Paul the apostle wrote to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:24): Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. That’s a major theme of the last section of the book of Acts, Chapters 23-28. After Paul’s testimony of Jesus before the Jews in Jerusalem caused an uproar – twice – the Lord Jesus appeared to the apostle and said:
Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also (Acts 23:11)
And the Lord brought it to pass. Already, He had delivered Paul twice in the Jerusalem bedlam – once from a scourging by a Roman commander when Paul declared that he was a citizen of the empire (Acts 22:25-29); and a second time when the same commander rescued the apostle from a Jewish mob who was about to rush upon him (Acts 23:10). The commander, a man named Claudius Lysias, delivered Paul yet again from a conspiracy by some Jews to take Paul’s life (Acts 23:11-24).
In the succeeding years, several local Roman rulers in Palestine continued to provide Paul protection, and approved his request to be tried by the Emperor in Rome, even though they agreed among themselves that he could have been set free. Finally, God supernaturally protected the apostle and his traveling companions on a very dangerous trip by sea to Rome. More than once, the ship’s crew was certain they would all lose their lives by storms, hunger, or other hardship. But as Paul would write near the end of his life of his many sufferings and persecutions to Timothy (2 Tim. 3:10-11): out of them all the Lord delivered me!
God will keep every promise of His word to us. He is faithful! Things that are obstacles to us are not obstacles to Him, but opportunities for Him to show His power and faithfulness to His word, to us, and to a watching world. Our part: to believe Him and obey Him.