After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, and thus they were driven along. Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. And on the third day they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on some island.”
Comment: Huge Waves; Roaring winds; Vomiting passengers; A sea of fear! Huge ropes were somehow stretched under the boat to hold it together, hopefully but not assuredly; Days of darkness and uncertainty! But one voice rises above the roaring winds. ‘You should have listened to me but stop this panic – God has got through to me. God says that I have to stand before Caesar, God says that if you do what I say not one of us will die. Take heart, it’s going to be tough, we’ll be ship-wrecked, but truly God says that if you do what I tell you none will die!’ Paul is heard, but will they listen?
Prayer: Without You, all sometimes seems hopeless, Father! But my heart cries out, ‘You are the best’!
As I read it! 