Acts 16:22-40 Arrest, Jail, and broken chains

Acts 16:22-24 Paul and Silas are beaten and imprisoned. The crowds were evidently incited by the owners of the slave girl. The judges went along with the crowd, as evidently due process was not a consideration in those days. Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and then thrown in prison; the jailer fastened their feet in stocks in response to directions from the magistrates. And all this in response to a supernatural deliverance of a slave girl from an evil spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit. But the civil authorities had no concept of the futility of opposing God, as Gamaliel had. (Acts 5:34-39)

Acts 16:25-26 An earthquake frees them from their chains. Under the circumstances, singing praises to God seems rather a stretch. Perhaps it was panache, but more likely they were so empowered by the Holy Spirit that their circumstances seemed unimportant. Usually when we worship God in song we find ourselves uplifted, but seldom do we see physical manifestations of God's power. But in this case Paul and Silas did. All the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. This closely parallel's Peter's deliverance, except that no earthquake was reported in that case. (Acts 12:7-10) And another difference, Paul and Silas did not immediately leave when their chains were broken. Under the circumstances, that also seems counter-cultural, but perhaps the Holy Spirit had spoken to them and told them that God's glory would be revealed if they stayed. We don't know how many other prisoners' chains were also broken.

          Metaphorically, this is exactly the way the God works in the lives of people today. That is, His servants endure great hardship and are mistreated, and yet, trusting in Him their chains are broken. Slavery to sin possibly has a greater impact on our lives than physical chains. The power of God to free His people from sin is just as great, even though the chains are invisible. But the results of God's deliverance are usually evident in the physical realm.

Acts 16:27-34 The Philippian jailer and his whole household are saved. The reaction of the jailer is that he would rather die at his own hand than face Roman punishment for allowing prisoners to escape. Most likely it would be less painful. Paul obviously knew this was the likely response, hence his words to the jailer. The jailer, at least, recognized the fingerprints of God, and fell down at Paul's feet. Paul would have refused to accept worship, but did exactly what he went on the trip to do, presented the gospel. In this case a very abbreviated form of the gospel. The jailer and his whole household were immediately baptized (in the middle of the night, apparently).

Acts 16:35-40 The city officials have egg on their face and ask Paul and Silas to leave. The magistrates send the police to tell the jailer to release the prisoners. Paul now trades on his Roman citizenship to make a point. Or perhaps he is trying to buy some protection for those who turned to Christ and would be remaining in Philippi, by establishing a legal precedent that Christians could not be persecuted with impunity. He manipulated the circumstances to this end. The local officials, the DA's, judges, and police, realized that their failure to follow Roman protocol had been exposed as having been inflicted on a Roman citizen, which could have caused them great difficulties with higher authorities. Fortunately for their sakes, Paul was willing to leave. Perhaps this was an early form of deterrence; an understanding between rivals that they needed to behave within certain limits to avoid mutual annihilation. That wasn't actually the case, as Paul was holding the God-card, but in human terms this may have been Paul's strategy.

          One hopes that Paul would have connected the jailer's household to Lydia's household before leaving town. The text only says that he and Silas returned to Lydia's house and encouraged them before leaving town. Having seen Paul arrested, beaten, and imprisoned, it would have been unnatural if Lydia and her household had not been a little afraid. So Paul went to encourage them that God was sovereign and He could take care of His children, even in adverse circumstances.