PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Acts 13:4-12
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“You are going to be blind for a time.” (Acts 13:11)
Luke does not tell us everything in this story, but he does give us hints.
Elymnas Bar (son of) Jesus seems to have been a Jewish Christian prophet.
But though he knew the ways of the Lord, he was perverting them (13:10).
He used astrology as a ‘magon’ (sorcerer, same word as wise men at Jesus’s birth).
Though he claimed to be a Jesus son (Bar), Luke calls him a false (pseudo) prophet.
Paul recognizes how Satan is using him, probably because he can relate.
He used to be a “child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right.” (13:10).
He claimed to be serving God, but was perverting the ways of the Lord.
He was struck blind for a time too (Acts 9:1-19) so that he could be set straight.
That Elymnas was blind “for a time” hints that God meant to set him straight.
Whether or not he repented, for God’s part this was redeeming discipline.
Paul is filled with the Spirit of Jesus who seeks to restore lost sheep.
Jesus also challenged blind leaders and deceivers, in order to restore them.
Do the words “for a time” suggest that like Paul, Elymnas did come to Jesus?
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for your redeeming discipline, how you challenge and work in us to set us straight. Keep on setting me straight!
Opposition met with temporary blindness – how a miracle made possible the receptivity for the preaching of Paul and Barnabas – how I sometimes prayed that this would happen – but then it may have happened even if I did not know about it. Opposition to the Gospel has consequences – each person must decide what they are going to do with Jesus’ claim to be the only way to the Father. Even though I might not see the hand of God at work – I need to look for the signs and continue to trust that the HS is working – I just need to be faithful!
What struck me about this passage is that, while we don’t know if Paul’s reprimand or God’s discipline ultimately changed Elymas’ heart, we do know that his being so blatantly corrected was a catalyst for Sergius Paulus, the governor, to believe in God. It seems that sometimes God works change in a less direct way than we might expect. Sometimes, if we are seeking and paying attention, it is not through direct teaching that we come to grow in faith. Sometimes, it is when we witness our most heretofore trusted and influential friends fall down from their self-assured places and finally find themselves flailing through the unknown that we are shocked by the realization that their lack of experiential initiation created their ignorance – ignorance self-inflated and covered up by worldly knowledge and pride. Sometimes, being witness to a friend’s initiation into utter darkness is what leads us to experience greater light than we had thought possible. God does work all things together for the good of the ones who love God.
With that said, I don’t know how such an initiation wouldn’t change someone – even someone like Elymas Bar-Jesus. For someone who had likely enjoyed their life up to that point being sought out by everyone around them for their knowledge and power, to have that all taken away and being the one forced to grope about and rely on others for even the most basic of necessities, has to humble a person. At least, I hope it did.
Elymas was a false prophet, going against the word of the Lord. He was walking in his own light and therefor he was walking in darkness. He really could not see before the mist and darkness came over him. He was blind already – until . . . Like Saul who also could not see until the Lord God opened His eyes. Open the yes of my heart Lord so that I may see You always and walk daily in Your ‘SonShine.’
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see You
I want to see You
To see You high and lifted up
Shinin’ in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy