Holy Rebuke

Acts 13:9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

9 Σαῦλος δέ, ὁ καὶ Παῦλος, πλησθεὶς πνεύματος ἁγίου ἀτενίσας εἰς αὐτὸν 10  εἶπεν· ὦ πλήρης παντὸς δόλου καὶ πάσης ῥᾳδιουργίας, υἱὲ διαβόλου, ἐχθρὲ πάσης δικαιοσύνης, οὐ παύσῃ διαστρέφων τὰς ὁδοὺς [τοῦ] κυρίου τὰς εὐθείας; 11  καὶ νῦν ἰδοὺ χεὶρ κυρίου ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ ἔσῃ τυφλὸς μὴ βλέπων τὸν ἥλιον ἄχρι καιροῦ. παραχρῆμά τε ἔπεσεν ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἀχλὺς καὶ σκότος καὶ περιάγων ἐζήτει χειραγωγούς.

I thought about doing a special Easter post, but I also want to keep going through Acts.  After all, this is what  I read this morning and that is the point of this blog.  For those of you who know Jesus -- HAPPY EASTER!

This is Paul's rebuke of the magician Elymas who was trying to lead people away from the faith.  Paul had zero patience for this man.  As he was filled with the Holy Spirit he rebuked the man.  And for good measure the man was made blind.

This story seems very foreign to us because we are unaccustomed to anyone being this serious about the truth.  We put up with all kinds of crazy shenanigans and refuse to "curse what God is blessing."  There is an element of truth to that statement, but overall we need to uphold the sanctity of truth.

Today of all days this becomes very important.  We need to understand the bedrock of our faith and what the truth is all about.  We do not worship Jesus because He was a great teacher.  We do not believe the Bible because it has lots of wise teachings.  We worship Jesus because He is God and proved it to the world by "the sign of Jonah."  He spent three days (by Jewish reckoning) in the ground and then rose from the dead.  That is the bedrock of our faith.

Let us be sure to oppose any who stand in the way of that.  We may agree to disagree on some secondary matters.  But when it comes to who Jesus is let us never waver from the truth.