Real Authority

"Therefore", he said, "let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man, to see if there is any fault in him."

--Acts 25:5  (NKJV)

From the daily Bible reading on March 24, 2013 of Psalm 61; Acts 25:1-22; Numbers 29-30.

There's that word "authority" again.  We've seen where God granted Moses' authority to Joshua, and granted His own authority to Jesus.  But here, the new governor Festus sought those among the Jewish religious leadership who held some position of authority from which to accuse Paul.  Paul had been taken into custody in Jerusalem to protect him when the Jews kicked up a huge fuss over him.  The garrison commander had Paul spirited off to Caesarea in the middle of the night when a plot to murder him was exposed, there to meet with his accusers among the Jews before Felix the governor.  Felix listened to the accusers and listened to Paul and basically did nothing.  He didn't want to upset the Jews but Paul scared him a little, so he simply kept Paul under house arrest, hoping Paul would eventually pay for his release.  This drug on for two years, until Festus replaced Felix as governor.  Seeing another opportunity to get to Paul, the Jews petitioned Festus to send Paul to Jerusalem to face their accusations.  Of course, they had an ambush planned to kill Paul along the route, but fortunately Festus was a dutiful Roman official and would not release Paul to them without a proper hearing of the charges against him.  So Festus told the Jews to assemble a delegation of those among them who had the authority to stand and accuse Paul.  As it turned out, the Jews in authority still had to seek "justice" from Festus, the Roman governor, who found their accusations baseless.  Nonetheless, Festus asked Paul if he would go back to Jerusalem to answer the charges.  Paul declined the invitation and instead appealed to Caesar as was his right as a Roman citizen, thus leading to his first trip in chains to Rome.

The Jews of this age had a history of this sort of thing.  They wanted Jesus dead but their law would not permit them to exact that punishment.  So they got a few men to lie and trumped up some charges, had Jesus arrested, beaten up a bit, and hauled off to face Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who could order an execution.  Just as Paul's accusers had no real authority against him and had to seek the intervention of a Roman official, Jesus' accusers had no real authority and had to turn to another Roman official to do their dirty work.  God granted Jesus all authority, and none to the Jewish leadership.  But God's plan had to be carried out, as Jesus Himself knew, so Pilate was given the authority to crucify our Lord.  Fortunately, we know how this story turned out, with Jesus victorious over death and reigning at the Father's side with real authority.  Amen.

Blessed Jesus, at Satan's bidding, a group of men thought themselves very clever and plotted against You.  They thought their plans had succeeded, but You proved that Satan would not win even that battle.  While man took Your earthly life from You, God our Father restored You to life and placed You at His side to reign with true authority for eternity.  All glory to God!  In Your name, dear Jesus we pray.  Amen.