BIBLE STUDY LESSON 19

SERIES V --- JOURNEYS FOR YESHUA

MESSAGE FOR A KING

KING AGRIPPA JUDGES PAUL

From Acts 26

After Governor Festus had presented Paul to King Agrippa and the dignitaries in the room, Agrippa spoke to Paul. [You have permission to speak for yourself,] he said. Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defence. [How fortunate I am, O King Agrippa, that I can make my defence before you,] Paul began. [The charges against me are not crimes, but matters of Jewish customs and religious Laws, and I know you are quite familiar with these things. Therefore, I ask you to patiently listen while I tell my story. My life, since my youth, is well known to all the Jewish people, for I spent my time with my own people, much of it in Jerusalem. They realize that I was the strictest of Pharisees, and this is the strictest of all Jewish sects. It is interesting that I am on trial because I believe in the promised Moshiach for which our people have hoped through the generations. Is it a crime to believe that One rose from the dead? Apparently for me it is, but for them it isn’t! Is not YHVH able to raise a man to life again? At one time I did everything possible to oppose Yeshua the Nazarene and His followers. With the authority of the high priests, I imprisoned many of these followers, voted to have them executed, and even tortured them to make them deny Yeshua. I was so infuriated with them that I hunted them in foreign cities. Under the authority of the chief priests I was traveling to Damascus on one of those hunts. One day at noon I saw a light more brilliant than the sun, shining on me and my companions. We fell to the ground and I heard a voice speak to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you hurting Me? You will only hurt yourself, just like oxen which kick against the ox goads.’ When I asked who was speaking, He answered, ‘I am Yeshua, the One Whom you are hurting. Now get up, for I have come to appoint you to My work, so that you will minister and witness for Me, telling others what you have seen and heard here, as well as other things which I shall tell you. I will keep you safe from your own people, the Jews, and also from the Gentiles. I will send you to the Gentiles so they might see clearly their condition and turn from darkness and Satan to YHVH, and so they might receive forgiveness for sins and an inheritance with YHVH, along with all other persons whom YHVH cleanses through faith.’ And so, King Agrippa, I have been faithful to the charge given me in this vision, telling people in Damascus, Jerusalem, and throughout Judea and even the Gentiles, that they should turn from sin to YHVH, and live in harmony with their new faith. It was for this message that the Jews arrested me in the temple and tried to murder me, but YHVH has spared me to continue telling this message to people small and great. My message is exactly what Moses and the prophets said would happen, that the Moshiach would come, suffer, and be the first to rise from the dead, and thus would bring light to both Jews and Gentiles.] Festus interrupted, shouting at Paul, [You’re insane, Paul! You’ve been studying too much and it has driven you out of your mind!] [No, I am not insane, most excellent Festus,] Paul answered. [The words I speak are serious truth. King Agrippa knows about these things, and thus I speak to him freely. I am sure that he knows about all these things, for they have not happened in some dark corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the message of the prophets? I know you do.] [Are you with these few words trying to persuade me to become a believer?] Agrippa answered. Then Paul answered, [I wish so much that you and everyone in this room would become like me, except for these chains.] The king, the governor, Bernice, and all the dignitaries left. In a conference later they agreed, [This man has done nothing worthy of execution or prison.] Then Agrippa said to Festus, [If he had not appealed to Caesar, he could be set free.]

COMMENTARY

THE TWO AGRIPPAS

Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great. Like his grandfather, he lived a violent life. He went to school in Rome, but his habits led him deeply into debt and he was forced to return to Palestine. His uncle Antipas gave him a job, but they soon quarrelled. He returned to Rome and made friends with Caligula, the emperor’s nephew. When Agrippa wished aloud that Tiberias would give Caligula his throne, the emperor threw him in prison. But Tiberias soon died and Caligula became the new emperor of Rome. He released his friend from prison and gave him the title of king over a small area. Agrippa’s uncle, Antipas, pressured by his sister, asked Caligula to make him a king as well. But the emperor gave Antipas’ land to Agrippa instead. Several years later, when Claudius became the next emperor of Rome, he also rewarded Agrippa with more land. By the end of his life, King Agrippa I ruled a kingdom as large as his grandfather’s. When Agrippa I suddenly died, his son, Agrippa II, was not old enough to take his place. The emperor appointed a Roman governor instead. But a few years later Claudius gave Agrippa the throne of Chalcis after the death of Herod Chalcis, Agrippa’s uncle. When the young man proved his abilities as a ruler, the emperor put more land under Agrippa’s control. Nero, Claudius’ successor, also added land to the kingdom of Agrippa II. In return for the many favours he had received from the Romans, Agrippa II stood firmly on the side of the Empire when the Jews revolted against their foreign conquerors. He took part in the Roman victory celebration after the destruction of Jerusalem and the defeat of his own people.