Acts 24: When Is It Ever Convenient?
Let’s turn to the end of Chapter 24 again. (We had examined one aspect of the end of the chapter last time). Chapter 24 ends with:
Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.
When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus,but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.
Drusilla and her husband, Felix, had listened to Paul. At least one such occasion is recorded here. A message on righteousness, self-control, and judgment struck fear in the heart of Felix, and Paul was sent away until a more convenient time.
Felix was procurator or governor over Judea for 8 years, from 52-59 approximately. So, in Chapter 24, we find ourselves about 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus. Drusilla was a second wife, and Felix was her second husband. She was the daughter of Herod Agrippa.
This guy from Acts 12:
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword . . On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died..
Herod Agrippa’s grandfather killed the innocents in Bethlehem. She was Herod the Great’s great-grand-daughter. Her sister, Berenice, shows up in the next chapter (Chapter 25), with their brother and Berenice’s paramour, Herod Agrippa II, and Porcius Festus, Felix’s replacement.
Josephus, Jewish historian, notes this about Drusilla and Felix:
So [Emperor] Claudius sent Felix, the brother of Pallas, to take care of the affairs of Judea; and when he had already completed the twelfth year of his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea, and added thereto Trachonites, with Abila; which last had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias; but he took from him Chalcis, when he had been governor thereof four years. And when Agrippa had received these countries as the gift of Caesar, he gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa, upon his consent to be circumcised; for Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had refused to marry her, because, after he had promised her father formerly to come over to the Jewish religion, he would not now perform that promise. He also gave Mariamne in marriage to Archelaus, the son of Helcias, to whom she had formerly been betrothed by Agrippa her father; from which marriage was derived a daughter, whose name was Bernice.
But for the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus, it was in no long time afterward dissolved upon the following occasion: While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon, a Jewish friend of his, by birth a Cypriot, who pretended to be a magician. Simon endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry Felix; and promised, that if she would not refuse Felix, he would make her a happy woman. Accordingly she acted unwisely and, because she longed to avoid her sister Berenice's envy (for Drusilla was very ill-treated by Berenice because of Drusilla's beauty) was prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and to marry Felix.
See Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xx.7.1-2
These names are known in both Acts and Josephus. That’s important, because Drusilla was a real person like you and me—and a real person who heard the good news of Jesus Christ like you and me—that is, the resurrection, and the application of it, as Luke notes at the end the chapter.
Was it convenient when she heard? We don’t know; we are not told. The implication is the time was not ripe as far as she and her husband were concerned.
What she did, or what she believed, over the course of the next 20 years, we have no way of knowing. But we do know her end, she died in Pompeii, in 79AD, with her son when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. What did she think before she and her son were overcome with the fumes, and the ash, and the lava? Only God knows. It had to have been terrifying in all events.
But the Day of the Lord will similarly come upon us as a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, and the elements of the earth will be dissolved with fire such that Vesuvius will look like child’s play. And the earth and all its works will not be found. 2 Peter 3:10. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, should you wait until a more convenient time to hear, not just listen to, the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
