Act 13:21-22 | KingComments | STEP | Paul welcomes the invitation to speak a word to the people. Surely he has a word of encouragement or exhortation, that they cannot be justified by the law, but only by faith in the Lord Jesus. Without preparation, Paul can use the opportunity offered to him to preach God’s Word. He does so in the awareness of the audience he has before him. To get some rest he motions with his hand (cf. ). Then he starts his speech. The Israelites are addressed as “men of Israel” and the proselytes as “you who fear God”. Paul begins by showing that Israel was God’s chosen people. He reminds his audience of their sojourning – rather than their slavery – in Egypt and how God led them out of it. He presents both the choice of the fathers, who were idolaters, and the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, which they did not ask for, as acts of God’s sovereign grace. Throughout his speech, he always points to those gracious acts of God with His people and not to their unfaithfulness and what they had deserved on the basis of the law. This is evident when he presents to them the care of God which they have enjoyed in the wilderness for forty years. He is concerned with the side of Divine grace and not with the continual failure of the people in the wilderness. According to the law, they would have perished. He points to that same grace, when he recalls how God destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan to be able to give them that land. They did not get the land because they deserved it ( ). God did not just give that land either, but gave it to them as an inheritance, as a land that He purposed especially for them and which they received from Him as their real possession. The period in which God has been involved with His people in this way is about four hundred and fifty years. That is the sum of four hundred years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness and ten years of conquest of the land. When they arrived in the land, God gave them judges. These judges were always given by Him in His grace as a result of their calling to Him. That this calling to God was again the result of oppression by enemies that God had brought upon them because of their unfaithfulness, Paul leaves aside. The only judge who Paul mentions is the last one God gave, Samuel. Samuel is a special proof of God’s grace. God gave him without being asked for by the people. When Paul then presents Saul as the king whom the people asked for, he also does so without saying anything about God’s thoughts on this request of the people. He leaves it to his listeners to think about the fact that this king persecuted the man after God’s heart. Listening to a preaching from the Word requires the listeners to think about it and should not be a mere absorption of words. As we listen, we must ask ourselves: What does it mean to me? Here is another thing we do not read in the Old Testament and that is that Saul was king for forty years.

‏ Acts 13:21-22

Period From the Fathers to Saul

Paul welcomes the invitation to speak a word to the people. Surely he has a word of encouragement or exhortation, that they cannot be justified by the law, but only by faith in the Lord Jesus. Without preparation, Paul can use the opportunity offered to him to preach God’s Word. He does so in the awareness of the audience he has before him. To get some rest he motions with his hand (cf. Acts 12:17). Then he starts his speech.

The Israelites are addressed as “men of Israel” and the proselytes as “you who fear God”. Paul begins by showing that Israel was God’s chosen people. He reminds his audience of their sojourning – rather than their slavery – in Egypt and how God led them out of it. He presents both the choice of the fathers, who were idolaters, and the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, which they did not ask for, as acts of God’s sovereign grace.

Throughout his speech, he always points to those gracious acts of God with His people and not to their unfaithfulness and what they had deserved on the basis of the law. This is evident when he presents to them the care of God which they have enjoyed in the wilderness for forty years. He is concerned with the side of Divine grace and not with the continual failure of the people in the wilderness. According to the law, they would have perished.

He points to that same grace, when he recalls how God destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan to be able to give them that land. They did not get the land because they deserved it (Deu 9:4). God did not just give that land either, but gave it to them as an inheritance, as a land that He purposed especially for them and which they received from Him as their real possession. The period in which God has been involved with His people in this way is about four hundred and fifty years. That is the sum of four hundred years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness and ten years of conquest of the land.

When they arrived in the land, God gave them judges. These judges were always given by Him in His grace as a result of their calling to Him. That this calling to God was again the result of oppression by enemies that God had brought upon them because of their unfaithfulness, Paul leaves aside. The only judge who Paul mentions is the last one God gave, Samuel. Samuel is a special proof of God’s grace. God gave him without being asked for by the people.

When Paul then presents Saul as the king whom the people asked for, he also does so without saying anything about God’s thoughts on this request of the people. He leaves it to his listeners to think about the fact that this king persecuted the man after God’s heart. Listening to a preaching from the Word requires the listeners to think about it and should not be a mere absorption of words. As we listen, we must ask ourselves: What does it mean to me?

Here is another thing we do not read in the Old Testament and that is that Saul was king for forty years.

Period From David to the Lord Jesus

By noticing that God “removed” him, Paul points out, veiled, that Saul was not the king after God’s heart. Paul’s focus in his speech is on David. He wants to talk about him because through David he wants to point to the Lord Jesus, the Man after God’s heart. With the election of David, God begins a completely different relationship with His people than before through the judges and the first king, Saul. Paul has told all the above to show how God saved His people again and again on the basis of sovereign grace. At the same time he makes it clear to his audience that he is not a modernist, but someone who brings the ‘old teaching’.

From David the transition to the Lord Jesus is quickly made. This brings Paul to his actual subject. After all, Israel expected the Messiah and that expectation was linked to the house of David. The Messiah is the Son of David, born out of the house of David. Paul holds up to his audience that that promised Son of David was brought by God according to the promise to Israel in the Person of Jesus. The promise was made to David in the first place, but also to the whole people. He was brought by God to His people as a Savior. In that Name we hear the ‘salvation’.

Paul mentions the predecessor of the Messiah, John, because they also knew John here. He also points to John’s preaching of the baptism of repentance for the whole people of Israel. His audience here in the Pisidian Antioch also belongs to that. By quoting the contents of John’s preaching, he already gives his hearers the indication of the need for conversion. Then he lets John speak. After completing his task, i.e. shortly before his imprisonment, John rejected all honor for himself and pointed to Him Who is worthy of all the honor, from him and everyone, for He surpasses all and everyone.