Turning Left: Clearly The Right Decision

This reflection follows on the heels of a prior reflection on God's rather pointed insistence that Paul "Turn Left." I ended the prior reflection with my shoulders shrugged and my hands in the air. Like this: \_(ツ)_/ And for several days, that's where I thought the matter ended. But as I continued to read, I discovered today a twist I had not considered before. Let's return to that map I shared on the last pass...

As the map shows quite clearly, this "Turn Left" decision took Paul on to Troas instead of Asia. Guess who was waiting there in Troas? Nobody important. Just Luke, the man who authored the book of Acts that I'm now reading.

Yes, I'd known that there was a turning point in the book of Acts, where Luke suddenly starts pointedly using the phrase "we". The first time he does so?

Acts 16:6-10
Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

It feels quite strange to find myself using the exact same map and exact same passage from scripture, just a few days later, and this time seeing a connection there that I never noticed before. I find myself imagining Luke's growing awareness of the significance of the events surrounding Paul's first pass through Troas.

I myself have a special friend that God brought into my life by a set of bizarre circumstances. It was immediately clear that God's action had brought us together, but only as the friendship continued to grow did I more fully appreciate how very much came from a very small beginning. (Irony of ironies... this dear friend I speak of hails from Istanbul, Turkey. I met *my* friend by turning right where Paul turned left.)

Returning to Luke, I have to imagine that a few years passed before he began to begin to understand how very much had blossomed out of a seemingly small decision. If Paul had turned right, their lives would not have intertwined as they did. Or perhaps at all. I used the word began for a reason, and it's too generous by half. Luke could not possibly have begun to understand how his writings would impact the world after they took their rightful places in the new Testament.

If. Mystery.

But to reduce the answer to our question down to one variable is surely too simplistic. I don't think God was thinking only of Luke in the midst of all this. My 2 cents say that God was also focusing Paul in on a particular piece of geography, the purpose being to strengthen and build the base of God's church in Macedonia. Asia would have to wait. That is wild speculation, to be sure, however I do note the confluence of these two threads (Luke and the strengthening of the Macedonian church) in the passages that follow.

(What a debt of gratitude I owe to the countless Bible scholars who have sifted all this stuff before! My Bible commentaries have been a great help to me, today.)

So why do I see these two thoughts coming together seamlessly? Well, note first that Paul met Luke at Troas, but left him in Philippi. I won't get into the passages that make this conclusion clear, but this is the general consensus view, and it leads us to to the $64,000 question: When does Paul meet Luke again? Most pointedly (to me, anyway), he does so on a return journey described repeatedly as one motivated by Paul's desire to strengthen the churches he had planted on the prior pass.

Acts 18:23
After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

As if to complicate the time/space continuum even further, Paul's decision to return to Jerusalem (Acts 19:21) is delayed by a riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41) which leads him to instead go where?

Acts 20:1
When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia.

Macedonia. Isn't that where the man in the vision asked Paul to come in the first place? Am I reading too much into this? Let's keep reading.

Acts 20:2-6
He traveled through that area [Macedonia], speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

Wow, I've never felt such a need to bold different sections in a tight passage of scripture, all to track the interactions of four distinct entities: Paul, The Church, Macedonia, and Luke. Let's unpack again, taking it from the top.

A riot in Ephesus seemingly changes Paul's plans. He decides to encourage the churches he has planted where? Macedonia.

After three months in Greece, Paul prepares to return to Syria by sea, but upon discovering a plot he instead heads where? Macedonia.

And, having abandoned his original plans to return by sea, who does Paul meet up with (yet again) in Troas? Luke.

The outrageously bizarre circumstances that bring Paul and Luke together in two different cities on two separate occasions bring to mind two quotes from slightly more contemporary sources. For fans of the play Hamilton we have this: "We keep meeting!" Follow that up with this observation from the James Bond movie Goldfinger. After meeting James Bond for the third time, the evil mastermind Auric Goldfinger comments, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."

Paul has certainly been facing enemy action, too, but the highly ironic twist in this story is that the enemy is not itself Macedonia, nor is the enemy even from Macedonia. But enemy action keeps driving Paul to Macedonia. And when he gets there, he keeps meeting Luke. As can be seen in the below image, Paul ends up passing through Macedonia twice on this journey, the second pass being the one in which Luke joins Paul in a partnership that continues through to the very end of the book of Acts. Spare a thought for Paul's enemies who unwittingly help him to not merely strengthen the nascent Macedonian Church but also to reconnect with Luke.

If one thing is clear from all that we are reading, it's that God has none-too-subtly pinned Paul to a prescribed route, accomplishing the task by means of both angels and devils alike along the way.

A parting thought. I entertained a number of conjectures in this reflection, but there are also enough facts to, I hope, leave us encouraged. In particular, having recently myself suffered a setback at the hands of an evildoer, I find it mightily encouraging to see how events that were setbacks for Paul were not setbacks for God. In Paul's life God used evil people with evil intentions to accomplish good for Paul, for the Church, and for Luke.

And, eventually, for us! We are, after all, the recipients of Luke's gospel account as well as his account of the early church, neither of which we'd have likely ever seen if God had not used the agents of both heaven and hell to get Paul to Turn Left.