Paul's Arrival at Athens
“And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode thei*e still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” — Acts xvit. 14-16.
BEEEA seems a very paradise for these missionary men. There was eager attention to the gospel; there were many conversions, and as yet there was no sign of any persecution springing up. But the persecution that did not spring on the spot was imported from a distance. “When the Jews at Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people.” The place was soon made too hot for Paul. As being manifestly the chief, he was more obnoxious than his two younger associates; for when it was found necessary to hurry him off from the place to preserve his life, Timothy and Silas ventured to remain behind to carry on the work which had been so hopefully begun.
The brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. It has been generally thought that stratagem was employed here; that they started in the direction of the sea-coast, to lead the persecutors on a false scent, and afterwards took the road to Athens. But it is more probable that the transaction was simpler. As there is no mention of any place on the way between Berea and Athens, there is some ground to infer that the journey was not made by land; that they embarked at Dium, near the base of Olympus, and landed at the Piraeus. In the circumstances, it is probable that the route and the destination were not determined until they were far on the way. When they left Berea there was no time to consider their course. The thing that pressed was to get Paul away from a place of danger; out of Berea with all haste for the missionary’s life, and when we are at a safe distance we shall consider where we shall go next.
Paul seems on this occasion to have been passive in the hands of his friends. They who lived in the country knew best both the danger that threatened and the means of escape. They will manage the whole business. The journey to Athens was no plan of his. “They that conducted him brought him to Athens.” Arrived at this celebrated city, Paul seems to have taken the measure of it at the first glance. Before his conductors had left him to return to their home, he had made up his mind and determined the plan of the campaign. In view of Athens, Berea diminished in importance as a mission-field. He had left Timothy and Silas there; but as soon as he saw Athens, he sent a message back with the returning escort, requesting his associates to join him without delay.
Those two labourers were digging a well on the spot where he left them — digging a well, and getting water — the water of life, to refresh a parched neighbourhood; but he hesitates not to call them away from their work; for the well that they were digging was in the lowly plain, and though they obtained sweet water there, that water could not flow far for the benefit of others. Here, however, and now, Paul had discovered a spot on an exceeding high mountain, where a well might be hopefully pierced, and if they should obtain water there, it would, in virtue of the height of its site, flow far and wide over the nations. Accordingly this master- workman recalls his hands from the successful but less important mission in Berea, that they might strike home for the Lord in the very heart and head of the civilised world.
The plan was that Paul should wait at Athens till his associates arrived, and that then they should begin the work in company. It is not easy for a solitary missionary to begin alone in the high places of the earth to bear a testimony for God. Poor Jonah was so overwhelmed by the prospect of standing unsupported in Nineveh to denounce God’s judgments against the people’s sin, that he rebelled and ran away, that he might escape the hard and scathing ordeal. As J onah at Nineveh, crying out, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed — as Jonah at Nineveh was Paul at Athens, proclaiming Jesus and the resurrection. It is too much for one man alone to dare and do. He will wait in silence the arrival of his friends, and then, shoulder to shoulder, three stronger than one, they will stand, and stand up for the Lord, and stand fast against the adversary. Bid them come both and come quickly, said the eager, impetuous apostle to his escort, as they turned to retrace their steps toward Berea; “and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus, for to come to him with all speed, they departed.”
Away went the escort out of his sight, and Paul began his part of the programme — that is, to wait. He will wait at Athens till Timothy and Silas should arrive. But ah! this is not a man of the waiting kind. He had undertaken more than he could perform. The spirit of the prophet was not subject to the prophet. Paul was not a good waiter, and Athens was not the place for Paul to wait idle in. It was hard to begin alone his testimony for Jesus in that Greek capital, and therefore he laid the plan of obtaining associates; but it was harder to look on in silence where Satan had his seat, and therefore he broke through the plan that he had laid. He burst through all bonds and began. “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he,” etc.
He saw the city given over to idolatry; and felt a stirring, a thrilling through his soul, like the vibrations of a harp when the wind breathes on its strings. Not only were these two connected in point of time; they were connected as cause and effect. The sight which he saw without caused the emotion that he experienced within. The idolatry of the city kindled this missionary’s soul into a paroxysm of holy zeal which could not be restrained.
Two things are observable and memorable in connection with what Paul saw in Athens — two things very needful and very profitable to supply us with fixed foundation principles of action in these latter days.
First, this great and true man — this real philosopher, who both feared God and regarded man, was arrested and transfixed by the idols of Athens, so that he noticed not or regarded little the many other sights which the city contained. This intellectual capital of Greece presented in those days many attractions to men of cultivated taste; and Paul’s taste was cultivated. It was not that he valued marble statues less, but living men more. He was not blind to the beauties of Greek architecture, or deaf to the music of the Greek tongue; but he felt the expulsive power of a deeper affection, that occupied his heart, and drove its rivals from the field. Ah! he is not the weak but the strong man who regards immortal souls as transcendently more important than fine arts. This man is not carried away by vanities, but governed by sound reason. Accordingly, he scarcely observes the curiosities that strangers went to see in Athens; he was taken up with that which obtruded itself on the traveller’s eye at the corner of every street — idols, idols everywhere; and living men boasting themselves to be God’s offspring, bowing down before images of wood and stone, graven by art and man’s device.
Another thing observable in the missionary’s view is, that he considered the idolatry of the Athenians to be a grave and grievous thing. This is not one of those frivolous travellers who think idolatrous rites very picturesque, and very becoming, and very harmless. We have fallen upon an age when shallow men, in order to prove themselves deep, count it needful to laud the interesting and innocent religious ceremonies of the heathen on their native soil, and to deprecate Christian missionaries as intruders, who make the people worse. A sort of crusade is at the present time waged against Christian missions by a section of the students of philosophy and nature. It cannot deal heavy blows, or continue long to deal any blows at all; for it is false in its facts, and unphilosophically presumptuous in its pretensions.
But, meantime, observe how this great and strong man regarded the matter. Idolatry was in his sight the height of all abomination. It was dishonour done to the living God, and degradation to intelligent human souls. It was, mores a
over, the fruitful parent of all vice. The law of God is living and eternal thing. The law, like Christ, is not divided so that a man can take a part, and neglect the rest. The second table hangs dependent on the first. When the soul is debauched by the worship of a false god, the body is abandoned to every species of corruption (Rom. i.)