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

32. “Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let it fall out” [into the sea]. This settled
the matter; no possible means now of getting away from the ship.
33-37. While lying at anchor from midnight till day, Paul has them all at his command. God has
brought him to the front and given him complete audience and obedience of all on board, sailors,
soldiers and voyagers. He now exhorts them all to eat, as they have fasted fourteen days and nights.
No wonder they did not eat. Amid such awful tossing the stomach is incompetent to digest food.
Hence universal nausea prevails. Besides, if you saw death looking you straight in the face you
would not eat. By this time they are wonderfully cheered up, believing Paul, who assures them that
not a hair of their head shall perish, as his God has given him all of his fellow travelers. So Paul
encourages them all now to eat, breaking bread and giving thanks to his God in presence of the entire
heathen crowd. He begins to eat, and all the balance joyfully follow his example.
38. “And being regaled with the food, they continued to lighten the ship, casting out their wheat
into the sea.” It was absolutely necessary to make the ship as light as possible so they could run it
near enough to the shore for them to make their escape. Hence it was impossible to save the wheat
or anything else on board. Paul has no trouble with them. The immediate presence of death, fourteen
days and nights, has so wrought upon them that they are glad to let everything perish, at the same
time unutterably delighted with dear life.
39. At day dawn, behold! the first land they have seen in two weeks bursts upon their delectable
vision. No one on board identifies it. However, “they discover a certain bay having a shore into
which they mutually agreed if possible to thrust out the ship.
40. “Knocking off the anchors they left them in the sea; at the same time loosing the bands of the
rudders and raising up the main sail for the wind, they made toward the shore.
41. “And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow indeed
being broken, remained motionless, and the stern was torn off by the violence of the waves.
42. “It was the counsel of the soldiers that they may kill the prisoners lest some one, outswimming
them, may escape.” Roman law was awfully rigid with the guards, taking their lives as
a substitute in case they permitted prisoners to escape. They now saw that it would be impossible
for them to manage the prisoners in the water, as everyone would have to swim for his life and very
probably some of the prisoners would prove more rapid swimmers than the soldiers, thus excelling
them in the swimming match, reaching the land first and making their escape.
43. “But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, prohibited them from the counsel, and commanded
those who were able to swim, first casting themselves overboard, to go out to the land,
44. “And the rest, some on planks and others on certain pieces from the ship; and it thus came
to pass that all arrived safe to the land.” This deliverance is one of the greatest miracles recorded
in the New Testament, illustrating the immortality of God’s saints till their work is done, as in the
case of Paul, and the infinite value of the Lord’s saints to other people, as in case of all the balance,