they, being aware of it, fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding country,
Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Iconium when word reached them of a plot: Jews, Gentiles and the city rulers meant to stone them. They slipped quietly away, and their escape raises a question every servant of God faces: when is leaving right, and what happens to the work you leave behind?
The apostles learned of the plot before anyone acted on it. One commentator argues that no mob had yet formed. What reached them was a settled plan.
But the intent of violence, which had leaked out, brought the testimony to a close: the word here seems to mean a plan or an attempt, not an actual "assault"... If there had been a real rush, the words "becoming aware of" would make little sense. Nobody could doubt a rush, and it would have made escape hard. If they learned of a plan to abuse and stone them, they judged it wise to leave at once. That plan was so widely formed that it carried along Gentiles and Jews with their rulers. So they fled, and there they carried on their gospel work.
Leaving was not panic. It followed an instruction the Lord had given long before, and Paul kept to it.
He had also laid down a general principle long before: "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next" (Matthew 10:23). Paul and his companions clearly carried out that principle later, even to shaking the dust off their feet (Acts 14:6; Acts 17:10-14).
Their retreat was not heroism. One commentator calls it something better.
So they bowed to the storm. Nothing at all of what men call heroism marked the apostles. There was something far better — the simplicity of grace. Patience is the true wisdom, but only God can give it.
The destination was not random. Iconium and these two towns sat under different rulers. Crossing that line put the apostles beyond the reach of the officials who had joined the plot.
Like Iconium, Lystra and Derbe lay in the old province of Lycaonia. By this time that province had several different governments. Iconium, as we have said, was under a tetrarch, a minor local ruler. Lystra and Derbe had belonged since AD 37 to the territory of Antiochus IV, King of Commagene. This explains why the historian says they fled to Lystra and Derbe. A different power ruled these two cities. Lystra lay about forty miles from Iconium and about twenty miles from Derbe.
The danger pushed them into new ground. At Lystra the gospel met something it had not met before.
During this first mission among the Gentiles, a great and blessed work was done... At Lystra, Christianity met paganism for the first time. But in every place the gospel triumphs, and Paul's various gifts as a workman appear in the most blessed way. He addressed Jews who knew the Scriptures, ignorant barbarians, cultivated Greeks, and enraged mobs. In every case he proves himself a chosen vessel, fitted by God for his great work.
Here a pattern begins. Violence moves the preachers on, and then God brings them back.
Outrage and violence neither hinder the work nor weaken the courage of the servants. When the Lord so wills it, they return in peace to the very places from which they have been driven. It is beautiful to see the calm superiority of faith over the violence of man, and how God guides the heart of His servants. They submit to violence, or avoid it if possible; but if the work needs it, God opens the door, and the labourers are there with it again.
In Lystra, one of the towns they fled to, Paul nearly died. Yet lasting fruit remained there.
Paul and Barnabas fled there from Iconium, and there cured a cripple... Soon afterwards, however, the Jews stirred up the people, who stoned Paul and left him for dead. The labours of the apostles were not in vain; an assembly of saints was gathered there. Paul visited it again on his second missionary journey. There he met Timothy and attached him to his mission.
- Warned — the apostles heard of the plot to stone them before it broke. They escaped a settled plan, not yet a mob.
- Guided — their flight was obedience, not nerves. The Lord had told His own to move to the next town when persecuted.
- Placed — Lystra and Derbe lay under a different ruler from Iconium. That is why those two towns made the safe refuge.
- Preaching — the move did not pause the work. They carried the gospel into the surrounding country, and at Lystra it met open idol-worship for the first time.
- Fruit — that forced move produced a healed cripple, a stoning Paul survived, an assembly of believers, and young Timothy.
and there they were announcing the glad tidings.
A plot to stone them drove Paul and Barnabas out of Iconium into new country. The one thing recorded about their arrival is that they kept preaching, which raises two questions: was running away right, and what does their preaching mean?
Their escape was not blind panic. One writer sees them acting on instructions the Lord had already given His followers. The move took them into wilder country:
The city was divided. At last a determined attack was coming — Jews and Gentiles together would try to stone them. So, acting on the Lord's words to the disciples, they flee to Lystra and Derbe, in the wilder parts of Lycaonia. There they pursue their work.
Some readers assume a bold servant of Christ should stand his ground and accept whatever comes. William Kelly answers that instinct, and points to the Lord's own word to His servants:
Faith never teaches one to court danger and difficulty, but to walk the path of Christ in peace and thankfulness. The Lord has not called His servants to desert it. I dare say some of us have been struck by this: the Lord told them to flee to another city when one city persecuted them. This is surely not courting martyrdom, but the very opposite.
They acted on news that had leaked out. Kelly weighs the wording of the previous verse and finds a plot that had come to light, not a mob already in the streets:
If they got word of a plan to attack and stone them, they judged it wise to leave at once. The plan was so widely formed that it carried along Gentiles and Jews with their rulers. So they fled to the cities of Lycaonia — Lystra, Derbe and the country around — and there they went on with their gospel work.
The hostility that emptied Iconium of its preachers filled other towns with them. Leslie Grant sees two reasons why leaving was right — one practical, one much larger:
This was the wise course. Once violence starts, it does not stop soon, and it would have affected many more than the apostles. There is more. Now that a testimony to Christ stood in Iconium, the Lord uses persecution to send His servants to other places to proclaim His name.
The same thing had happened earlier in Acts. One writer draws out the encouragement:
The devil let his fury loose on the believers in Jerusalem, hoping to stamp out the name of Christ for good. He only drove the gospel into a wider field. God's purpose was fulfilled in this: the gospel reached the Gentiles. So God makes the wrath of the devil and of men praise Him.
Some take the word for preaching the gospel in this verse as proof of formal appointment. One writer tests that claim against the way Scripture uses the two main words for preaching:
The other word means to proclaim as a herald. It has no connection at all with office and authority, or with regular organised congregations. Neither has the word for preaching good news. This herald word is used of the Lord and the apostles, and just as freely of others too. So Mark 5:20 uses it of the man set free from demons, and Philippians 1:15 of the brothers at Rome — some of them preaching Christ out of envy and strife, some out of goodwill.
The towns they reached were not familiar ground. One writer describes what kind of place Lycaonia was:
In Acts 14:8-18 we find ourselves among the people of a district that was shrouded in pagan darkness. The solemn fact lies plainly on the surface. In heathen Lycaonia God was unknown.
The preaching in these towns met violence, but it left something behind:
Soon afterwards, however, the Jews stirred up the people, and they stoned Paul and left him for dead. The work of the apostles was not in vain; an assembly of believers came together there. Paul visited the city again on his second missionary journey, and there he met Timothy and attached him to his mission.
- Threat. News of a planned stoning reached them, and they judged it wise to leave at once.
- Flight. They left because the Lord had told them to, not out of fear. Faith walks Christ's path; it does not go looking for danger.
- Field. The enemy drove them out. God used it to send His servants where no one had heard His name.
- Word. Preaching was not the property of an official class. Scripture uses these words of the Lord, of apostles, and of ordinary believers alike.
- Fruit. The work in that dark ground bore fruit: an assembly of believers formed, and Timothy came out of it.