“Provide horses for Paul to ride, and get him safely to Governor Felix.”
Acts 23:24 (NLT)
This commander continues to fascinate me. Over and over again, God keeps positioning him between Paul and destruction. He saved him from being beaten to death in the street. He gave him an opportunity to preach. He protected him from death threats, spared him from a whipping, and rescued him from being torn apart by the division between the Sadducees and Pharisees. But now the commander is assembling a small army to protect Paul from an assassination plan.
There is no hint that this commander is a believer, yet God keeps using him to protect His messenger. God is using an unbeliever to make the way for Paul’s mission and assignment to be successful. The commander is sacrificing resources, ordering multitudes, and sending Paul into another city almost like he is in protective custody.
Paul did not ask, beg, plead, pray, or possibly even consider that God could use this method, this process, these people, and the commander’s voice to get him closer to Rome. But Jesus had already told Paul in Acts 23:11 that he had to preach the good news there. So God provided an army, special favor, and horses to get Paul where He wanted him to go, safely, quickly, and more easily than Paul could have gone on his own. Do you want to just walk to your next assignment alone? Or are you open to God sending an army and a personal horse for you to get where He wants you to go?
That may not seem practical, possible, or even a potential in the slightest bit… But God! This kind of provision did not mean Paul avoided hardship. He still had to trust God through a beating, death threats, a potential whipping, being torn apart, and an assassination plan. God’s favor came in the middle of obedience, not instead of opposition. When we say yes to the Lord and do what He asks of us, strange and unfathomable favor will show up in the journey. God does not need us to come up with the plan. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. His will will be done. Do you trust God to provide what is needed to accomplish the plans He has given you?