Anyone who infringed on the rights of a Roman citizen could expect heavy punishment. The Roman officer had broken several of Paul's rights, and he could have lost his position permanently and even been kicked out of the army. Paul took advantage of this and claimed his rights as a citizen.
How was it that this Jew, Paul the apostle, was born a Roman citizen?
In the year 171 BC, King Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) made the small town of Tarsus in southern Asia Minor into one of cities of his standing army. He also enlarged its population by forcing hundreds of Jewish families from Jerusalem to settle in Tarsus. The first group of these immigrants included the great great grandfather of Paul of Tarsus. Antiochus eased the blow of the forced move by awarding all of them citizenship in Tarsus.
In the year 44 BC civil war broke out in Rome between the aristocrat Brutus, who had murdered Julius Caesar, and Caesar's nephew Octavian and his supporters. Brutus moved his troops to Tarsus, captured the city, and set up his headquarters there. The citizens of Tarsus, however, remained faithful to Octavian (who later became the Emperor Augustus), and after he defeated Brutus he rewarded Tarsus with Roman citizenship. This right of citizenship continued, and when Paul was born half a century later, he was born with Roman citizenship.
No doubt when Antiochus forced Jerusalem residents to move to Tarsus, the ancestors of Paul were in complete shock. Perhaps they turned to God and said, "Dear God, what are you doing to us?"
God always knows precisely what he is doing! He knew what he was doing when he uprooted Paul's ancestors from their home. It is God who calculates the times, and he knew that two hundred years later their descendant would be the most outstanding apostle of the Gospel. In order that Paul could fulfill his calling to evangelize, God laid the necessary groundwork so that Paul would be born a Roman citizen.
No matter what situation we find ourselves in, or what difficulties we face today, God is faithful and knows exactly what he is doing.
- 17 SEPTEMBER -