Acts 23:14
And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.
More than forty men bound themselves together under a solemn curse to eat nothing until they had killed Paul. They went to the chief priests and elders to enlist their cooperation in arranging an opportunity to fall upon him. Instead of rebuking the murderous scheme, the priests and rulers agreed to take part in it. Their abstinence from food was not true fasting but a fast for violence and strife, of the kind condemned in Isaiah.
Paul's encounter with Jews lying in wait to take his life stands as the pattern for meeting difficulties in Christian warfare. As he did, believers must pass through trying places where spies watch their movements and lie in wait for them, and where they are brought before councils and thrust into prison. To meet such trials demands an advanced position of faith that knows God and the power of His grace. It calls for praying to Him with holy lives free from anger and doubt, believing that He hears prayer.