In Acts 28:1-2 Luke opens this chapter on the heals of the words of 27:44 “they all escaped safely to land”, the land was a small Island called Malta an appropriate name as it means “refuge”. Malta is an Island 18 miles long by 8 miles wide, which is about 58 miles from Sicily.
Now I’ve been thinking about this little island, why did the Lord have Paul shipwrecked here according to verse 11 for three months?
•First off it is interesting that such a small insignificant place would become a “refuge” for Paul and those with him. What this means to me is that a lot of the time I’m upset over being in a place of unimportance but what I fail to realize is that God has caused me to wash ashore to bless me. Have you felt lately that you are off your course in a place that you would rather not be? Perhaps the Lord has shipwrecked you to bless you?
•Second the inhabitants have some interesting characteristics. The word “natives” is the word barbarians in the Greek. It is a word that Greeks used to describe any person who did not speak their language as they mimicked their native tongue by saying that it sounded as if they were saying bar, bar, bar!
•Here’s what Luke says about these islanders they “kept showing” “unusual love of mankind”! The word appears only one other place in the N.T. in Titus 3:4 where Paul writes, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appear..” “Kindness and love”, that’s how the Lord blessed Paul and his shipmates. Imagine this scene as the rain was pouring down upon these 276 survivors, instead of sifting through the wreckage, they see the need and start building a fire so they could be warmed.
•The words “made us all welcome” is literally “took us all to themselves”. Really all? Remember the ship was made up off sailors, soldiers and condemned sinners. It is a marvelous ministry that makes all “warm by the fires of His grace”. No matter who they were they did not differentiate, ALL were taken in by their kindness and love! Is that not great? Don’t you want to be shipwrecked on an island where people pour out their love towards you no matter what your background?
Why don’t we make our little churches, neighborhoods, homes and work place a shipwrecked facility, a refuge to all who get washed up on our shores? We can all be native islanders pouring out the kindness and love of Jesus warming them by the fires of His grace!