Acts 11: What about Agabus?

What do we do about Agabus? Luke inserts a prophet into the narrative without any formal introduction. Up till then, Luke has introduced us to all sorts in Jerusalem: the apostles, disciples, believers, deacons even. We have seen Philip and Peter move out from Jersualem into Samaria and Philistia, and, with Saul/Paul, Syria. We have heard speeches from Peter and Stephen expounding the Law and the Prophets, we had seen Philip teaching from Isaiah 53, and we have been given to understand that the Apostles taught with the believers continuing in the teaching.

We could be forgiven then for concluding that the age of the prophets ended with the beheading of John the Baptist. Or, that God has spoken to us in these last days, and therefore, there was no need for a prophet like Jeremiah or Isaiah. But here is Agabus, with a company of prophets, from Jerusalem, no less.

While we will see prophets in Antioch a little later on, the origin of them—at least in this post-Ascension, post-Pentecost period—is in Jerusalem—that is, at the beginning. These were not anomalies in a Gentile church at distance from a Jewish beginning. This was not a development at odds with the Jewish influences on the origin on the Church. On the contrary, they must have been part of the corporate fabric of post-Resurrection faith in Jerusalem.

Luke offers no explanation; we have no idea how they came to be or when. While he has informed us of the appointment of deacons in Chapter 6, here, with this company, Luke is silent.

It is as if we are to assume they were there all along. In other words, his lack of any introduction suggests no real interruption from John the Baptist to Jesus and to these fellows.

And what of Agabus? We know nothing of him (though we will see him later with Paul); but how strikingly remarkable is his name in light of what he forth-tells. His name means a locust. He spoke, and the locusts came—so says, Psalm 105:34. And that verse reverberates in Chapter 11.

In Chapter 11, we learn God has decreed a famine, and He sent a locust to timely proclaim this decree to His people, in advance, so that they could gather and then give to those who would be most impacted by the famine. The famine Agabus foretold did actually occur—and in this, we learn how to test the nature and authenticity of a prophet. In Chapter 11, the “Locust’s” word of famine came to pass. See Deuteronomy 18:22 (“If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken.”).

Agabus met God’s criteria; that which he said had come from God (a warning of a famine) did actually come to pass. So, this episode that Luke documents begs the question: what are we to do with that? Why a prophet, after Christ’s resurrection? Luke’s narrative gives us the answer. God wanted to prepare His children for a coming hardship and in the warning to give them an opportunity to let their hearts grow in giving and in love for His people.

And the answer (God’s concern for His people) suggests another aspect of God’s criteria for our testing whether a prophet is a prophet of the Lord or a pretender instead. A word from God should bear a sweet savor of God’s love in it (in this instance, a fatherly warning to take necessary precautions), which allows us to respond to the Word (the believers did that here with giving) and in that response to His Word to reflect His glory.

Here is the issue for us today. God is still concerned for His children; He has not changed. He has most certainly issued decrees—if some of these decrees include future famine that will burden God’s people profoundly, do we not need to be enlisted anymore to grow in love? .Have we matured so much in our faith that we no longer need to be warned of something like that to then gather and give? We instead can weather all storms without any notice and we will fruitfully give to our brothers and sisters after the need arises from our abundance? That is a very different story than the one Luke has told, I am afraid.