When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” – Acts 28:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 21, 2015): Acts 28

According to Greek Mythology, Zeus took as his second consort the goddess Themis. Themis was the goddess of divine justice. She is often described as the “good counsel.” She is the personification natural law and divine order. In modern terms she might be considered the goddess of cause and effect. Things happen repeatedly because of the presence of Themis. When Zeus and Themis came together, they produced a daughter named Dike (Dikee). Dike became the goddess of human justice and is often pictured carrying a balance in her hands – reflecting her desire to find a balance in human relationships. Unfortunately, humans were not as easy to tame as nature, and what Themis was able to accomplish with natural order of the earth, Dike was never able to accomplish with the humanity of the earth. In the end, Dike fled for the stars resolving to only watch the corruption of the earth. But it seems that even though she had fled the earth, it was thought that sometimes she couldn’t help herself and she intervened with the happenings on the earth anyway.

Paul’s shipwreck happened on the Island of Malta (the meaning of Malta is appropriately – Refuge), an island that was well known to sailors. But apparently the shipwreck was on the wrong side of the island – the side that was normally away from commercial traffic. As a result the sailors didn’t recognize the island, and the islanders were not often visited by people from off of the island.

On this day, the islanders were amazed that the people had survived the wreck – and that would have meant that justice (Dike) had maybe smiled on them – and saved them. But when Paul survived the wreck and seemed to have been willing to work to make things better for the shipwrecked on the island, was then bitten by the viper. The people of the island believed that maybe the bulk of the people on the ship were innocent, but that Dike, who allowed the innocent people of the ship to be saved, was not willing to allow the guilty Paul to live. There could be no other explanation for the fact that Paul was apparently going to die after surviving the catastrophe.

In this, Paul would become a character like Jonah, a prophet who tried to run from God, but in the end couldn’t. Dike would catch up to him in the form of snake. Interestingly, it wasn’t the first time that a snake tried to upset the purposes of God. And it wasn’t the first time that God proved that he was bigger than a snake – or any Greek God who might be hanging around.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Colossians 1