Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the commander came near and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and he asked who he was and what he had done.
Acts 21:31-33
We saw last time (v.30) that the religionists who hated Jesus, and therefore Paul who was an ambassador of Jesus, used force, dragging him out of the temple. Now in (v.31) we see just how forceful they intended to be. They were preparing to kill Paul! The Baker New Testament Commentary explains it this way:
Paul was in danger of losing his life, for he had no recourse to legal action. Anyone accused of defiling the temple could be killed instantly, without benefit of trial. The mob could have dragged Paul outside the city and stoned him to death, as they did Stephen (Acts 7:58). But they had no patience and, as Luke reports, already were trying to kill Paul.
God used the Roman soldiers who were present to restore order. Don’t miss that it is the responsibility of civil authorities to maintain law and order—something about which our deteriorating society could use a refresher course!
It is also interesting to note that the leader of these Roman soldiers (the Chief Captain) demanded to know who Paul was and what he had done to rile the crowd. Like Sgt. Joe Gannon in “Dragnet,” he wanted “just the facts”!
Once again, a lesson on how civil authorities are to handle civil unrest. Stop the chaos and get the facts. Sadly in our day, rioting is seldom stopped and facts are replaced with political narratives, usually defending the law breakers and blaming the police. As godless as Rome and Roman authorities were, to our shame, we could learn from them.
Praise God that the authorities were there to rescue Paul from the blood-thirsty mob!
One last irony. Though the Roman authorities rescued Paul this time, he was eventually executed—by Roman civil authorities. Proof that all civil authorities get it wrong at times.