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Acts xiii. 16-41.
Paul's exhortation in synagogue of Antioch.
A | 16-21. Resumé of Israel's history. Lo-ammi periods.
B | 22. David. After own heart.
C1 | 23. A Saviour. Jesus.
D | 24, 25. Witness. John Baptist.
C2 | 26. Salvation.
E | 27-29. Fulfillment, by rulers at Jerusalem, and by death and burial.
F | 30. God raised Him from the dead.
D | 31. Witness. Seen many days.
C3 | 32. Glad tidings.
E | 32. Fulfillment, by promise.
F | 33. He hath raised up Jesus again.
B | 34-37. David. Sure mercies.
C4 | 38, 39. Forgiveness. Justification.
A | 40, 41. Beware. Lo-ammi period threatened (fulfilled at Acts xxviii.).
Some explanation will be demanded of the insertion at the opening and close of Paul's
address of the words "Lo-ammi". We have dealt with this feature in the series,
"Fundamentals of Dispensational Truth" (p.207), where it treats of the Book of Judges.
The years that Israel were in servitude were "Lo-ammi" years, and therefore not
reckoned in the divine calendar. What had already happened to Israel happened again,
when, as recorded in Acts xxviii., they once more went out into another Lo-ammi
period, which still obtains, and has already reached nearly two thousand years.
We must remember that it is quite inaccurate to teach that Paul turned from Israel as a
whole to the Gentiles as a whole, in Acts xiii. 46, for in Acts xiv. 1 we find him as
usual in the synagogue. The explanation is that the turning from the Jew at Antioch was
local and prophetic. It foreshadowed that great turning away of Acts xxviii., as we have
shown by the balance of teaching of the whole section xiii.-xxviii.
The closing verses of this witness at Antioch are:
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord;
and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region" (Acts xiii. 48, 49).
It should be noted that the A.V. has given an unfortunate turn to the meaning of the
word in translating tasso, in this verse, "ordained". The word means to set in order, and
while by no means denying the sovereign grace of God, looks also to the fact that
whereas the Jews "judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life", the Gentiles who
heard rejoiced at the message and glorified God for His grace.
We have dealt with Paul's doctrine of justification, apart from the law of Moses, in
Volume XVIII, page 83, and as this article has already reached its limits, we must refer
the reader to that article for further notes on this great subject.