And when the fourteenth night was come, we being driven about in Adria, towards the middle of the night the sailors supposed that some land neared them,
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On the fourteenth night of the storm the ship is still drifting in the dark. There is no sun or star to steer by. Then, near midnight, the crew begin to think land is close. Two questions follow. Where was this sea called Adria? And who was steering a ship that no one on board could control?
Fourteen days without relief
The count of days is not just a date. It measures what the passengers had already suffered.
This heavy gale continued for fourteen days and nights without a break. During that time their sufferings must have been great beyond description.
Survival was not the likely outcome.
The ordeal continued until the fourteenth night. It was almost a miracle that all of them survived it.
What "Adria" meant
The name has been used to argue that Paul could not have landed at Malta, since Malta lies outside the modern Adriatic. The objection rests on reading an old name with a new map.
There is no real difficulty with "the Adriatic" in verse 27. The name was often used in a much wider sense than for the sea between Greece and Italy, as Ptolemy and Pausanias show. Modern usage limits the Adriatic to the gulf only. So there is no reason here to think of a different Melita (that is, Melida) rather than Malta, as it is usually understood.
How the crew knew land was near
No one could see anything. The first clue came through their ears.
But where was the island, and what was its name? No one on board knew then, and the angel had not said. At midnight, however — and that night was a dark one — the trained ears of the sailors detected that land was near. They very likely heard the noise of distant breakers. Yet no one could see what the waves were crashing against. Were Paul's words really coming true?
A drifting ship, precisely placed
A ship blown wherever the wind takes it looks like the opposite of guidance. By the end of the night, that drift has a destination.
They had lost all control of their vessel on the open sea, far from land. For many days neither sun nor stars appeared. Yet God graciously guided the ship to the first land in front of them... the breakers ahead and the soundings taken had warned the sailors to anchor, by God's providence, at just the spot they did. But would the anchors hold? They did... Shall we not admit the hand of God in all this? An angel of God visited the ship. The eye of God rested continuously on it. The hand of God safely guided it.
The one man at rest
Shallow water and the sound of breakers meant rocks nearby. One man on board was not afraid.
The night was dark and stormy. The battered vessel was in danger of going down at her anchors, or of being smashed to pieces on the rocky shore. But there was one on board who was perfectly happy through it all. The state of the ship, the shallow water, the alarming sound of the breakers, held no terror for him. He was happy in the Lord, and in full communion with His very thoughts and purposes. This is the Christian's place in the middle of every storm, though few rise to it. Faith alone can reach it.
Instruments that fail, a word that does not
By that night the ship no longer looked to its captain and crew for direction.
Every eye turns to Paul the prisoner — the man of faith — the man who believes and acts according to the revelation of God. Circumstances often mislead when we look to them for direction. The word of God is our only sure guide, in fair weather or foul.
Summary
- Drift. Fourteen days and nights of gale left the ship out of control in a sea then called Adria — a name that once covered far more water than today's Adriatic, so Malta fits.
- Drift guided. With no sun or stars to steer by, God brought the vessel to the exact stretch of coast where the anchors would hold.
- Dark before dawn. No one could see land; trained ears caught the breakers, and the soundings confirmed what Paul had already been told.
- At rest. One man on board was perfectly happy through that night, in full communion with God's thoughts — the Christian's place in every storm.
- Direction. Circumstances misled the crew for two weeks; the word of God was the only reliable guide, in fair weather and foul.