But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.
But after two years. What a trial to this burning missionary of Christ to suffer such a tedious period of inaction! How mysterious it would seem! But this repose would be medicine to his spirit: he would not and could not be entirely inactive, so long as he was able by pen and message to communicate with the churches; and he would doubtless learn the salutary truth that even he was not essential to his Master's cause. That Luke wrote his Gospel during this period, under the apostle's superintendence, is the not unlikely conjecture of able critics. Percius Festus - of whom little is known. He died, as we learn from Josephus (Ant. 20: 8. 9, to 9. 1), a few years after this.
Came into Felix' room. Poor Felix was recalled on accusations against him by the Jews of Caesarea, and only acquitted through the intercession of his brother at court (see Josephus, Ant. 20: 8. 10).
And Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure - `to earn the thanks of the Jews' (which, however, he did not),
Left Paul bound. He does not appear to have been bound from the time when Lysias act him free (Acts 22:30) until Felix, on being superseded, had him again manacled, for the mean purpose of ingratiating himself with the Jews; and in this condition he was afterward brought forth before Herod Agrippa (Acts 26:29).
Remarks:
(1) The skill with which our apostle adapted his addresses to his audience, and to the occasion, has been before remarked. Here we have a striking illustration of it. In his reply to Tertullus, it was easy to rebut the charge of sedition. He had but to challenge proof of it, and ask why the witnesses of it were not there to substantiate the charge. But the charge of being "the ringleader of the Nazarene sect" he meets with studious and noteworthy precision: admitting that in the way which they called "a sect" he discharged his religious duties; but protesting that he did this only to "the God of his fathers," and that his Faith, instead of being a deviation from the ancestral creed, was but the submission of his heart to "all things which were written in the law and the prophets;" in particular, that he held, with his accusers themselves, the hope of a Resurrection, "both of the just and of the unjust;" that he was at pains to have at all times an uncondemning conscience toward both God and men that his errand to Jerusalem, at the time when he was charged with breach of law, was a purely religious one-to bring alms to his nation and present offerings to God; that he was found in the temple in the quiet and orderly discharge of religious duty; that he was ready to meet any witness who had aught to lay to his charge; and that what had raised all the hubbub, which had issued in his being sent down to Caesarea for trial, was nothing but an exclamation in the Jewish Sanhedrim about his faith in the Resurrection, which had set the Pharisees who held it and the Sadducees who denied it to quarrelling with each other about him, thus bringing the tribune down to preserve the peace.
In this line of defense, with the exception of what he says on the charge of sedition, the apostle confines himself rigidly to the charge of apostasy from the ancestral Faith-not giving even an outline of the facts of the Gospel, as being unsuitable on such an occasion. But observe how entirely he changes his ground when standing before Felix and Drusilla at a private interview, that they might "hear him concerning the faith in Christ." That he would omit all mention of that "Faith," is not for a moment to be supposed. But brief appears to have been all that was said on that subject. The couple before whom he stood were living an infamous life, not to speak of Felix as a governor. The opportunity, therefore, of dealing faithfully with them being too precious to be lost, the apostle comes right up to their consciences, discoursing to them of "righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come," with such sharp, down-bearing power, that Felix trembled under it. After what had happened to the Baptist for this kind of fidelity, a less disinterested servant of Christ would have chosen topics less unpalatable, for which sufficient excuse might have been found in the object for which the interview was arranged-to "hear him (not on such topics, but) concerning the faith in Christ." But Paul was his Master's servant, not his own, and "exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence," first, "toward God," and then only (and in the highest sense) "toward men." - A noble model!
(2) It is not said that Drusilla trembled under Paul's preaching; and there is not the least ground to think that she did. Though a Jewess, and as such likely to understand better and be more alive to what Paul was saying, just for that reason was she the less likely-after having so shamelessly overridden all her early convictions-to be staggered by anything that Paul preached. Felix certainly was the less hardened of the two; and, as has been seen ever since the days of Jezebel, bad women are doubly bad. (3) In spiritual things, as in things temporal, the pregnant words of the poet are true-`There is a tide in the affairs of men.'
(4) The strong probability at which we have hinted (on Acts 24:27), that the two years' imprisonment of Paul were turned to blessed account, will bring to the recollection of many the cases of such as John in the isle of Patmos, of Luther in the castle of Wartburg of Bunyan in the jail at Bedford, and of Rutherford in the prison at Aberdeen: for which the Church of God, as long as it exists upon earth, will have cause to be thankful. Thus, "maketh He the wrath of man to praise Him."