David Godfrey
"Be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be
even so as it has been spoken to me." Acts 27:25
The Scriptures abound in night incidents. There was the night when Jacob wrestled with the Angel, the night of the Exodus from Egypt, the night when Jesus came to the disciples, walking on the water, and then the dread night when Judas betrayed his Master and Peter denied ever having known Him. After the resurrection there was the night of Peter's unprofitable fishing expedition -- and so we might go on, However, high on the list of nights which have so much to teach us must come this fourteenth night in which the ship which carried Paul was drifting in the Adriatic.
As Paul stood on the moving deck of the stricken ship, he was able to affirm his complete faith: "Sirs ... I believe God". But before those who heard him were to appreciate the glorious realisation of Paul's hopes, they had to pass through a night of amazing and contrasting incidents. Safety was near at hand, perhaps a few hundreds of yards away, but so far as the people on that ship were concerned, it might have been hundreds of miles away. Even when they knew that the land was near, they could not see it and had no idea at all as to how they could reach it. Throughout that night, however, a night of [58/59] horror and despair, there was the apostle, encouraging, advising, instructing, praying and believing.
His message to us all is inspiring, and it came not only through his words but by this outstanding example of how a servant of the Lord can prove God's faithfulness on the darkest night and in the stormiest circumstances. During those hours his mind may well have gone back to the Gospel story of another troubled night on another stormy sea when Christ's disciples were in distress. In that storm it was the Lord Jesus Himself who said "Be of good cheer ... be not afraid" but then He got into the ship and His presence brought peace, security and calm to the wind and waves (Matthew 14:25). Or there was that other time when the ship was full of water, but He stood up and spoke His word of authority, "and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). But now there was no such intervention.
The Old Testament told Paul how in a previous time of peril, God had rescued His servant Jonah from the troubled waters by having him swallowed up by a great fish. Nothing like this happened to His most faithful servant Paul: there was no calm and no fish. But there was deliverance. As Christians, you and I cannot demand that God should be working supernatural miracles to astound us and sustain our faith. He expects us to trust Him in the dark. Then it may well be that the purpose of God is fulfilled by things which to us may seem quite normal. That is the lesson of this story.
See how the deliverance finally came. Those who could swim did so, those who could not did not receive a miraculous ability to swim, but were told to get hold of a bench or a board which was floating by and cling to it. We are not told whether Paul belonged to the swimmers or to the non-swimmers; we only know that to him and to them all God gave either strength of arms, legs and lungs, or else He provided a spar from the ship which they could lay hold of. The miracle was that they all escaped safely to land, proving how right the apostle had been to cry, "I believe God", even in the darkest hour.
It may be that some, despairing of life as the storm raged around them, judged that God had failed and that Paul had been wrong to trust Him. It is true that to the last they had no supernatural miracles, but the fact remains that when the incident was over, it was found that not a single one of the 276 people had been lost. So it was right to trust God even in the dark. It was then and it still is in 1985. We may be in similar circumstances, in the dark, storm-tossed and wondering why God does not work some striking wonder to help us. Let us still believe in God. And let us rejoice in the wonderful miracles of the everyday. Of course God can do marvels; but sometimes He uses a person's ability to swim or even a broken piece of the ship to bring us safely through.
"It came to pass that they all escaped safe to the land" (v.44). That was indeed a miracle. To us the word 'miracle' may suggest the Lord calming the sea, walking on the water or raising the dead, but is it not the greatest miracle to have songs in the night? Is it not wonderful to know the peace and presence of Christ in the darkest night and the most terrifying storm; to be quietly confident of a safe arrival on land while the waves are lashing round and tragedy seems inevitable?
"I believe God!" The apostle did not utter those words as a mere creed, and not when the sun was shining, the sky blue, the sea like glass and the air filled with gentle breezes, but in such a dark extremity that it may almost have appeared that God had abdicated all responsibility for them. For many days no-one had seen sun, moon or stars in their places, but they were still there and were still shining. Just as certainly Paul knew that God was still on His throne and he sought to inspire the same faith in others.
He knew nothing of the island, for faith does not make one a know-all. But he had been told by God that he was to go to Rome, so he knew where he was going and that God would see to it that he got there. We may have the same glad assurance. This experience has a present message for us in 1985. However dark our night may be and however tempestuous the seas around us, we must not relinquish our faith-hold of the promises of God. The Bible does not promise that the believer will have a calm passage to his desired goal. No, on the contrary, it takes for granted that tests and tribulations are to be the lot of those who are wholly committed to the will of God. What it does tell us, though, is that He will bring us safely through all the storms so that we arrive at our God-ordained destination. [59/60]
Of the many spiritual lessons to be learned from this story, I select just one, taken from Paul's words about abiding in the ship: "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved" (v.31). I hope that it is not wrongly using these [words] to lay down a spiritual principle of the need for abiding in Christ. In this connection I would say that:
1. Those who abide in Christ, though tossed about in the trials of life, are not afraid.
For them, the only safe place was in the ship. For us, the only safe place is to be 'in Christ'. This is no empty optimistic assurance to everybody that things will all come right in the end; it is a solemn call to all to be sure that by faith they are found 'in Christ' and that by His grace they choose to abide in Him. This was Paul's testimony of fearlessness to a crowd of frightened men: "I believe God. I believe Him in spite of all that is going on around. And believing, I am delivered from fear". It is our privilege to give the same testimony.
2. Those who abide in Christ, though driven to and fro, will always know where they are going.
It was not just that Paul wanted to go to Rome, though he did. The point was, however, that this was the destination which God had appointed. And just as surely as Paul was confident that he would reach Rome, so may the Christian be sure that he will arrive at his destination in glory: There is no question about that. The question is whether we will be strong in faith, giving praise to God and a clear testimony to the world when everything seems to be against us. Let us remember, when we cannot see sun, moon or stars, that darkness and light are both alike to the Lord. So shall we have "Songs in the Night". [60/ibc]
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