Bengel; “it is quite enough”; and, taking him affectionately by the hand, dismissed him. The great commentator was ready to receive the blessing from the hand of the humble student; and God was ready to give it.
4. We shall be hearty to use the means we have at hand. We never know what such means will do until we try. There is a wonderful elasticity in little means, when God is giving them His blessing. In taking down the scaffolding of a huge mill chimney, the men forgot to affix the rope by which the foreman, directing their operations from the top, was to descend. Amid the frantic cries of the poor fellow above, and of the crowd below, the shrill voice of his wife was heard exclaiming, “Tak’ off thy stocking, lad, and unravel it, and let down the thread with a piece of mortar.” Presently the little thread came waving down the chimney, and reached the outstretched hands waiting for it; then it was attached to a ball of string, which Jem was asked to pull gently up. To the end of the string was attached the forgotten rope, which was drawn up in turn, and amidst cries of “Thank God!” was fastened to the iron, and bore the man safely to the ground. That is as good an instance as we could find anywhere of making good use of little means, and let us follow it ourselves.
5. The circle of possible aids will be enlarged. We are very apt in time of trouble to take very contracted views of the circle in which God is likely to work. We shut out all the little ways of help, and then the great ones are reduced to very few indeed; and as a necessary consequence, down sinks our heart in distress. We need continually to be reminded that even the stones can be made bread.
6. We shall be kept humble in the day of prosperity, not knowing when, and for how much, we may be indebted to little things. (P. B. Power, M. A.)
Humiliating deliverance
(Cf. 2 Corinthians 11:32-33)
. Saul had returned from his Arabian retirement, and his powerful preaching aroused the animosity of the Jews. The Ethnarch, under the king of the Nabothaean Arabs, sided with them, and watched the gates of the city to take Saul. It was a close investment, and with such powerful enemies the chances were all against him. At this juncture a device occurred to his friends, recalling that of Rahab (Joshua 2:15), and David (1 Samuel 19:12). It was a humiliating circumstance, and is placid by Paul amongst “the things that concern my infirmities.” Most men would have banished it from their thoughts and concealed it. Of such odd and inconvenient things the religion of Christ can make splendid use. This was--
I. An instance of peculiar discipline.
1. That there was something in Paul’s mental constitution requiring to be so dealt with we may be certain--over-sensitiveness, a sense of personal dignity, pride of race. In such ways we get the starch taken out of us.
2. There was need for the most contradictory qualities in an apostle. He had to be strictly upright, yet “all things to all men”; firm and stern in rebuking sin, yet gentle and forgiving the penitent; keenly sensitive to the claims of the Master and His representatives, but oblivious to mere personal consideration. Whilst he had to confess that he was less than the least of all saints; he had to withstand “pillars,” and those who “seemed to be somewhat to the face” (Galatians 2:1-21). Of the stiff Pharisee God was making a keen and flexible weapon.
3. This circumstance was in a line with his confusion on the highway, when he was “led by the hand.” That it made a deep impression on his mind we learn from the minuteness of the description after so many years. He uses the specific word for “rope work hamper,” while Luke employs the more general “basket.”
4. Many would have hesitated to avail themselves of such a means of escape as making them ridiculous, and thus detrimental to authority and usefulness.
II. A test of the faith of the disciples. There are many who cannot receive the truth for its own worth. Moral influence is with them bound up with personal position and external dignity. Yet a humble exterior is no proof of real lowering. Splendour may cloak corruption and spiritual death. The appearance of an apostle dangling in a rope basket was therefore a trial to the new converts. One might fancy themselves exclaiming, “Where is the miracle, the Sign?” So Paul banters the Corinthians--I am a fool! “bear with me.” With men God ever pursues this reparative process, dissolving the temporal and accidental from the essential and eternal.
