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JULY 29
My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ 7 In that region there was an estate of the
27 Also I will make him My firstborn, leading citizen of the island, whose name was
The highest of the kings of the earth. Publius, who received us and entertained us
8
28 My mercy I will keep for him forever, courteously for three days. And it happened
And My covenant shall stand firm with that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever
him. and dysentery. Paul went in to him and
29 His seed also I will make to endure prayed, and he laid his hands on him and
forever, healed him. So when this was done, the rest
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And his throne as the days of heaven. of those on the island who had diseases also
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came and were healed. They also honored us
in many ways; and when we departed, they pro-
vided such things as were necessary.
89:27 My firstborn. The firstborn child was
given a place of special honor and a double
portion of the inheritance (Gen. 27; 2 Kin. 2:9).
However, in a royal grant covenant, a chosen 28:8 sick of a fever and dysentery. The gas-
person could be elevated to the level of first- tric fever (caused by a microbe found in goat’s
born sonship and thus have title to a perpetu- milk) that was common on Malta. Dysentery,
al gift involving dynastic succession (Ps. 2:7). often the result of poor sanitation, was wide-
Though not actually the first, Israel was con- spread in the ancient world.
sidered the firstborn among nations (Ex. 4:22);
Ephraim the younger was treated as the first-
born (Gen. 48:13–20); and David was the first-
born among kings.In this latter sense of promi- 11 After three months we sailed in an
nent favor, Christ can be called the firstborn Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the
over all creation (Col. 1:15), in that He is given Twin Brothers, which had wintered at the
the preeminence over all created beings. island. And landing at Syracuse, we stayed
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three days. From there we circled round and
reached Rhegium. And after one day the
Proverbs 22:1–2
south wind blew; and the next day we came to
22 A good name is to be chosen Puteoli, where we found brethren, and were
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invited to stay with them seven days. And so
rather than great riches,
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Loving favor rather than silver and gold. we went toward Rome. And from there, when
the brethren heard about us, they came to
2 The rich and the poor have this in
common, meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns.
The LORD is the maker of them all. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and
took courage.
Acts 28:1–31 16 Now when we came to Rome, the centuri-
on delivered the prisoners to the captain of the
Now when they had escaped, they then
28 found out that the island was called guard; but Paul was permitted to dwell by him-
Malta. And the natives showed us unusual self with the soldier who guarded him.
2
17
kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us And it came to pass after three days that Paul
all welcome, because of the rain that was called the leaders of the Jews together. So when
falling and because of the cold. But when Paul they had come together, he said to them: “Men
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had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them and brethren, though I have done nothing
on the fire, a viper came out because of the
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heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the
natives saw the creature hanging from his
hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this 28:16 centurion delivered the prisoners to
man is a murderer, whom, though he has the captain of the guard. Many Greek manu-
escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to scripts omit this phrase. If part of the original
live.” But he shook off the creature into the text,it indicates either that Julius delivered the
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fire and suffered no harm. However, they prisoners to his commanding officer or to the
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were expecting that he would swell up or sud- commander of the Praetorian Guard. dwell by
denly fall down dead. But after they had himself…guarded. Possibly through Julius’s
looked for a long time and saw no harm come intervention, Paul was allowed to live under
to him, they changed their minds and said that guard in his own rented quarters (v.30).
he was a god.
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