Ever since Paul’s fall from the horse near Damascus, during his encounter with the Lord, we read no more of his riding a horse until this present event. Now, he rode a horse forcibly in the midst of the night, surrounded by seventy horsemen and two hundred foot soldiers, guarding him from the front and rear. This scene indicates war, attack, and dangers. The people in Palestine were so displeased with Roman rule that the Romans expected a popular tumult to break out before long. Such a revolution actually took place in A.D. 69- 70, resulting in a consuming and tearing of the Jewish people, who subsequently became dispersed, homelessly wandering the world throughout two thousand years.
Paul arrived in Caesarea after two days, under the protection of the seventy horsemen, who handed him over to the governor along with the letter of the commander, which explained that he, the prisoner, was a Roman citizen. This statement turned the situation upside down, for the Jews had attempted to kill a Roman citizen, and consequently justified the interference of the commander, who had sent such a great number of soldiers to keep the prisoner.
In his letter the commander also stated that Paul was not a criminal at all, and that he had done nothing to act against the law. He found no reason to bind him or to condemn him to death, since the accusation against him had to do with matters relating to Jewish religious law, questions originating from the differences of understanding regarding the law and the prophets. Such problems often create hatred and spite deep in the heart. As a result, the commander learned of the conspiracy contrived by forty men plotting to kill Paul. He had, therefore, sent both the plaintiffs and the defendant in haste to the governor for him to deal with the matter in Caesarea, a Roman city distinguished for its organization and good order, and far away from Jerusalem, the center of Jewish culture, filled with religious sentiments and agitation.
When Felix, the governor, heard that Paul was from Tarsus of Cilicia, he decided to treat the matter immediately, for no one coming from the distant Tarsus would know the mysteries of Jewish laws and customs. He imprisoned Paul in the stately palace of King Herod, where the governor himself resided. It is probable that they placed Paul first into the vault of the palace under heavy guard, or in the courtyard, so that the forty Jerusalem rebels might not be able to sneak in to the respectable apostle.
Such was the accomplishment of the request Paul had written to the Romans, begging them to strive together with him in prayers to God for him, that he might be delivered from those in Judea who did not believe, and that his service for Jerusalem might be acceptable to the saints, that he might come to them with joy by the will of God, and might be refreshed together with them (Romans 15: 30- 32). But those prayers came with something other than that which was hoped for by the apostle; he went to the distant Rome in chains, and not freely, as an ambassador of Christ.
What did Paul think of during his imprisonment? Just fourteen days previously he had arrived in Caesarea and passed the night with Philip, the preacher, until Agabus, the prophet, came to him and foretold by the insight of the Holy Spirit that he was about to meet with chains and troubles. But the Lord visited him by night, after he had given his testimony to the Living One in the midst of the resentful multitudes on the steps of the temple. The Lord told him that he also had to testify to His name in Rome, the center of the world at that time. Thus, we see in the course of Paul’s life that he was not the planner, and the impetus in him was not his own thoughts and desires, but Christ, who had planned, directed, and worked through his obedient servant according to his own will, and not according to Paul’s will. That was probably the hardest period in Paul’s life, the active motivator of the peoples. His left behind churches needed his help and advice, even while he was forced to stay many days in prison without movement and without activity.