Shipwrecked!

Acts 27:18; Psalm 42:7  •  18 min. read  •  grade level: 8
Listen from:
• BibleTruthPublishers.com
There are, no doubt, times when shipwreck not only threatens us, but becomes our experience. We believe this experience to be very real in some lives, but it takes many forms, and affects us in many ways. It may relate to health, or fortune, or reputation, or to our spiritual experience. It is a time when, to use the expressive phrase of our narrative (Acts 27), we are “exceedingly tossed with a tempest,” when neither “sun nor stars” in many days appear, when all hope that we should be saved is taken away, and we ardently “wished for the day.” We are baffled, forsaken, overwhelmed, and stunned. Whatever form the shipwreck may take, it is always a supreme crisis in our life.
Shipwreck on an Important Journey
So with ourselves, the storm will often burst — the shipwreck will overtake us — just as we seem to be on the high road to a success, to an achievement, or to a goal of some kind that we hope to attain.
Shipwreck does not necessarily mean complete disaster, irretrievable ruin, though it may mean the loss of certain things we hoped to have retained and perhaps thought indispensable. In Paul’s case, there was the loss of the ship and all it contained, but of no man’s life. Despite shipwreck there is gain as well as loss.
Shipwreck After Discipline
The shipwreck came to Paul after a long term of discipline in prison. For two years, he had been detained at Caesarea. He was called to pass through a variety of experiences. The quiet and seclusion of Caesarea stand out in bold relief from the commotion, excitement, and dangers of the storm at sea. But it was in the shipwreck that the discipline and experiences of prison life reached their climax. Such experiences were also a preparation for it. How often we are taken aside before some great crisis! How frequently there is the stillness before the storm, during which some message reaches us by which we are fortified against all that is to follow. It was in prison that Paul received that divine communication: “Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” Amidst the wild hurricane of the storm, as they were “driven up and down in Adria,” when no small tempest lay on them, and all hope that they should be saved was taken away, these words must have often come to mind and strengthened the conviction that ultimate deliverance would be given.
Shipwreck at the End
Shipwreck may come towards the end of our career. Paul’s journeys and labors were almost over, his course was nearly up, his last witness was about to be borne, and Satan would, if possible, prevent the great apostle of the Gentiles from ever reaching the seat of the world’s government, to testify of the world’s Saviour. In the whole course of our experience there may be troubles and difficulties, disappointments and setbacks of various kinds, but the shipwreck experience comes, perhaps, but once, and it is like no other. It is an accumulation of distresses, in the midst of which we need all our past experiences to help us, all our powers of navigation to enable us to keep afloat, all our courage and our hope. We have to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. For “neither sun nor stars in many days appeared.”
No One Exempt From Shipwreck
It may be noticed that though one of the greatest and most devoted of servants, and also an apostle, Paul was not exempted from this ordeal. We may be inclined to ask, Why did not God see fit to spare one who had served Him so faithfully, so long, and so successfully, and who had already been through so much, and save him from this catastrophe? God meant Paul to reach Rome. From one point of view, He was sending him. Why did He not then provide the best and most comfortable means of transporting him thither? How different God’s ways are from ours! Instead of doing what we might have expected, the very opposite seems to have happened. Paul is allowed to go as a prisoner, and he appears to be the mere sport of circumstances. When he admonished those in charge and warned them that the “voyage would be with hurt and much damage,” we read: ”Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.“ And so the ship is allowed to proceed according to the caprice of man, and the disasters predicted all follow as a consequence. Why, we may ask again, was this man, who on other occasions could work miracles, and who even was henceforth to work them, not allowed by the exercise of miraculous power to overrule the decision of the master or avert the storm? In fact, why did God permit the storm?
To fully discuss these questions would carry us too far astray from our purpose, but this one thing stands out with perfect clearness, that it is not always part of God’s ways to save His people (He did not save even an apostle) from the ordinary and natural consequences of either their own or other people’s acts. His way seems rather to overrule ordinary conditions, and manifest Himself in them, either by giving sustaining grace or delivering power. Thus, we gain a deeper knowledge of Him than would be the case if He spared us all trial and vicissitude. And this fact, while it does not do away with faith, necessitates ordinary foresight, and calls into exercise the various powers with which the Creator has endowed us. It is never right to say, “If a thing is going to happen, it will happen, and if it is not to be, it will not be.” Such conclusions are false in every way — false to ourselves, false to God, false to the common experience of life. Paul gave the captain of the vessel and the centurion good advice, which if they had followed, the consequent “hurt and much damage” would have been avoided. It was not taken, and this want of wisdom and foresight was soon brought home to everyone by some very hard facts.
