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JUNE 22

5:15 shadow of Peter. The people truly 5:20 the words of this life. The gospel (Phil.
believed he had divine healing power and 2:16; 1 John 1:1–4). Jesus Christ came into this
that it might even extend to them through his world to provide abundant and eternal life to
shadow. But Scripture does not say Peter’s spiritually dead people (John 1:4;11:25;1 John
shadow ever healed anyone; in fact, the heal- 5:20).
ing power of God through him seemed to go
far beyond his shadow (v. 16, “multitude…
were all healed”). This outpouring of healing 18
was an answer to the prayer in 4:29,30. and laid their hands on the apostles and put
them in the common prison. But at night an
19
angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and
5:16 unclean spirits. They are demons, fallen 20
angels (Rev. 12:3) who are so designated brought them out, and said, “Go, stand in the
because of their vile wickedness. They fre- temple and speak to the people all the words
quently live inside unbelievers, particularly of this life.”
21 And when they heard that, they entered
those who vent their wicked nature.
the temple early in the morning and taught.
But the high priest and those with him came
17 Then the high priest rose up, and all those and called the council together, with all the el-
who were with him (which is the sect of the Sad- ders of the children of Israel, and sent to the
ducees), and they were filled with indignation, prison to have them brought.
DAY 21:Why the severity of judgment upon Ananias and Sapphira?
The account of Ananias and Sapphira as shown in Acts 5 represents the classic example of
hypocrisy among Christians who faked their spirituality to impress others (Matt. 6:1–6,16–18; 15:7;
23:13–36). They were in the “multitude of those who believed” (4:32) and were involved with the
Holy Spirit (v. 3), but remained hypocrites. They sold a possession and “kept back part of the pro-
ceeds” (v. 2). This was not a sin in and of itself. However, they had promised, perhaps publicly, that
they were giving the full amount received to the Lord.Their outward sin was lying about how much
they were giving to the church, but the deeper, more devastating sin was their spiritual hypocrisy
based on selfishness.
Peter addressed Ananias with the words:“Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit”(v. 3).
Ananias and Sapphira were satanically inspired in contrast to Barnabas’s Spirit-filled gesture (4:37).
Ananias must have promised the Lord he would give the whole amount. He lied to the ever-pres-
ent Holy Spirit in him (1 Cor. 6:19,20) and in the church (Eph. 2:21,22). And hearing Peter’s words,
Ananias fell down and died.The Jews did not embalm, but customarily buried the dead the same
day, especially someone who died by divine judgment (see Deut. 21:22,23).
“So great fear came upon all those who heard these things”(v. 5).They were afraid about the
seriousness of hypocrisy and sin in the church. The people learned that death can be the conse-
quence of sin (1 Cor. 11:30–32; 1 John 5:16). That fear extended beyond those present to all who
heard about the divine judgment (v. 11).
Then the same judgment fell upon Sapphira.Peter said that they had “agreed together to test
the Spirit of the Lord” (v. 9). Sapphira had gone too far in presuming upon God’s forbearance. The
folly of such blatant human presumption had to be shown as a sin,hence the ultimate divine chas-
tening that followed.

father’s house. The sons of Tola were mighty
JUNE 22 men of valor in their generations; their num-
ber in the days of David was twenty-two thou-
3
sand six hundred. The son of Uzzi was
Izrahiah, and the sons of Izrahiah were Mi-
1 Chronicles 7:1–8:40
chael, Obadiah, Joel, and Ishiah. All five of
4
The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puah, them were chief men. And with them, by their
7 Jashub, and Shimron—four in all. The generations, according to their fathers’ hous-
2
sons of Tola were Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, es, were thirty-six thousand troops ready for
Jahmai, Jibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their war; for they had many wives and sons.
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