Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

ship madly plunged, while great seas rolled over the deck, and the oldest sailors gave up in utter
despair, the last hope having fled, why could not that ship go down? She carried John Wesley.
21-24. “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” All are at their wits’ end, looking out every
minute to be swept in watery, winding sheets. This is an auspicious epoch. They are ready now to
listen to anybody or anything, as all resources are gone. Despair has come, and they are consequently
ready to hail the dawn of hope from any source whatever. “Paul standing up in their midst.” Though
a prisoner in chains and guarded by soldiers, he now comes to the front, takes command of the ship,
sailors, soldiers and passengers, reminding them of their unfortunate mistake in disobeying him
when they loose from Crete, thus incurring the hopeless loss of the ship and cargo. But now, to the
unutterable surprise of all, hope for dear life dawns on them. This old prisoner assures them that the
God whom he serves has come and stood over them amid the sweeping cyclone, assuring him that
he is to stand before Cæsar, and that he has given him the lives of all the people sailing with him,
two hundred and seventy-six souls, not one of whom shall perish, though the ship shall go down to
the bottom of the dark, deep sea.
25. “Wherefore, men, be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be in the manner in which
he has spoken to me.” Dr. Cullis, of Boston, one of the brightest saints and most efficient workers
in modern times, gave great notoriety to this Pauline watchword in the storm, “I believe God.” How
fortunate they were to have God’s prophet on board; otherwise none but perhaps the sailors in the
boat would have escaped a watery grave in the sinking ship.
26. In my travels we stopped about half a day at the island of Malta, the Melita here mentioned.
27. This island is not in the Adriatic Sea, but the Mediterranean, opposite the mouth of the
Adriatic, and at that time considered as belonging to it. When at midnight the sailors surmise that
they are approaching land,
28. “Sounding and finding the sea only twenty fathoms deep and then running on a short distance
and sounding again and finding it only fifteen fathoms, they know the land is nigh,
29. “And fearing lest they may fall on rough places, casting forth four anchors from the stern,
they prayed that the day might come.”
30, 31. As the sailors know the ship is lost and believe that their only hope to save their own lives
is to get away in the boat, they are in the act of launching it into the sea, at the same time pretending
that they were trying to cast anchors from the prow to help hold the ship. Paul wonderfully enjoyed
that gift of the Holy Ghost denominated “discernment of spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10).
Consequently, reading the motives and solving the stratagem of the sailors, and knowing that they
would be needed to manage the ship, he shouts out to the centurion and soldiers, “If these may not
abide in the ship you are not able to be saved.” This prophecy was verified in the manner of their
salvation, i.e., they all swam ashore, which would have been impossible if they hadn’t gotten the ship
out from the great sea-breakers into the eddy-water up there in the bay, which to this day is called
St. Paul’s Bay. Without the sailors to manage the ship, they never could have gotten there, but all
must have perished with the wreck.