Sometimes It's a Basket

Paul the apostle was known for performing great miraculous works. He heals many, he cast out demons, he established churches, he survived beatings imprisonments and riots.

The supernatural hand of God was upon him in many ways. If there was something supernatural to experience, Paul experienced it. What a great life that must've been!

But that's not all that Paul got.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. (2 Corinthians 11:24-27 ESV)

This is why Paul can say that he bore in his body the marks the Lord Jesus. He had the scars and the wounds to prove his devotion.

But then he shares this funny story:

At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands. (2 Corinthians 11:32, 33 ESV)

Sometimes God supernaturally delivers you as Peter was supernaturally delivered from prison, and sometimes God uses people to stuff in a basket and let you down through a window. What matters God delivers, but the fact that he does deliver.

But the point Paul is making is that boasting is senseless. God is the one who makes us what we are, why then do we boast? The Corinthians had lost sight of this and had fallen for the impressive self-promotion of the Judaizers. Paul is saying its easy to boast of who you are but it's actually silly, since sometime God's saving ways are impressive and other times they are simple-minded as a make-shift basket elevator.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (2 Corinthians 11:30 ESV)

Take for instance Shadrach, Meshach and Abed Negi confidently believing that no matter what, whether by burning in the flames or by coming out of them alive God would deliver them from Nebuchadnezzar's hand.

Had they died, God would have delivered them through death. As it was, God miraculously delivered them in life. The point is, God did it and would have done it.

So stop listening to those who boast. Boasting is nothing as God is the source of everything. 

Prayer:

Father I want to be faithful with what you have assigned to me. I want to walk and faithfulness here and now for as long as you want me here and now. Help me to trust you in every situation that I am faced with.