III. A specimen of the irony of providence. In certain historical events one seems to detect such a mood, especially in the cries of nations and churches. The O.T., e.g., in the stories of Moses, Jacob, Gideon, is full of them. The means of checkmating the enemy of souls is reduced to a minimum--a ridiculous, preposterous circumstance, but it is sufficient. And when one compares the huge preparations and complex machinery of Satan with the simplicity of the Divine instrumentalities, the power and wisdom of God are thrown into relief. There are traces of a contempt for Satan in the Bible. Let us take heart, then, as we think of the grim laughter of the angels over abortive schemes and transparent blunders of the prince of darkness. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The methods of Divine providence
I. Never involve an unnecessary miracle. Had occasion required it, all the forces of the universe would have been at Paul’s disposal. The circumstances were apparently desperate, but not beyond the God-directed ingenuity of brotherly hearts. God helps those who help themselves--and God’s ministers. A chariot of fire is not harnessed when a rope basket will do. In trouble or work expect deliverance or help, not from some striking supernatural interposition, but rather from some humble source overlooked because so commonplace and seemingly inadequate.
II. Often involve curious expedients. An ambassador of Christ making his escape in a rope basket! Yet spies, defeated warriors, and kings have been glad of the even more ridiculous disguises. And God’s people in escaping persecution or seeking truth must not be, and have not been, particular as to what people think. Carey posed as an Indigo planter, Zacchaeus perched himself in a sycamore tree, and the Bible had to be smuggled into Italy under a lady’s crinoline.
III. Are frequently the simplest and the easiest of adoption. There would be no trouble in getting a basket. Saul would have had no difficulty in making one if necessary. And when hit upon, how much more effective this plan must have seemed than a score of others that possibly may have been entertained--bribing the governor, dodging the guard, etc. How often God rebukes us by setting aside our apparently clever but really cumbrous contrivances, and using the humblest instruments. Shamgar’s ox goad, Samson’s jaw bone, David’s sling and stone, wrought wonders at times impossible to the whole might of Israel.
IV. Are always the best under the circumstances. The question for Saul is the question for this practical age--not “How does it look?” but “How will it do?” And the rope basket did admirably. It was soft, light, strong, and no one would dream of looking for an apostle in it. Do not then criticise the form which a given method of providence may take? Whatever it may be, it is the best because God employs it.
V. Differ according to various requirements. Paul was often afterwards in peril, but never had occasion to use the rope basket again. This would have been useless in a similar crisis (chap. 23), where a band of soldiers was required. Because God delivers us in a given fashion, or blesses us in a certain way at one time, it does not follow that the specific acts will be repeated. There is as much variety in the methods of providence as in the methods of nature; both deal with needs as they arise. (J. W. Burn.)
Providence: its methods strange only to us
I looked upon the wrong or back side of a piece of arras (or tapestry): it seemed to me as a continued nonsense. There was neither head nor foot therein, confusion itself had as much method in it--a company of thrums and threads, with many pieces and patches of several sorts, sizes, and colours; all which signified nothing to my understanding. But then, looking on the reverse, or right side thereof, all put together did spell excellent proportions, and figures of men and cities; so that, indeed, it was a history, not wrote with a pen, but wrought with a needle. If men look upon some of God’s providential dealings with a mere eye of reason, they will hardly find any sense therein, such their muddle and disorder. But, alas! the wrong side is objected to our eyes, while the right side is presented to the high God of heaven, who knoweth that an admirable order doth result out of this confusion: and what is presented to Him at present may, hereafter, be so showed to us as to convince our judgments in the truth thereof. (T. Fuller, D. D.)
Providence, interposition of
A story is related--in connection with the ejectment of the two thousand ministers from the Church of England--of Henry Havers, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. Being pursued by enemies who sought to apprehend him, he sought refuge in a malt house and crept into the kiln. Immediately afterward he observed a spider fixing the first line of a large and beautiful web across the narrow entrance. The web being placed directly between him and the light, he was so much struck with the skill of the insect weaver, that for a while he forgot his own imminent danger; but by the time the network had crossed and recrossed the mouth of the kiln in every direction the pursuers came to search for him. He listened as they approached, and distinctly overheard one of them say, “It’s of no use to look in there; the old villain can never be there. Look at that spider’s web; he could never have got in there without breaking it.”