Malta to Rome
Day 531, Saturday, Jan. 24
Acts 28:1-16
Paul and his shipmates learn the shore where they have landed is on the island of Malta, which is in the Mediterranean Sea south of Italy.
Paul’s misadventures on the way to Rome aren’t quite over, though, as he is bitten by a venomous snake when the survivors build a fire on the shore. He survives the snakebite without ill effect, though, leading the islanders to believe that he is a god.
The survivors of the shipwreck are welcomed by the residents of Malta and treated well. We are told that Paul healed sick people while they were on Malta. It seems likely that he also spoke of Jesus when he had the opportunity, but that is not specifically mentioned.
After three months the weather is finally good again for sailing and Paul and the others sail for Rome on an Alexandrian ship. Acts says the ship’s figurehead is the twin gods of Castor and Pollux. The pair are known in Greek and Roman mythology as patrons of sailors; they were believed to be transformed into the constellation Gemini.
After all of the challenges of getting to Rome, the Acts account of his arrival is kind of anticlimactic: “And so we came to Rome.”
Again Paul’s treatment is much better than might have been expected for a prisoner. He is allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him and seems to have been allowed to freely associate with the community of believers in Rome.
Unlike most of the other places Paul has been, he is not the first to bring the news of Jesus to Rome. It has already arrived there and there is already an established Christian community.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Saturday meditation

Psalms 69:1-12
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched My eyes fail, looking for my God. Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
You, God, know my folly; my guilt is not hidden from you. Lord, the Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me. For I endure scorn for your sake, and shame covers my face. I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children; for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me. When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn; when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me. Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

Prayer focus
Lord Almighty, may those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me; God of Israel, may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me.