The narrative furnishes another instance of the same kind. Not only had Paul been told that he must be brought before Cæsar, but it was added, “God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.” And he tells the assembled company, “there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.” Yet when the sailors “were about to flee out of the ship  .  .  .  under color as though they would have cast anchors  .  .  .  Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.” How far removed was Paul’s mind from fatalism. He did not argue, I am to reach Rome, this is part of God’s purpose, and the lives of all have been given to me, and therefore I need take no account of anything, no matter what happens, it will be just the same. If these sailors leave the ship it does not matter. This was not his way of looking at it. He was no doubt perfectly unshaken as to God’s purpose and perfectly convinced as to His promise, for had he not just declared publicly, “Sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” But this did not blind him to another side, that is, that there are matters which require our attention and that we cannot afford to neglect them, for God uses means.
Shipwreck Through Others’ Mistakes
May we not also learn in passing, that it is possible to be involved in shipwreck through the mistakes of others. In Paul’s case, it was not brought about by any misconduct of his, but because his wise counsel was not accepted. He appears helpless. Having proffered his advice, he can do no more, and matters are allowed to take their course. Nor is it otherwise in our own case, sometimes. The shipwreck may not always be the direct result of our own actions. But whatever the cause, our consolation may be that God can make all serve His highest ends, and bring good out of evil. God’s providence and purpose are seen in the end to go hand in hand.
Many Shipwrecks
Though we are not prepared to say that shipwreck (as here described) comes into every life, is it not a very real experience in the history of not a few? There are, undoubtedly, sheltered lives, with few struggles, which are disturbed by few storms. With others, how different! For the sake of any who have passed, or may be passing, through this experience, we would endeavor to set down some of its features.
Often it is preceded by a calm — “the south wind blew softly.” We seem to be making headway, all appears propitious, the “desired haven” seems almost within sight, when the tempest bursts — Euroclydon is upon us in all its fury. We feel driven before the wind, not knowing what the issue may be. We use the accustomed “helps,” but they are unavailing. Some have known what it means to be confronted with a power against which they could not stand. Was not the psalmist in this plight when he uttered the cry: “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knewest my path.” All trace to us seems lost, but God knows the way that He takes, even though we may be driven before the winds and waves of circumstance, temptation, or doubt.
Many of the expressions used in connection with this literal shipwreck, are equally descriptive of its spiritual counterpart. In what vivid language is the scene described: “We being exceedingly tossed with a tempest,” “and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared,” “driven up and down in Adria.” There is danger from quicksands, rocks and shoals.
More than once something of this experience seems to have come to Jacob. No small tempest lay on him when he was compelled to flee from home and go as a stranger into a strange land. Nor was it otherwise upon his return years later, and when he learned that Esau was coming to meet him, with four hundred men. And surely “sun and stars” did not appear for many days after the reported death of Joseph.
Hezekiah in his sickness knew the meaning of shipwreck. Sun and stars are blotted out of his heavens and he was “exceedingly tossed up and down.” In his distress, he cried:
“I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world  .  .  .  I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will He break all my bones: from day even to night wilt Thou make an end of me. Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.”
Does the reader know anything of “being exceedingly tossed with a tempest”? You are carried off your feet, so to speak. The opposing elements are too much for you. There seem to be dangers on every hand. And in the midst of adverse winds and currents, when the powers against you seem overwhelming, and your frail boat feels as though it will founder, have you required to know, in order that you may be fully tested, what it means for God’s conscious support and presence to be withheld? He has not really left you, of course, but His comforts have ceased for the moment — sun and stars do not appear. And then, do you know the weariness of being “driven up and down in Adria”? Oh, the tiresomeness of it all! Progress there seems none, you come back to the same point again and again, no nearer to your goal after all the tossing, and it seems as if from Adria there is to be no escape.
Shipwreck Teaches True Value
But all is not so aimless or useless as it appears for the shipwreck has its lessons. One surely is that we learn to estimate things at their true value.
