Study Desk

When the fourteenth night came, we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, and about midnight the sailors thought they were approaching land.

They took soundings and found it to be a hundred and twenty feet deep; when they had sailed a little farther and sounded again, they found it to be ninety feet deep.

Then, fearing we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come.

They all were encouraged and took food themselves.

After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach.

But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves.

The local people showed us extraordinary kindness. They lit a fire and took us all in, since it was raining and cold.

They expected that he would begin to swell up or suddenly drop dead. After they waited a long time and saw nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

So they heaped many honors on us, and when we sailed, they gave us what we needed.

Then they said to him, “We haven’t received any letters about you from Judea. None of the brothers has come and reported or spoken anything evil about you.

For the hearts of these peoplehave grown callous,their ears are hard of hearing,and they have shut their eyes;otherwise they might see with their eyesand hear with their ears,understand with their heartand turn,and I would heal them.

For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

and the path of peace they have not known.

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.

And it will be in the place where they were told,you are not my people,there they will be called sons of the living God.

Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.

How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?