³But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. ⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, “Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” ⁵However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. ⁶But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

Paul was never a man to avoid work. While possibly the prisoners were forced into the menial work of stoking the fire, Paul was accustomed to serving others (see Acts 20:34–35), and probably did so willingly. In this case, his service came at an unusual price, a viper’s bite.

Some commentaries go to great lengths describing the fears, remedies, and cultic beliefs about snakes and their often fatal danger to humans. Indeed, even our Scriptures present Satan in serpentine form (see Gen. 3:1, 2 Cor. 11:3). Whether a spiritual connection is to be made, Luke doesn’t explicitly say. What we do know is that Paul treated it as a mere inconvenience to be shrugged off with no great fanfare. It was not that he was ignorant of what happened, for the viper had clearly latched on to him; he was well-traveled enough to have recognized it for what it was.

The incident made a remarkable impression on the locals: their quick judgment followed their astonishment. At first, they concluded that Paul must be a murderer. Often in the run of daily life, people make quick judgments of others’ character and state by imbuing natural events with spiritual significance. Disaster and misfortune meant the gods were not pleased with a person. The locals then determined Paul’s presumed sin had its just deserts. No objection can persuade otherwise those who make such judgments.

However, the fact that Paul survived the viper bite with no ill effects left them confused. In their experience and common understanding of things, by all rights he should have perished. But when he didn’t, only one recourse remained: to recognize divinity was present in their midst. That was true, but that divinity was not Paul, but Paul’s God.

God always keeps His word. No storm, no danger of drowning, no venomous snake was going keep Paul from testifying in Rome to the Lord’s grace. We can rest assured that while God’s protection does not always mean the absence of difficulties, He will always see us through to fulfill His will.

Lord, I believe that the difficulties in my life will not hinder Your will in me.