Text: Acts 5:27-42
Prayer Pointers:
For confidence in God’s care and wisdom
To trust God with all your activities
For all of goodwill who wish to work alongside the Church
GAMALIEL STOOD UP…The figure of Gamaliel is a tantalizing one in the New Testament. He had the highest reputation among the Jewish community in his day, especially among the scholars of the Law, and after his death many rabbis lamented that, with his passing, piety and reverence for the law had faded—such was his influence. Of even more interest, St. Paul claims that he was a pupil of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), which has caused many modern scholars to search for evidence of Gamaliel’s influence on the early Church.
Whatever Gamaliel’s theological or interpretive legacy among the first Christians, Acts shows that he had a decisive effect at the very beginning—because he trusted God. In the midst of a tense and hostile moment, Gamaliel rises and declares that God is trustworthy, and that the truth of this matter involving Peter and John will show itself soon enough. What is not of God will not endure; what is of God will endure, and it is futile to fight God’s purposes and plans. Therefore, he concludes, do what is right concerning these men, as God has instructed, and leave the outcome to God himself.
We must never forget that we have every reason to be confident in God, for he who did not withhold his Son from us will be faithful and keep his promises to us. We are God’s Children, born in the waters of baptism; adopted sons and daughters, yet fully a part of the family of God, and now related to Gamaliel and his kin by blood—the blood of Jesus. Remember Gamaliel’s words, and keep sure of God.
May your day be grace-filled ~ Pr. Dave Brooks