On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.
But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land. And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene. And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
Comment: Picture in your mind’s eye this setting in an upper room, lit with many smoking candles. It’s a Sunday, and it commences with the breaking of bread, which could mean just a bit of supper to start the evening off, but I suspect means that they commemorated the Lord’s supper, the eucharist or whatever they called it in the early church. Paul was a great man. God had used him greatly to establish the church in this part of the world. He was about to leave for Jerusalem and possibly would never be this way again. So there would have been lots of issues to be raised and discussed as Jews became believers and pagans had an enormous change in values and life-style. Poor Eutychus, seated in the window probably after a hard days work, with the room full of smoke and stuffy air fell deeply to sleep and fell from the third level to his death. Was he dead? It reads as if he was and Paul, casually, brought him back to life, and went on talking until the sun got up and bade them to get back to their daily duties! With the young man alive, most of the team got on a boat to head along to Miletus via Assos. Paul joined the ship at Assos, and they headed for Miletus, where we will join them tomorrow.
Prayer: Thank You, Father, that we see miracles sometimes; help us to appreciate the miracles that we don’t see but are happening around us all the time.
As I read it! 