What does Acts 16:24 mean?
After expelling a fortune-telling demon from a slave girl, Paul and Silas are charged by her owners with promoting unlawful customs. They are doing exactly that: spreading Christianity, a religion not authorized by the Roman Empire. A crowd attacks them, and the magistrates order the police to beat them with rods and throw them in prison (Acts 16:16–23).Paul must see the irony in this. He, too, abused and imprisoned Jesus-followers (Acts 22:19; 26:10–11). Now Paul is in a Roman city, surrounded by family, regional, and national gods, none of which exist, and he is imprisoned for preaching about the one true God. Paul knows God could free him and Silas in an instant, but he also knows that he and Silas have the capability to arrange for their own rescue. They are Roman citizens. Everything that has happened to them—the beatings, the chains, and the prison—is strictly illegal. At most, they should be under house arrest until given a chance at a fair trial.
Despite the pain Paul and Silas must feel, they're not really worried about where they are. They start singing hymns and praying out loud. The other prisoners listen. In the middle of the night, a great earthquake opens all the cell doors and releases all the chains. The jailer assumes the prisoners have escaped. He knows his life is forfeit so he draws his sword to kill himself. Paul reassures him: no one has left; they are all accounted for. The jailer brings Paul and Silas to his home, washes their wounds, and accepts their God (Acts 16:25–34).
All that's left is to tell the magistrates what a horrible mistake they've made.
