The devil has never loved God and his children. He wants to destroy them and stop their faith. But Christ’s providential care keeps us night and day, as Paul the apostle wrote: “The love of Christ compels us.”
The poor and downcast seafarers were quick to experience God’s kindness when they came ashore. The natives of the island, which was then under the authority of the Carthaginians, did not rob or kill them, but welcomed them kindly. They gathered up a big bundle of wood in the stormy rain and violent wind and put it on the fire, for them to warm themselves. Paul himself bent down to gather some sticks for the fire. But the devil, angry over the apostle’s salvation and rescue from the high sea, sent a poisonous snake, which crawled out of the flames and fastened itself onto Paul´s wrist, sinking its sharp fangs into his hand. Paul shook the snake off into the fire to burn, as a sign of the devils’ origin.
The natives of the island, seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand, spoke one to another: “The wrath of God has caught up with him, for although he escaped death in the sea, justice and the condemnation of his sin will not allow him to live.” They expected to see Paul begin wreathing in intense pain because of the poison infiltrating his body, and waited for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But the apostle of the Gentiles remained steadfast. He trusted in the promise of Christ, who said that his messengers would trample on serpents and scorpions, and nothing would by any means hurt them, for the power of Christ was at work in them.
When it became apparent that nothing was going to happen to Paul, the natives became fearful, and began whispering to one another that he was a god. “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” In fact, every Christian believer is a child of God. The Christian is not one among a pantheon of independent gods, absurd as the imagination of the Greeks and the Romans, but is filled with the Holy Spirit, and joined to Christ. God the Father speaks through him, and grants him everlasting life. The devil knew exactly why he wanted to destroy Paul. Paul was the ringleader in the evangelization of the whole world. He wanted to subjugate the capital of the world to Christ, and make it a starting point to evangelize the rest of the world. All the hosts of hell were enlisted to fight against this missions advancement to Rome: the High Council of the Jews, the haughty governors, the evil spirits, the deadly tempest, the rough sea, and the poisonous snake. Christ, however, remains the Victor. No one can stand in the way of his triumphal procession.