The ship on which Paul was being taken as prisoner to Rome was destroyed by the storm. The owner of the ship, who had refused to listen to Paul, lost everything. However, the Lord had told Paul that everyone on the ship would escape safe with their lives.
When the ship ran aground near an island called Melita, everyone had to swim for shore - but all made it safely. They found themselves amidst “barbarous” people (heathen idolaters) who treated them very kindly.
Satan, ever active to destroy the Lord’s servants, is pictured to us in the viper (a deadly, poisonous snake) which bit Paul when he was gathering wood for the fire. Even though the people knew that the bite of this poisonous snake was always deadly, they saw that Paul received no hurt from his wound.
In their heathen ignorance the people of Melita then changed their minds and believed that Paul was a god, rather than an escaped criminal.
1. In order to avoid “shipwreck” in a believer’s life, what two things are necessary for him to hold? 1 Timothy 1:___
2. The owner of the ship refused to listen to Paul’s warning and lost everything. Paul had warned the Corinthian Christians of their worldly condition, but some had not listened. In what character would Paul come when he visited those who refused to heed his warnings? 1 Corinthians 4:___
3. Even though the ship ran aground and was destroyed, those on board all “escaped safe to land.” The believer in 1 Corinthians 5 made moral “shipwreck” of his life, and the assembly was to deliver him to Satan for the “destruction of the flesh.” The purpose of this solemn act of discipline was so that something could be “saved.” What was it? 1 Corinthians 5:___
4. The Lord assured Paul in a vision that all who were with him in the ship would escape safe to shore. What wonderful assurance does the Lord Jesus give believers who are kept in His “hand”? John 10:___
5. The result of Paul’s work of kindnesses in healing many of the sick on the island of Melita brought honors and full supply of their needs to the shipwrecked sailors. What is promised to the man whose “ways” are pleasing to the Lord? Proverbs 16:___