Unlikely Leaders

Disaster to the Ship

Taking advantage of a lull in the storm, Paul stood on deck and said: “Now I urge you to take heart; for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. However, we must run aground on a certain island.” ULe 162.4

When they heard these words, the passengers and crew began to revive from their hopelessness. They must put forth every effort within their power to avoid destruction. ULe 162.5

On the fourteenth night of tossing on the huge waves, about midnight the sailors heard the sound of breakers. “Then,” Luke writes, “fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come.” ULe 162.6

At daybreak the outlines of the stormy coast were dimly visible, but the outlook was so gloomy that the heathen sailors lost all courage and “were seeking to escape from the ship.” “Under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow,” they had let down the lifeboat, when Paul saw what they were planning to do. He said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” The soldiers immediately “cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off” into the sea. ULe 162.7

The most critical time was still ahead of them. The apostle again spoke words of encouragement and urged both sailors and passengers to eat something. “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.” ULe 162.8

“When he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat.” Then that weary and discouraged company of 275 people, who would have become desperate were it not for Paul, joined the apostle in eating some food. “So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.” ULe 163.1

Daylight had now come. “They observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosening the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves.” ULe 163.2