Acts 27:13-20 :

When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to shore. But before long, a stormy wind beat down from shore, which is called Euroclydon. When the ship was caught, and couldn’t face the wind, we gave way to it, and were driven along. Running under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we were able, with difficulty, to secure the boat. After they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven along. As we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw things overboard. On the third day, they threw out the ship’s tackle with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small storm pressed on us, all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.

Here Luke records the nasty details of the storm that threatened their lives. Although Paul had warned them that they were going to face a life-threatening storm, those in charge chose to go with the majority vote and the desires of the leadership instead of doing what God thought was best. Neither the democracy, nor the central leadership knew the correct path to take. God was the only one who could tell them how to save themselves from the storm to come.

In spite of the majority and in spite of the government, God’s word says that a day is coming when we will have to face Him. He will judge us according to our deeds on earth. If we have no provision for how we acted here then we will be punished and the storm these men faced is nothing compared to what we will face that day.

God’s word has given us the warning and told us how to avoid the storm, by putting our faith in Jesus, who already went through the storm for us. If we know what is good for us, we will heed the warning and take protection. Notice that those who failed to listen to the warning found themselves in a position in which: “all hope that we would be saved was now taken away.” We aren’t in that position yet. Anyone who is still alive still has hope because there is still time for them to put their faith in Jesus.