We may suffer loss, but we discover that such things after all are not the indispensable things. In the shipwreck, which all along we have been using as our illustration, many things had to go, but the lives of all were preserved. First, the tackling of the ship was cast out, then other things went overboard. Even the wheat was cast into the sea, and lastly, the ship itself went to pieces. Yes, the use of the shipwreck is to lighten us, to enable us to lay aside every weight, to reveal to us what are the hindrances, to show us the true value of things. All this, of course, is in relation to the scene we are in, the journey we are taking, and to the goal that is before us. As the apostle reminds us, “The time is short.” “They that buy, as those that possessed not. And they that use this world, as not abusing it” (1 Cor. 7:29-31). How much tackling and sail we carry that could be dispensed with — and better dispensed with — in the circumstances. They are a source of danger and inconvenience, considering the character we are called to bear before the world, and the path in which we are called to walk. That outward show which we prize so much, which ministers to our self-importance; the many things that we think to be useful and a help — are not these the tackling and the sails that the shipwreck deprives us of? And are we not immensely gainers, in the highest sense, by the loss? As the apostle puts it, “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” How apt even Christians are to think that some gain is to be got out of worldly advantage, and we are prone to carry all the tackling and sail available. And truly it all looks very fine when there is no Euroclydon nearby, but when the storm comes, how much of it has to go overboard! Yet what is essential remains — the life remains; and the life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment. Then we come to see that God is supremely occupied with what we are — the life — and not with what we have. “There shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.” “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
Shipwreck Gains
But there are other gains. To Paul it is said, “And, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.” Just as life is of supreme importance in the first instance (for a man cannot bless others beyond the blessing he himself has received), so it is the lives of others that we are to seek. Apart from the shipwreck, Paul could never have had this supreme honor — that of being the means of the salvation of all on board. He could not have felt the same concern about these people had their lives not been in jeopardy. And we have, no doubt, that this result — this salvation — though only temporal — was granted in response to his prayers. Perhaps these people never realized they owed their preservation to Paul’s presence and to his petitions, any more than the world realizes today what it owes to the presence of God’s people and to their prayers. If eternity reveals all relating to this great war which has ravaged the land, it will probably be found that prayer availed more than many people think, to stem the tide of the enemies’ assault and ultimately to end it.
Shipwreck Shows His Care
Once more, does not the shipwreck bear witness to God’s preserving care and overruling providence, as well as to His method of working? He did not see fit to give His servant a pleasant journey to Rome, but He did stand by him, and He gave him wonderful words of comfort to speak to all on board. Could there be anything more sublime than the picture of that solitary figure in the storm, undismayed and unmoved, with words of cheer for everyone? It gives us to see the reason why shipwrecks are allowed — we learn in them what God can be to us, and what He can enable us to do and to bear; thus we become qualified to help others. Paul is able to say to these distressed voyagers “there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you.” And these words came to pass. We marvel sometimes at all that is allowed to happen. Does the opposite ever fill us with wonder; that is, what we are spared?
How God Fills and Uses a Man
And then lastly, as we watch through the storm this noble figure of Paul, do we not become conscious of the gain? We see how God can fill a man and use him. For he is more than self-possessed, he is God-possessed. When all hope is gone, and the ship is ready to sink, we see him standing in the midst of it all, serene and still master of the situation. What words he is enabled to speak! “There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve.” Mark how he is able to comfort others! “Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” How spiritually great he is and yet how practical. We see him as one who receives direct communications from God, and shortly after, we see him beseeching them to take meat. Then Paul gives “thanks to God in presence of them all” and eats, giving them an example. “Then were they all of good cheer.”
It may not be our lot to go through a shipwreck (metaphorically speaking) with this calm, confident spirit, feeling ourselves master of the situation. Things may happen which we do not care to remember; we may be carried off our feet. In the rough and tumble of a shipwreck — to be in a place “where two seas meet” — is not a condition in which one can always manifest great composure, or be confident as to the issue — but if it is the place where we learn our own impotence and nothingness, it is also the occasion where we are reminded that God has not forgotten us,
“So He bringeth them unto their desired haven.” We reach the haven at last, though the experience on the way may be very different from what we anticipated. It was so with Paul. When he spoke about going to Jerusalem, and added “after I have been there, I must also see Rome,” little do he know all that would befall him on the way thither. But how true it is: “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” If these experiences belong to any of us at the present time — if “no small tempest” lies on us, and much that we valued is disappearing overboard — or if we are experiencing the monotony of being “driven up and down in Adria” — the seeming sport of winds and waves without progress — let us not forget that Paul did eventually reach Rome, and that on the way, he heard the voice of God amid the storm. And, if there is the same trust and confidence on our part, what God was to him, He will be to us. And the ultimate gain will be a richer spiritual experience, and a truer estimate of what is really of value, with the consciousness that that which is highest and best remains, and is more our own than ever.
Contents
Shipwreck on an Important Journey 3
Shipwreck After Discipline 4
Shipwreck at the End 5
No One Exempt from Shipwreck 6
Shipwreck Through Others’ Mistakes 10
Many Shipwrecks 11
Shipwreck Teaches True Value 14
Shipwreck Gains 17
Shipwreck Shows His Care 18
How God Fills and Uses a Man 19
Titles in This Series:
1. Abide with Us #9858
2. Divine Excess #9867
3. God’s Providence #9863
4. How Long O Lord, Until #9860
5. Joy in Suffering #2249
6. The Lord Hath His Way #9861
7. The Lord of Peace #9859
8. The Meaning of Suffering #9866
9. Personal Grief, Personal Comfort #3540
10. Shipwrecked! #9862
11. Trials — Their Meaning and Use #5351
12. A Wealthy Place #4532
13. Why Art Thou Cast Down? #9864
14. Angels in White Expanded
Pamphlet Pack #9868
Each of these articles by R. Elliott is not currently in print in the book Angels in White but was included in the original printing of that title many years ago.