Passage of the Day - February 16, 2011

Acts 25:1-12

 ¹Festus then, having arrived in the province, three days later went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

 ²And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul, and they were urging him,

 ³requesting a concession against Paul, that he might have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way).

 ⁴Festus then answered that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea and that he himself was about to leave shortly.

 ⁵"Therefore," he said, "let the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them prosecute him."

 ⁶After he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.

 ⁷After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him which they could not prove,

 ⁸while Paul said in his own defense, "I have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar."

 ⁹But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges?"

 ¹⁰But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.

 ¹¹"If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar."

 ¹²Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, "You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go."

A piece of wisdom, if someone holding your fate is crooked, try to appeal to someone else.  Festus didn’t care about justice or the rule of law, he just cared about making the Jews happy here.  Fortunately Paul appealed to Caesar and Festus agreed.  Even if Paul made a great case, the power of people pleasing could have consumed Festus.  How often do we suffer from people pleasing and how much does it affect our decision making?

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)