“Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Acts 5:38-39
In Acts 5 we have another instance where the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin – the Jewish ruling body – and reprimanded for preaching the message of Jesus to the people. Again, they replied that they could not stop but must continue to preach, in obedience to God’s command (Acts 5:29, c.f. Acts 4:19-20). This infuriated the Sanhedrin so much that they wanted to put them all to death. At this moment Gamaliel stood up.
We don’t know much about Gamaliel from the Scriptures, apart from this: he was a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, and was well-respected by everyone (Acts 5:34). He was also the one who had trained the apostle Paul as a Pharisee, in his younger days (Acts 22:3). He shows himself here to be a man of great wisdom. We don’t know if Gamaliel ever came to faith in Christ, but he was able to look at the situation rationally – which the rest of the Sanhedrin were not doing. He pointed out two previous examples in their recent history where charismatic leaders had arisen and drawn followers, but when the leader was killed the followers dispersed. In the present case, it was still early days after Jesus had been killed. His attitude was, wait and see. If this movement was like the previous ones, it would all come to nothing. He was also open to the possibility that this was from God – in which case he knew that no-one could stand against Him.
The same thing is happening today. There are more and more people arising who are completely open about their desire to eradicate Christianity. They want to purge it from schools and public places. They put up billboards and signs on buses. But we can take comfort: they will not succeed, any more than the Sanhedrin did back in the days of the early church. The church is Jesus’ bride: He won’t allow her to be destroyed.
I wonder if Gamaliel was right? Will anything not of God fail? I know eventually it will, but does that mean we should not oppose falsehood in the interim? I'm glad Gamaliel spoke up to spare the apostles.....but I wonder what lessons we do well to take? I suppose one might be just to doubt our doubts a bit...and not rush to judgment. I enjoyed our post....got me thinking....thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think it means that we shouldn't oppose falsehood - and if I implied that in my post I do apologise. Edmund Burke once said, 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.'
Basically, what I was trying to say is that if something is from God, it will ultimately succeed, no matter what. Conversely, something that is attacking something that is of God, will not succeed ultimately, because the Bible tells us: God wins in the end.
I think there are parallels here between Gamaliel and Caiaphas (John 11:49-52, see my post on this http://verses10.blogspot.com/2011/03/caiaphas-prophecy.html ). We don't know whether Gamaliel believed that Jesus really was the Messiah - certainly Caiaphas did not when he uttered his prophecy. Yet God still spoke the truth through them both.
Thanks for your comment!
Bridget