Here’s one example, from Acts 21:27-28: “When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, ‘Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.’”
Some of these Jews acted out of economic self-interest, but many were outraged at what they saw as violation of the laws of God. To them, the Christian evangelists were spreading heresy. They were those good people who had enough zeal to travel and fight in defense of their religion.
And their religion was the original faith, the one begun in the Garden of Eden and formalized in the covenant with Moses. These were often genuine God-followers. Yet somewhere along the line they drifted far enough from God’s revelation and prophecy that they missed the Messiah.
These Jews were enraged at the thought that Paul may have brought a Greek into the temple. They had no idea that Jesus died for exactly that purpose. Ancient Jewish law made that a capital offense. Jesus’ new rule of grace said, “There is no more Jew or Greek, just Christians.” Now, we all belong.
The riot that was stirred up in Acts 21 would be the beginning of the end for Paul. Roman soldiers would arrest him and he would never be free again. He would be transported from governor to king to, eventually, Rome. He would write some of his best work in prison, but he was finished church planting.
All of this, of course, was God’s plan. Even so, these Jews, believing they acted in defense of God, put themselves in opposition to his purpose. That God used their intransigence to his own purposes doesn’t change that fact, or exonerate them.
Like I said, it’s a scary realization.
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