{"id":2105,"date":"2020-03-22T10:43:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T18:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2105"},"modified":"2020-03-22T10:44:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T18:44:27","slug":"2105","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=2105","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 25:13-22 Another Hearing Against Paul Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 25:13-22<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0<\/i>A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea\u00a0to pay their respects to Festus.<\/i><\/span>\u00a014\u00a0Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul\u2019s case with the king. He said: \u201cThere is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner.<\/span>\u00a015\u00a0When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him\u00a0and asked that he be condemned.\u00a0 16\u00a0\u201cI told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges.<\/span>\u00a017\u00a0When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in.<\/span>\u00a018\u00a0When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected.<\/span>\u00a019\u00a0Instead, they had some points of dispute\u00a0with him about their own religion\u00a0and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.<\/span>\u00a020\u00a0I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges.<\/span>\u00a021\u00a0But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor\u2019s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.\u201d\u00a0 22\u00a0Then Agrippa said to Festus, \u201cI would like to hear this man myself.\u201d\u00a0 He replied, \u201cTomorrow you will hear him.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cA few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea\u00a0to pay their respects to Festus.<\/i><\/span>\u00a014\u00a0Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul\u2019s case with the king. He said: \u201cThere is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner.<\/span>\u00a015\u00a0When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him\u00a0and asked that he be condemned.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0King Agrippa II was a descendant of evil rulers.\u00a0\u00a0He was the son of King Agrippa 1 who was the great-grandson of Herod, the one who tried to destroy Jesus at the time of His birth (Matthew 2:13-18<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0His great-uncle was the one who beheaded John the Baptist (Matthew 14:3-12<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His father Agrippa 1 was the one who ordered the execution of James and imprisoned Peter, hoping to execute him, until the Lord miraculously released him from prison (Acts 12)<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0King Agrippa 1 was the last Herod with full reign over Judea and King Agrippa 2\u2019s rule was over a much limited area.<\/p>\n

Bernice was either the half-sister of King Agrippa 2.\u00a0\u00a0She and the king were not married, but lived and traveled together.\u00a0\u00a0Period written testimony is that they were greatly in love and rarely parted.\u00a0\u00a0Bernice was reported to be a beautiful woman whose first husband (Herold of Chalcis), her uncle, had died. After his death she and King Agrippa 2 had a relationship so shameful that even the pagan Roman\u2019s would not sanction a marriage.\u00a0\u00a0Later she left King Agrippa to have an affair with a general named Titus who later became the emperor. Titus is the same general who would later destroy Jerusalem and burn the Temple (70 AD) (as predicted by Jesus in\u00a0Mark 13:2<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Bernice did not stay with Titus, but then returned to King Agrippa 1.\u00a0\u00a0Both Agrippa and Bernice truly deserved each other.<\/p>\n

King Agrippa 2 was the lay leader of the Jews.\u00a0\u00a0He had been given power to appoint the Jewish high priest.\u00a0\u00a0Festus took the opportunity to discuss with King Agrippa 2 his conundrum of what to do with Paul.\u00a0\u00a0He explained the situation to him.\u00a0\u00a0Now the problem of what to do with Paul was not whether Paul was guilty or not.\u00a0\u00a0It was that he did not want to anger the Jewish leaders by releasing Paul and yet he knew that Paul had not committed a crime, even more so not one deserving death, as the Jewish leaders were demanding.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Festus was hoping, even though he knew Paul was innocent, that King Agrippa 2 would give him reason to charge Paul.\u00a0\u00a0His search for justice is thinly veiled as he already knew Paul was not guilty of crime against Rome which deserved death (Acts 25:18-19<\/b>).<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cI told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges.<\/i><\/span>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0As Festus saw it, Roman law was clear about the rights of the accused, at least if they were Roman citizens.\u00a0\u00a0They had right to face their accusers and to defend themselves against the charges.\u00a0\u00a0We can contrast that to the Jewish leaders who did not allow that for Jesus, Stephen, or Paul.\u00a0\u00a0In fact they killed Jesus who did not argue His case, and they became enraged and killed Stephen for how he put up his defense (Acts 6:8 \u2013 7:60<\/b>) and now they had become so enraged at Paul that they had wanted use mob justice to tear Paul apart. (Acts 21:30-32, 23:10:27<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0In this case, the justice of the Romans was superior to the justice of the Sanhedrin.\u00a0\u00a0Yet we should not be smug as we see even today that when it is popular, justice for the accused, the rights of the accused, can easily, and popularly, be case aside.<\/p>\n

Family and friends, justice is supposed to be blindly given to all.\u00a0\u00a0The Jewish leaders knew that God commanded them to be just to all.\u00a0\u00a0(Deuteronomy 16:18-20, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 16:18-20<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0The Romans had a good understanding of justice as we see in\u00a0Acts 25:26<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0In the U.S.A the Sixth Amendment (ratified in 1791) states \u201cIn all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0God calls for everyone to be just, in all matters, legal and civil, and in all matter of community, in relational matters, and in all matters that must be decided.\u00a0\u00a0(Micah 6:8<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0God just wants us to love each other and treat each other as we would want to be treated.\u00a0\u00a0(Mark 12:31, Matthew 7:12<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0So regardless of what another, or others, may think, let us be the standard bearers for justice and righteousness that God will approve of.\u00a0\u00a0Justice for all, kindness for all, equality for all, love for all.\u00a0\u00a0In that, we please God.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!<\/p>\n

P<\/b><\/span>salm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n

Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 25:13-22\u00a0–\u00a0A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea\u00a0to pay their respects to Festus.\u00a014\u00a0Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul\u2019s case with the king. He said: \u201cThere is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner.\u00a015\u00a0When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1872,2454,93,101,94,1874,17],"class_list":["post-2105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-deuteronomy","tag-leviticus","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2107,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2105\/revisions\/2107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}