Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. – Acts 26:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 24, 2018): Acts 26

Ji Seong-ho, the North Korean defector who was praised by President Trump in the President’s 2018 State of the Union address and is currently making his home in South Korea, believes that North Korea has hit squads around the world trying to end the lives of defectors like himself. With the public execution of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in 2017, the incredible idea that hit squads roam our cities has to be at least entertained as a possibility. In the world of a dictator, the easiest way to mold public opinion is to make sure that the voices of your opposition can never be heard. In North Korea, that is partially achieved by maintaining a tight control on the media. While many in North America became more familiar with the struggle of Ji Seong-ho to get out of North Korea following President Trump’s 2018 endorsement, it is almost certain that no one inside of North Korea has heard his story. North Korea’s UN mission called Mr. Ji “human scum;” what was left unsaid is that scum must be eradicated. If there is a North Korean hit list, then there is little doubt that South Korea’s Ji Seong-ho is on it, along with a number of other defectors who have refused to worship and bend to the reality presented by the North Korean leader.

In some ways, this admission of Paul is an incredible one. In his testimony in front of King Agrippa, and with the Roman Governor Festus in attendance, Paul admits several things that might be shocking to his audience. The first admission is that Paul was a man of power. That he had a vote on the disposition of prisoners and voted for their death indicated that Paul was likely a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. But only Rome had the power of life and death within the empire. The by-the-books Festus was likely shocked at this admission, even though Rome long understood that the Jews were involved in the execution of their people.

But then Paul follows up that admission with another. Paul was part of a hit squad that operated within Judea, and that tried to force confessions from Christians in order to execute them. Maybe the juiciest of Paul’s confessions is that Paul worked as an agent of Jews, not just within the boundaries of the province of Judea, but that he went into other cities within the Roman Empire in order carry out his task of killing Christians. There was no place that a Christian could run and be free of the tyranny of the Jewish ruling council. If you stood in disagreement with them, they would find you and have you put to death.

Paul was once part of this hit squad, but he had defected, and now found himself pursued by it. And now, he was exposing it to those in power, hoping that they might agree to keep him safe from his former friend’s. Paul understood that if Agrippa and Festus decided to send him back to Jerusalem, his life would be forfeit. His only hope was to be sent to Rome.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 27